Book Blog: October 2007

The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Rating: 4 stars

October 1, 2007

Re-reading The Great Gatsby after several years, I still don’t like it any better than I did the first time around. Actually, that’s not entirely true; I do have a better appreciation for Fitzgerald’s prose stylings, which did not sit well with me the first time around (I was more into Victorian effusions in those days). The basic plot and characters, however, still bug — particularly Daisy, who is obviously supposed to be a moron but whose complete moronity still takes me out of the story by making me wonder constantly why the hell anyone would pine after such a goose. I think my main problem with the book is that the characters and their motivations are just too pointless and foolish for me to bother caring about them; there’s nobody I sympathize with, and so I’m left wondering why I should bother turning the pages. I had the same problem while reading Appointment in Samarra (John O’Hara), which is a similar (but even more dull) morass of boring characters and bleak situations. When it comes to studies on society and fidelity, give me The Good Soldier any day.

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