Customer Reviews
What a read! - By: E. Fifield, 22 Apr 2008 
I had just finished "The Old Man & the Sea" (which I didn't get on with) when I started reading "The Great Gatsby", & I'm so glad I perservered! TGG is a great read. It's fast-paced from the outset, & gripping towards the end - I couldn't put it down. I even tried to convince family & friends to read it afterwards; but to no avail. Definitely recommended.
The great American novel? - By: William Podmore, 25 Mar 2008 Beautifully written, spare, dramatic & haunting - could this at last be the great American novel?
Good, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. - By: Ibrahim Ali, 26 Dec 2007 
A rather interesting novel & initiallly it wasn't alll that apparent to me why people always linked the failure of the American dream & this story together. Superficiallly the story is that of love reawakening, Gatsby having initiallly been rejected by his childhood love for not having sufficient means acquires the means through various ill gotten ways & the lovers reunite despite the fact that she is not married to a boorish but very American man. Much is made that this novel is a startling exposition of the American dream & materialism, & it does this but to a lesser extent than most people make out. I didn't find the metaphors to be profound after reflection nor did I think the plot & language to be that great. That said it still was a fairly good book, an enjoyable read though a bit of anti-climax to what I had been expecting. The characters aren't particularly likeable & stay only briefly in memory, the story entertains but I feel that this book doesn't deserve alll the acclaim it has got.
Few books grip your imagination as easily as this one - By: Lou Knee, 27 Aug 2007 Oh, the casual ease with which this romance is written is staggering. It is not without its little faults as a whole, but then what book is?! The sad & whistful story of a nearly man is entirley subordinate to the smoothly poetic style it is written in & yet is complemented perfectly by it, & elevated by it. This is a reallly melancholy tale & if you're feeling a bit emotionallly down for whatever reason, I'd even put off reading it until you're fighting fit again, as it reallly is affecting. Some may want a more concrete story than the author is clearly willing to give, but if you can live with (deliberate) vagueness of details & you love a good mystery & a romance then you cannot go wrong with this delightful story.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - By: reedydeluxe, 11 Aug 2007 I have to agree with some previous reviewers for the start of my own review of the great gatsby. Whether this book lives up to its reputation as a masterpiece i am unsure, it is, however, a great read & i highly reccomend it.
I feel that some of the story may be lost on me, as although the author tries, & quite often succeeds, to transport me to the east coast of the united states during the early twentieth century, i feel i sometimes cannot relate to the somewhat unfamiliar surroundings.
This however is almost definatley a lack of imagination on my part, & the author creates a vivid, vibrant & very real portrait of the period. The characters, especiallly Gatsby are very alive on the page, & the story, is beautiful, yet tragic, & served to me as some kind of modern parable about true friends & loneliness. Definatley a book to add to the 'must read' list!
