Book review-The Great Gatsby

Reading is a noble hobby and I am proud to be an avid reader. As there is plenty of time now, I decided to read a book and it was none other than “The Great Gatsby”, the most celebrated American novel by F.Scott Fitzgerald. I have a read a few American novels mostly thrillers prior to this, and they were all set in recent times. But this book is a different genre and set in a totally different timeline, almost a century ago. It paints a luscious picture of New York in the “Roaring twenties”.

The story revolves around the character Mr. Jay Gatsby, a millionaire who is known to host lavish parties. Though the title is eponymous , the protagonist is not introduced directly in the first two chapters but later in the story in a rather surprising way. The language of the novel is simple and the readers can instantly connect to the story. Another feature that strikes the reader is the number of characters in the novel. Its just a few important characters who are involved in the story. The protagonist Mr. Gatsby remains a mysterious man for the first part of the novel until the real purpose behind his magnanimous villa and pompous parties is revealed. He is satisfied with his purpose for a very short period of time, before the events take a dramatic turn and dies for a mistake that was not his own.

Though he was a famous man it is an irony how people who attended his parties uninvited never turn up at his funeral. It is his father and the narrator, the only close associate who are present in his funeral. The person for whom he did so much and waited for so long and for whose sake his life was taken away is not bothered anyway. The reason why I am not mentioning the names of the other characters and their nature is because I don’t want to give away the story line for the ones who are interested to read!!

Apart from the protagonist’s life, the novel gives a graphic description of the large, secret lives of the rich men and women and their extravagant lifestyle of the old world. I think both the city and the people have pretty much remained the same all through these hundred years. New York still lives with that same glitz and glamour.

Well, if you have read the biography of the author, F.Scott Fitzgerald, you can easily make out that this novel is a fictional account of the various incidents of his own dramatic and disastrous life. Somewhere you can see that the author tries to live his dream through Gatsby, almost nears it, but fails. And at the end of the novel the reader is left sympathising with Gatsby’s death.

“So we beat on, against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” These are the last lines of the novel and the same lines written on Fitzgerald’s grave. They seem so apt both in the novel and in his own life. So, this is my view of the wonderful book that I enjoyed reading.

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