2025 Reading Challenge discussion

I have been meaning to read this for years. I saw the original movie with Robert Redford ages ago and meant to read the book afterwards but didn't. Now I have my chance!

I just started the book but am enjoying it already for the most part. Some thoughts I had:

(view spoiler)[ Nick is fairly innocent and thoughtful. A bit mundane, even. Something tells me that will change. Tom is a total jerk! I can't stand him. Daisy is like a spoiled child. Miss Baker seems not much more mature. We haven't really 'met' Gatsby yet where I am (he's an elusive mystery) but I wonder how I'll feel about him. So far none of the characters are out and out amazing but it's interesting to read. (hide spoiler)]

I don't remember much about the movie (I Watched it last in high school which seems way too many years ago!) but I may watch the Robert Redford version again after this reading.

P.S. I know it's not June yet but I didn't want to forget what I had to say as I began to read lol

Read a little more. Gosh (view spoiler)[I HATE Tom! He broke his mistress's nose over nothing. What a jerk. (hide spoiler)]

I forgot how short this book is!

Lindsay wrote: "I forgot how short this book is!"

It is, but it also really packs a heavy punch!!!

I finished it a few days ago and can't wait to discuss it with all of you. It's also the book of the month read in my own group so win-win!

Started it

(view spoiler)[
Wow who ever heard of going to a party with your cousins husband that you just met to meet his mistress. And he has an apartment just for it. Tom is way beyond a jerk. So did Nick sleep with Mr McKee after the party? I didn't pick it up at first but the party ended at 12 and he waits for the 4 am train. in between there is one sentence in Mr McKee's bedroom with him in his underwear. (hide spoiler)]

^^

(view spoiler)[Tom was just awful but in a way, I despised Daisy worse. She was supposed to have loved Gatsby and yet she 'done him wrong' as the saying goes. So wrong. He died because of her. This book was populated with some truly awful people. I feel so bad for Gatsby - no body cared about him but his father and Nick.

As for the question about Nick you asked, I totally missed that part. Now I have to go back and find out! lol (hide spoiler)]

I saw this on in article online.

(view spoiler)["Okay, Gatsby's name is the one in the title—but we still think that Nick is the major player. And here's why:
Gatsby is almost shockingly simple once you can put his character together from the various pieces picked up along the way. But Nick –plain, straightforward, "honest" Nick – ends up being the novel's most interesting character. Nick changes profoundly over the course of the novel, and his transformation is what makes our hearts beat just a little faster." (hide spoiler)]

Do you agree?

Well I'm on Chapter 3 so I'm can't answer some of your questions yet.

Scott wrote: "Well I'm on Chapter 3 so I'm can't answer some of your questions yet."

Oh, sorry. I hope I didn't spoil anything!!

I'm not worried about spoilers myself but I don't want to spoil it for anybody else. I read this book a long time ago (around 1986 or 87) but I don't really remember much and I'm hoping for much deeper read this time.

I don’t know if anybody else is a Star Wars fan but Gatsby sort of reminds me of anakin skywalker who later becomes darth Vader basically because of what he does out of desire/love. Gatsby wants to turn stop or back time whereas Anakin wanted stop death. It’s pretty tragic what happens probably in both cases.

This book affected me soooo much! I am still thinking about it days later lol

This made me re-read my Goodreads review posted in 2013. I reread this some 40 years later from my initial read at the age of 16. (Not as a school requirement, but just because...) What struck me was my realization this was basically (for me, at least) a noir novel. Virtually no character I could really like. Nick struck me as a person just so excited to be included in the "in group" that he would abandon any thought of right/wrong to just follow along with the crowd. Spineless, in other words. Whatever they wanted to do was fine with him.

Lynn wrote: "This made me re-read my Goodreads review posted in 2013. I reread this some 40 years later from my initial read at the age of 16. (Not as a school requirement, but just because...) What struck me w..."

I noticed that! lol (view spoiler)[He even went to meet Tom's mistress with no argument whatsoever. (hide spoiler)]

I liked this book a lot more than I did 30 years ago. Does Tom even have a conscience? And Daisy, I guess she is just meant for Tom. Both are just awful people. Dishonest Jordan enough said. Tragic Gatsby all those people attending his parties but abandoned him in the end. The impoverished Wilsons I guess they were just playthings for the wealthy Buchanans. I think somehow this was a story about the falsehood of the American Dream or something like that.

Shoot! This is one of my favorite books. And I don't have time to re-read it this month. We read this one in the 11th grade and it was one of my favorite have-to-read books -- even at that, I still enjoyed it more when I re-read it in my late 20's.

Scott wrote: "I liked this book a lot more than I did 30 years ago. Does Tom even have a conscience? And Daisy, I guess she is just meant for Tom. Both are just awful people. Dishonest Jordan enough said. Tragic..."

That's a good take away re: the fabrication of the American Dream.

I felt bad for Gatsby myself. Daisy and Tom were terrrrrible!

I’m wondering if this book foreshadowed the Great Depression that started 4 years after after it was released. The East Eggers like the Buchanans and Jordan where in the class that was already rich and probably did alright or profited during the depression. The newly rich west Eggers like Gatsby and nick either lost it all or gave up. The poor like the Wilsons living in the ash caused by overconsumption/over speculation stayed poor and suffered greatly. Also the eyes on the billboard seeming to watch everything might be self awareness of this foreshadowing of what’s to come in America. Stuff is rotten under the core and the eyes see it.

