Who has read 'The Great Gatsby'?

[notnowbernard]

Am struggling a bit and don't know whether to persist

Kerry, are you psychic?!?

It's next on the list... ordered it and a few others off Amazon the other day! (They were dead cheap)

I really liked it.

I would persevere as it is so short anyway. One good evening should finish it off and once you know the ending you might view it differently.

Don't you love the way he writes? I agree that none of the characters are that likeable but I still loved it (which is unusual if i don't love one of the characters).

i read it and liked it but not sure why. didn't like any of the characters or the story line.

Ooh I love TGG. I haven't read it in years though, so can't remember why I love it. I think it must be to me what Jane Eyre is to everyone else

Agree about not liking any of the characters.

Tis a bit like Lost (without Hurley). I love Lost. Watch religiously, but don't actually like or really care about any of them.

Tbh, I don't know why I'm not 'getting' it

I do like the descriptive style of writing, I like the era in which it is set

I'm just a bit bored with it... and am finding it a slog. I like to be totally absorbed by a book

I LOVE this book- I read it at school and then at Uni and I teach it myself now. I love how the characters jar and are so unfortunate. I love all the symbolism and the fact that it's short makes it a firm favourite with me.

Keep going and at least you'll be able to say that you've read it.

Yeah the shortness is good isn't it.

My book group did a Trollope novel that was 100 (100) chapters long. I mean everyone loved it but all I could say was blimey it's a bit long isn't it!!!

Oddly enough we also did Lady Chatterley - was a re-read for me but I liked it a lot less than when I was 18 (many years ago )

Actually of course wrt the characters, not esp liking any of them shouldn't be a reason not to like a book.

I wouldn't bother with any other FSF btw even if you love TGG - it's a one-hit wonder for me.

Do persist, it's very good.

If you're finding it hard to get accustomed to FSF's style, why not try some of his short stories first? The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button and Bernice Bobs Her Hair are both good reads and probably less 'pretentious' than Gatsby.

It's quite a sad book. Don't if you don't like unhappy endings. You may have already noticed.

Oh yes actually bernice bobs her hair is really good isn't it.

This is another vote for pressing on.

It's a disturbing tale about money and class and very relevant for our "celebrity" culture, with its adoration of youth, power without responsibility and bling.

I know what you mean about irritating, I found it slightly grating at first when I read it but that wears off after a bit and the story will linger and colour what you think afterwards in interesting ways.

The beauty of the writing is very strange. Scott Fitzgerald is, imo, a very Catholic writer in some ways and his attitude to money is astonishingly ambivalent. The ambivalence is expressed in the beauty of the writing, which caresses, possesses, exalts and ultimately abandons its objects.

And it is very short.

And Nick Carraway is a fascinatingly unreliable narrator at times.

Read it, but I thought it was shite. I just didn't get it. Ergo if I didn't get it, it must be shite...

Sleepycat I quoted that line too! Always chokes me up.

From memory as well as my copy is actually not in the house atm.

I think it's arresting. But if you don't like it 88 pages in, you aren't going to. Put it down and walk away.

I've enjoyed catching up on this thread

Alas, I gave in. I also thought that being bored at page 88 probably meant something

Have moved on to Lady Chatterley's Lover now, which has engaged me from the off

You win some, you lose some...

Hello NotNow. I think Lawrence is a turgid, indulgent and highly overrated (and now rather unfashionable) auld fella. But I hope you enjoy LCL instead Different strokes for different folks and all that.

Hello Lady Thompson

I am new to all this classic literature business

Am a wide reader but have only 'studied' literature at GCSE level

Have never read Dickens, for example

So felt I needed to broaden my horizons a bit. Feel free to offer guidance and tips!

Just having a joke with you really. It's all so subjective, this reading lark. I did a literature degree but my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's! The only important opinion is your own. If you did fancy some Dickens, I think Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities are good ones to start with (the former is so readable and the latter is one of the shortest) but I am sure someone else would come up with different ones. Anyway, one of my favourite writers is Graham Greene. The writing is very spare and his preoccupations are love and Catholicism, so not everyone's cup of tea. The End of the Affair is my super favourite - confusing at first, but then utterly brilliant.

The thing is, though, you're not going to like everything - and who cares. I love Forster and Waugh. I love Wuthering Heights but I can't stand Jane Eyre. I enjoy Austen but find Hardy a bit sadistic. Hope you find some things you love

Thankyou

Have read a bit of Hardy (a collection of short stories I can't remember the name of and Return of the Native, which I liked a lot). Wasn't he a bit of a tortured soul? Tormented by his lack of conviction in a religious faith (am probably barking up the wrong tree)

I would like to read Great Expectations - agree it should be a good intro as know the general story outline

Read Wuthering Heights years ago. Would like to re-read!

I would like to do some sort of learning. Am looking into adult education courses at the moment Will be on for more advice and tips!

I loved this book - one of my all time favourites. But I wasn't forced to read it in English Lit at any stage...