The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ was first published in 1925 yet still proves a point in today’s world. What is happiness? When you have everything you could ever dream of; status, wealth, respect and glamor does it really mean anything? When man has a void no amount of fine wine and slaps on the back is going to fill it. This a book where people hide in plain site, behind perfect white smiles and in perfect mansions.

I read The Great Gatsby last Summer for the first time and thought that the words and phrases where more like lyrics to a song, not that it rhymed - because it surely didn’t - but because it all flowed together painting a picture. It was something I could relate to even if my life was nothing compared to those in the book.

Fitzgerald was able to use words like ‘exciting’ and ‘amazing’ and it didn’t sound redundant. The words felt fresh and alive, like they meant something again. Words turned so over rated and tainted in today’s world feel fresh and meaningful in this book. In my head it painted warm glows on sad souls. The book has great morals, great characters and great concepts and hopefully is timeless. It bothers me how amazing literature gets forgotten in passing generations. Which is why I’m writing this review.

If you like a book that takes you somewhere else. Takes you to a place that isn’t a fantasy but feels alive again, somewhere that doesn’t promise you a happy ending nor does it flaunt impending doom but takes you there non the less. If you like a book that teaches you something, shows you another way of life and tells it to you straight, even if a little romanticized. Something that takes you back before you where born, into a life you never knew. If you like any of that, The Great Gatsby is something you should look into.

The Great Gatsby simulated a purer, blunter form of life and human nature than most books you see today. It isn’t about the ‘having what you want’, it’s the letting go. It’s about how we don’t always get what we want and how sometimes we never live to seize the chance. How the social latter means nothing on terms of happiness a book that asks you “Is the grass really greener on the other side?”

Seriously go out and get the book, even rent it at the library. If you didn’t end up liking it, at least you have a classic under your belt.