Maybe during those times and later people thought which led to the novel’s fame.

Anyways really good novel. Small but really packs a bunch.

Scott wrote: "I’m wondering if this book foreshadowed the Great Depression that started 4 years after after it was released. The East Eggers like the Buchanans and Jordan where in the class that was already rich..."

Ooh good thoughts. You touched on a lot I hadn't considered.

Just for fun!

(view spoiler)[I found a Great Gatsby trivia quiz and posted it here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I can post the answers at the end of the month. Fair warning, the questions are very spoiler-y :) (hide spoiler)]

That was a fun quiz

One more thing I’m trying to figure out.
(view spoiler)[
I think the ridership in the cars in chapter 7 has some significance. In both cases you have gatsby and daisy in one and Tom nick and Jordan in the other. Going tom’s group is in gatsby’s car. Returning they switch. On the return trip myrtle runs out to meet gatsby’s car thinking Tom and Jordan (who myrtle believes is toms wife). Now this just could be just the author using coincidence to drive the plot. Or it might have more to it. Did Tom setup this up to get rid of myrtle, and gatsby and get daisy back. Knowing myrtle would try and run out to escape her husband or confront Tom and his wife. I not sure why she ran out but probably one or the other. Even though Tom seems pretty stupid but was he cleverly masterminding this? Maybe this is a stretch. Regardless if Tom setup myrtles death or not he diffently setup gatsby’s.

One more sad part of the story is gatsby’s dream of daisy was probably over way before he realized it. Nick clearly did when he saw Tom and daisy talking over a late dinner after the accident. And nick seemed to let gatsby remain ignorance.
(hide spoiler)]

Scott interesting observation about the Great Depression!

I finally was able to get started on this today and made it halfway through. I've read this twice before, once in high school and once a couple years later, maybe sophomore or junior in college. I liked it more the second time than the first, and I'm enjoying it even more now, and I'm a little startled realizing my last read was about 10 years ago. This is the book that kicked off my love of Fitzgerald and it's good to be back.

Daph wrote: "Lynn wrote: "This made me re-read my Goodreads review posted in 2013. I reread this some 40 years later from my initial read at the age of 16. (Not as a school requirement, but just because...) Wha..."

Exactly! Deplorable behavior, IMO!

Scott wrote: "I liked this book a lot more than I did 30 years ago. Does Tom even have a conscience? And Daisy, I guess she is just meant for Tom. Both are just awful people. Dishonest Jordan enough said. Tragic..."

From the analyses I have skimmed/read, I believe that was it exactly... I view it as the fallacy of the "American Dream."

Scott wrote: "I’m wondering if this book foreshadowed the Great Depression that started 4 years after after it was released. The East Eggers like the Buchanans and Jordan where in the class that was already rich..."

Ooohhh...I really like your idea of the symbolism of the billboard's eyes "seeing." Cool!

I think another interesting way to look at this book is objectification of women. gatsby seems to have loved daisy more from objectification then anything else. He loved her money and the competition over her with the other service men. That fact that he went through great lengths to win her back when his affection for her was so shallow in the first place....

I’m not sure why Tom married Daisy but then he had a seeming guiltless affair with Myrtle but went to great lengths to discredit and eliminate Gatsby over Daisy. I think Tom basically objectified Daisy as well.

Ahhh see I'm such a mushy person sometimes. When Gatsby sees Daisy (view spoiler)[ again for the first time with Nick for tea, I feel like Nick's description of Gatsby's attentions are so true to the human condition. He talks about how Gatsby's admiration of her from afar had grown to proportions that no woman could actually meet, which is such a common thing to do to someone when you admire them at arms length. Yet, in her presence, at that moment, Gatsby was shaking like a leaf. I love it. I feel that condition in my soul. What a human response. (hide spoiler)]

I feel like Gatsby (view spoiler)[ truly loved Daisy. Why, I don't know? She was awful. But love is deaf, dumb, and blind (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[later in the book the story of Gatsby meeting Daisy 5 years before is revealed and it's not really that pleasant at least the reasons.

Although I guess it's perfectly reasonable to initially like/love someone based on very shallow reasons then grow in the relationship for a more deeper reasons.

Here is something else. In the first chapter Nick says "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." Well Gatsby dies so that's not really alright. Maybe there is a different meaning like Gatsby's personality turned out alright in the end. Maybe the scene at the end floating in the pool. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ The entire section where Nick, Jordan, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby have lunch and go into town is so deliciously tense, I love it. (hide spoiler)]

Scott wrote: "I think another interesting way to look at this book is objectification of women. gatsby seems to have loved daisy more from objectification then anything else. He loved her money and the competiti..."

Agreed. I felt all women were totally objectified, as I imagine befit the time. I also felt that the capitalistic competition regarding money/possessions bled over into the females. First prize to the man who could "claim" the prettiest, richest woman!

Lindsay wrote: "[spoilers removed]"

Haha same!!

I'm honestly such a fan of this book. more so every time I read it. Yes they're all selfish and greedy to their own degree but I feel like they're realistic, fleshy characters with their own distinct motives. and man can Fitzgerald write a nasty, tense social scene. hes so good at conveying awkward, strained emotion. the dialogue feels very real to me.