Kirkus-Style Review: The Great Gatsby

Kirkus-Style Review

The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

It’s not what you know, but who you know.

The Great Gatsby, one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novels, takes readers back to the glitz and glamor of the 1920s. Nick Carraway, the troubled writer from whose perspective this book is told, captures audiences with the mesmerizing tale of Jay Gatsby, a man whom everyone thinks they know well but have actually never met.

Nick has connections with one distant relative who lives next door to Gatsby in well-to-do West Egg. Conveniently, he sets up shop in a modest house just on the outskirts. Slowly but surely, Nick begins to socialize with the upper crust of society, including Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is Nick’s cousin. Daisy’s friend, Jordan, a tomboyish woman, takes Nick under her wing and shows him “who’s who” in the neighborhood.

Party after party, Nick is never introduced to Gatsby, even though all of these parties are at Gatsby’s own mansion. This makes Nick all the more interested in him, and finally, through Jordan, Nick is introduced.

Gatsby presents himself as a millionaire with no apparent end to his flow of cash and lavish lifestyle. Gatsby befriends Nick in his own way, and asks a favor of him. Nick is hesitant, but he reluctantly agrees to set up a secret meeting with Daisy so they could reconnect.  Gatsby has always had a crush on Daisy, but Daisy had moved on early in life.

Nick learns that Gatsby grew up with nothing, and that everything he was, everything he had, was because someday he hoped that Daisy would realize just how much he loved her, and that he could win her back.

After Daisy’s husband, Tom, discovers their affair, all hell breaks loose. Tom is determined to end it, and the only way he saw that he could end it was to take Jay Gatsby’s life. Although never actually committing the murder, Tom Buchanan sets forth on a trip to an old friend, who also wanted Gatsby dead. Tom planted the idea, and the other man ended up doing the dirty work. In the end, each character seemed to have become unhinged at the loss of Jay Gatsby.

Fitzgerald’s prose has managed to entice many readers throughout history. It takes a generation lacking in class and taste not to appreciate this book that withstood the test of time.