The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

category: fiction, author:

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Introduction by Tony Tanner
original copyright 1926,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

The Great Gatsby is, "A classic, perhaps the supreme American novel." How do I know this? Because it says so, there on the back cover of the book.

If this is indeed "the supreme American novel" then -- as far as I'm concerned -- novelists of other countries need have little fear of being overshadowed by novelists from America.

The first third of the book is quite entertaining. Think of it as an American version of a story by P.G. Wodehouse: a glossy look at the life of the incredibly idle, the incredibly rich, the incredibly self-centred... but with none of Wodehouse's humour and humanity. There is also, in that first one third of the book, no plot.

The next third of the book introduced a plot. Suddenly, the book became more boring, harder to read. We've spent many pages gaining no sympathy whatsoever for any of the characters and -- suddenly -- we are expected to care what happens to them? No. I'm afraid it just doesn't work.

The book I read is one of those "Penguin Modern Classics", with a ridiculously long "introduction" and regular, meaningless footnotes. Meaningless footnotes? How else would you describe this:

28. (p. 79) Coney Island: An amusement park in Brooklyn.

Anyway, I thought that, perhaps, the "Introduction" would shed some light on the supremacy of this novel. Here's a gem from the expert analysis:

"His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one."

Possibly -- and possibly not. Or possibly something different...

Good grief!

So I am forced to rely on my own judgement.

Fitzgerald was a poor and struggling author. He lived way beyond his means, as his fame allowed him to mix with the extremely rich and supremely idle. This struggle to survive, to not look entirely like a poor pratt from the country, irked him. As an outsider unable to get in, Fitzgerald saw the worst of all the in crowd. This jealousy came out as a novelistic attack on the people that Fitzgerald was unable to emulate.

It's a classic; feel free to read it. I just hope that you are not doomed to be a student under Tony Tanner, who wrote the introductory drivel.

..o0o..

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