Author: F Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Rating: WARTY!
Fitzgerald write this in 1925, but it's set three years earlier in the summer of 1922, and tells a story of some wealthy characters observed and narrated by a not-so-wealthy character, Nick Carraway, during their time in the fictional resort location of West Egg on Long Island sound.
Carraway is a prospective bond salesman new to the area, and he rents a place which happens to be next door to the magnificent residence owned by Jay Gatsby (whose real name is James Gatz, Jimmy to his father). Nick has dinner one evening with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, the burly Tom, an old acquaintance from college, and meets intriguing Jordan Baker, with whom he begins an affair.
It's through her that Nick learns that his cousin's husband is having an affair with one Myrtle Wilson, but he appears to have no problem with that because he attends a raunchy party with Tom and Myrtle where, as it happens, Tom punches her and breaks her nose.
One day Nick receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's famous parties which he;s seen but never attended. He's intrigued by the invitation brought over by Gatsby's chauffeur, so he attends and finds himself invited to an audience with Gatsby himself - a curious man who never attends his own parties, seems constantly busy with business schemes, and for some reason appears to take a shine to Nick.
It turns out that his interest in Nick is actually an interest in Nicks's cousin, Daisy, with whom Gatsby was in a relationship many years before, but which couldn't be pursued due to Nick's poverty. After they separated, Gatsby inherited some money and parlayed that into an empire, and now he wants to get back with Daisy, but Daisy has married - something he had not expected her to do.
He persuades Nick to invite Daisy - alone - to tea one day, and the two begin bonding again, and spending more and more time together. Despite his own affair, Tom begins to grow concerned about where his wife is spending her free time. A showdown comes in New York at an hotel which Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan, Nick, and Tom visit one really hot day. Gatsby outright announces Daisy's love for him, although Daisy protests and gives Gatsby a surprise by announcing her love for Tom, who in turn, denounces Gatsby as a criminal.
The gathering breaks up and Tom allows Gatsby and Daisy to travel together back to the Egg to demonstrate how little concerned he is, but Daisy drives and accidentally kills Tom's mistress Myrtle somehow. The latter's husband, who has come to the conclusion that Gatsby is the lover he's begun to suspect his wife has taken, tracks down this yellow car which killed his wife, and he fatally shoots Gatsby and then himself. Nick, disillusioned with this life on the eastern shores, moves back to the mid-west.
Throughout listening to this on audio, I wavered between liking it and then disliking it. In the end I cannot recommend it because the dislikes far outweighed the likes in the final analysis. Fitzgerald does have an interesting turn of phrase here and there, but his writing tended far too often, when it wasn't merely mundane, to descend into endless lists of things which I found irritating as hell.
The story is ok, but it's not particularly brilliant or inventive and I really don't think it merits of the acclaim it seems to have today. I'd recommend reading the wikipedia entry on it, however, which is quite interesting. This novel is based on real people whom Fitzgerald himself knew.
