The Great Gatsby: A Book Review

I finally read The Great Gatsby!

My friend had loaned me the book after my confession I had not read it yet. Upon that, my high school was not one for really getting into the books that everyone seems to read in school. Yes, I missed out on a lot of Shakespeare too. Though, there are a few that I did get to read in school and that have stuck with me, such as, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Night by Elie Wiesel (an amazing man whom I actually got to meet).

Let me say this, I had some frame of mind as to what I was expecting from The Great Gatsby, and it seriously fell short. I’m not saying it was a bad read, absolutely not, I rather enjoyed it, I guess I expected it to read as if I were watching the exciting bits of the film, The Wolf of Wall Street. What with the glamour and the parties, and Leonardo DiCaprio being irresistibly charming and sexy.

So yes, I fully expected Gatsby to always have champagne in his hand and his yacht always at the ready. While the book mentioned the parties, it was more about the romances, or lack thereof. By the end of the book, I only liked the man telling the story, Nick Carraway who seemed to be Gatsby’s one and only true friend. Honestly, the book over all is a bit disheartening in that way.

You’re rich, you have parties, everyone wants to be around you, and then, no one wants to be around you at all. I guess in that way, society is still finicky and many people are still that fake. I wonder if I would have felt the same about the world in 1925 as I do now – wanting it to implode and take us all out already…  Yes, I know, it’s awfully dark, and things could be so much worse in the world, but I think a lot goes without saying, and I’m tired of all the bull, and with this story I’m trying to write, I feel like things would be much more beneficial without the human race.

Quick side note, but I actually refused to believe Gatsby was dead until his father had shown up and was pretty much crying over him.

I’m not really sorry if that’s a spoiler, I’m probably one of the last few who hasn’t read this book. I wish I had seen the movie so I could compare it, alas, it’s not on Netflix, but when it is, or when I do finally see it, I have every intention of nitpicking every little detail, right or wrong.