I had to re-read this book. It's on numerous best-ever lists, lauded in academia, among the favourites of a few friends, and all literate men seem to have a hard-on for femme fatale Daisy Buchanan. I have a dim memory of reading it when I was pretending to be a precocious early teen, but could not recall much more than a vague notion of rich socialites. The story of narrator Nick Carraway who happens to move right next door to wealthy and popular Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a tremendously wealthy young man who has a gigantic house and throws lavish parties. Nobody is quite sure where Gatsby got all his money and rumours abound as to his past. Carraway and Gatsby become fast friends.
Carraway's cousin, Daisy, and husband Tom Buchanan also live by. Daisy and Tom's marriage is coming apart as Tom has a mistress and does nothing to conceal it. (sort of spoiler alert) Unknown to Daisy, her first love, Gatsby, lives just across the water and the story brings them together and apart in an ultimately tragic ending.
The writing is tremendous; Fitzgerald has a way of putting words together that makes you stop, re-read, and really consider the phrase. However, other than that, I wasn't too blown away. The character of Gatsby is as confounding and attractive to the reader as he is to the narrator, but the rest are somewhat flat.
A quick read, I'm glad I can now speak authoritatively when I say "what's the big deal?".
