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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not get The Great Gatsby?

131 replies

MudAndGlitter · 01/12/2011 16:29

I heard brilliant things and the writings nice and all but I just felt a bit let down. Or am I a twat who needs to be more cultured?

OP posts:
raffle · 01/12/2011 16:31

Bored the pants off me too

MabelLucyAttwell · 01/12/2011 16:31

I've just finished reading the book and wondered how it had won a prize. It took me ages to get into it, then it was sort of interesting and then fizzled out at the end.

Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:33

YABU!!!

My god it is one of my favourite books! I love it! I never expected to and read it at university because it was short Blush but it blew me away!

redlac · 01/12/2011 16:33

Fucking hated that book so much I failed my Higher English because of it. It's shite. Utter utter shite

Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:34
Shock
TheLastChocolate · 01/12/2011 16:34

Been a few years since I read it. Wasn't overly fussed, but wasn't the worst book I've ever read.

Doubt I'd read it again, though.

TheScarlettPimpernel · 01/12/2011 16:34

YABU and AN ANIMAL Shock

Original poster
MudAndGlitter · 01/12/2011 16:35

I've just started to kill a mockingbird. Praying that's better!

OP posts:
Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:36

That book is why I can't have a child named Daisy Sad

I would have a Jay or James though Smile

Original poster
MudAndGlitter · 01/12/2011 16:37

I thought Gatsby sounded quite attractive tbh. I suppose it was the money thing not the fact that he'd take the blame if I got into trouble

OP posts:
Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:37

I've just noticed you on the recommend a classic thread Wink I wondered if that was where this came from.

That's so mean when there are AWFUL books on the world. Sad

I can't get over how sad this makes me lol

Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:40

Even though he was the only one with a fake name and made up background etc he was the most genuine character out of all of them. He was so nice. Poor Gatsby.

I was distraught at the end. I dreamed of green lights for ages afterwards

animula · 01/12/2011 16:42

I think the key to enjoying the book is to get into his (Fitzgerald's) mindset concerning wealth. He feels the allure of wealth but also despises it, even thinks of it as evil. The desire to capture that dynamic of appalled allure drives the incredibly sensuous writing. It's a fascinating demonstration of the libidinal desire powering the drive to imagery, writing, language, and even human knowing and understanding - a kind of hatred (a controlling and wanting to render it whole, complete, without mystery/excess and life of its own) but also a wanting to have (and to have with its being alive).

All of that is quite fascinating, but even more so when you think he is writing about class, capitalism and sexuality too.

I like the book. And, unlike many other "great" novelists, Fitzgerald is to be admired for writing short books. Good for him.

Bucharest · 01/12/2011 16:42

"He had come a long way to this lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields ofthe republic rolled on under the night....Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us.It eluded us then, but that's no matter, tomorrow we willrun faster, stretch out our arms further...And, one fine morning...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Is just the most beautiful ending to anything I've ever read. (with the exception possibly of the last paragraph of the Blood of Others which I also have on my wall.)

It's about hope, it's about belief, it's about knowing somehow that everything will be OK, no matter what, because it's all about the completion of circles.

Daisy irritated the fuck out of me mind. Grin

MinnieBar · 01/12/2011 16:42

But, but? he has such beautiful shirts?

animula · 01/12/2011 16:43

"To Kill a Mockingbird" pretty short, too. Smile

Original poster
MudAndGlitter · 01/12/2011 16:43

It was from the classics thread! I wanted to know if I was a bit weird for not liking it.

OP posts:
glastocat · 01/12/2011 16:44

I hated it too.

Its not as bad as The Heart of Darkness though. Man I hated that book.

Bucharest · 01/12/2011 16:44

(To Kill a Mockingbird does nada for me, but I can wax lyrical about Gatsby for hours)

Scuttling off to recommend some classics.

redlac · 01/12/2011 16:44

To Kill a Mockingbird is light years more enjoyable than The Great Shitting Gatsby

glastocat · 01/12/2011 16:44

Oooh, I love To Kill a Mockingbird.

Bucharest · 01/12/2011 16:45

(also hated Heart of Darkness) (the horror! indeed)

Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:46

Heart of darkness makes me twitch. eye spasm

I have yet to read To Kill a Mockingbird because I was forced to read Lord of the flies at school.

Original poster
MudAndGlitter · 01/12/2011 16:46

I wanted to love the great Gatsby and was really excited about reading it but I think it seems a bit flat. The writing is beautiful and some of it is lovely but I don't really feel like it did anything for me.
Unlike The Help which I've just finished and can't stop thinking about!

OP posts:
Kayano · 01/12/2011 16:48

I have that on my book shelf to read as soon as my maternity leave starts mudandglitter

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