I like love stories. However, my high school years were spent looking down with pompous contempt at my contempraries who used to conceal frequently thumbed and worn out old copies of Mills and Boon between textbooks. Not that I had a valid reason to dislike them, considering the fact that I never read one. It had more to do with the notion that those books were "girly",as the term goes...and my tomboyish streak during my teenage years simply prevented me from picking up a copy.But even if Mills and Boon never found a reader in me, I guess my inherent love for love stories however did reflect on my bookshelf. Copies of Gone with the Wind, Love Story, Olivers Story did find their way to it and still remain there proudly,occasionally taken down,dusted and perused even now.
With time,or now rather due to the lack of it, I have become extremely choosy about the books that I read. Recommendations from friends and a few online reviews are a great help,but then again,nothing like word-of-mouth publicity for a book.I had not planned on reading The Great Gatsby. I stumbled on this book while I was reading about Haruki Murakami's acclaimed novel "Norweigian Wood"- a book that was highly recommended by a friend.
The online review mentioned that one of the principal characters of Murakami's novel is deeply affected by a book called The Great Gatsby-with a hyperlink for the book,if anybody was interested.It was a mixture of curiosity and boredom in equal measures that made me click on that link and read about F.Scott Fitzgerald's- The Great Gatsby. Modern American writing I had not read much of, and I was willing to try. But what really tipped the balance for me was the promise of a good love story....a genre that I eventually kept coming back to,tomboyishness can go take a walk.
The blurb describes this book as a love story with a post-war American society and social rules as its backdrop. The story is fairly simple,told through the eyes of young Nick Carraway,who moves in next door to the sprawling mansion of the main protagonist, Jay Gatsby. It is Carraway's initial reluctant friendship with his flamboyant neighbour that really drives home the contrast between these two characters. Gatsby is a man who throws open his house and lawns every weekend for lavish parties,where people just drop in,invited or otherwise and stay on...some of them for days at end. Carraway,of course,is the reluctant recluse who first attends one of these more out of politeness and curiosity than anything else.The biggest strength of this book for me is how clearly sketched out each character is. Each of them has his or her own story and the author blends these little undertones into a single fabric without allowing the canvas to become too large for comfort. So we have Daisy and Tom Buchanan, George and Myrtle Wilson and Jordan Baker...a handful of characters critical to the tale. None of them is black or white,the characters are real because they are flawed. And yet, its easy for the reader to reconcile with these flaws.
I choose to see the book more as a reflection of American society during those times as the central focus rather than the love story, which infact serves more as a backdrop than anything else. The hypocrisy and the obsession to equate wealth with respect in society is starkly depicted. And this is what serves as a perfect foil to Gatsby's unfulfilled desire,which forms the rest of the story.
Its not a voluminous read. The language is simple and fluid,safely meandering between the overtly crisp British and the too casually slang American. Once the characters are introduced,the story moves on swiftly till it builds up to a sudden climax and somewhat,predictable ending. But the ending is nothing if not poignant.Its the end,really,which stays with you long after you are done reading this. And thats when the reader realises that no other end would have been as thought provoking,as balanced. So much so that the hypocrisy and the shallowness of the society makes one feel both sorry and somewhat,uncomfortably ashamed.
The Great Gatsby is not a book for those looking for a breezy love story. Yet,its poignant...and haunting. Short,concise,fluid with a handful of very real characters in a nakedly honest tale of love,betrayal and fervent desire of social acceptance makes F.Scott Fitzgerald a modern classic definitely worth a read.
With time,or now rather due to the lack of it, I have become extremely choosy about the books that I read. Recommendations from friends and a few online reviews are a great help,but then again,nothing like word-of-mouth publicity for a book.I had not planned on reading The Great Gatsby. I stumbled on this book while I was reading about Haruki Murakami's acclaimed novel "Norweigian Wood"- a book that was highly recommended by a friend.
The online review mentioned that one of the principal characters of Murakami's novel is deeply affected by a book called The Great Gatsby-with a hyperlink for the book,if anybody was interested.It was a mixture of curiosity and boredom in equal measures that made me click on that link and read about F.Scott Fitzgerald's- The Great Gatsby. Modern American writing I had not read much of, and I was willing to try. But what really tipped the balance for me was the promise of a good love story....a genre that I eventually kept coming back to,tomboyishness can go take a walk.
The blurb describes this book as a love story with a post-war American society and social rules as its backdrop. The story is fairly simple,told through the eyes of young Nick Carraway,who moves in next door to the sprawling mansion of the main protagonist, Jay Gatsby. It is Carraway's initial reluctant friendship with his flamboyant neighbour that really drives home the contrast between these two characters. Gatsby is a man who throws open his house and lawns every weekend for lavish parties,where people just drop in,invited or otherwise and stay on...some of them for days at end. Carraway,of course,is the reluctant recluse who first attends one of these more out of politeness and curiosity than anything else.The biggest strength of this book for me is how clearly sketched out each character is. Each of them has his or her own story and the author blends these little undertones into a single fabric without allowing the canvas to become too large for comfort. So we have Daisy and Tom Buchanan, George and Myrtle Wilson and Jordan Baker...a handful of characters critical to the tale. None of them is black or white,the characters are real because they are flawed. And yet, its easy for the reader to reconcile with these flaws.
I choose to see the book more as a reflection of American society during those times as the central focus rather than the love story, which infact serves more as a backdrop than anything else. The hypocrisy and the obsession to equate wealth with respect in society is starkly depicted. And this is what serves as a perfect foil to Gatsby's unfulfilled desire,which forms the rest of the story.
Its not a voluminous read. The language is simple and fluid,safely meandering between the overtly crisp British and the too casually slang American. Once the characters are introduced,the story moves on swiftly till it builds up to a sudden climax and somewhat,predictable ending. But the ending is nothing if not poignant.Its the end,really,which stays with you long after you are done reading this. And thats when the reader realises that no other end would have been as thought provoking,as balanced. So much so that the hypocrisy and the shallowness of the society makes one feel both sorry and somewhat,uncomfortably ashamed.
The Great Gatsby is not a book for those looking for a breezy love story. Yet,its poignant...and haunting. Short,concise,fluid with a handful of very real characters in a nakedly honest tale of love,betrayal and fervent desire of social acceptance makes F.Scott Fitzgerald a modern classic definitely worth a read.
watched the movie...was so much publicized...found the ending so cruel...
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