The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Historical Fiction)

The Great Gatsby is written from the point of view of a man named Nick Carraway who has just moved to New York from Middle America. He rents a small house on the West Egg of Long Island. He is looking for new economic opportunities as it takes place during the roaring twenties, when the stock market was booming. Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom Buchanan live across the water on the East Egg of Long Island, where there are many people who come from long lines of money. Nick’s neighbor Gatsby, who is a self-made millionaire with a questionable past, throws large parties each weekend, with people from all over the city coming out. Once visiting Gatsby’s mansion, Nick becomes friendly with Gatsby. Although coming out to New York for a quiet life, Nick gets roped into the lives of the rich of Long Island and stuck in the middle of old romances. Things get messy when Gatsby tries to relive the past. Gatsby had a life with Daisy before he went away to fight in World War I, and is willing to do pretty much anything to go back and get back to the way things were before he was shipped off.

This was a very exciting book to read as it was hard to predict what was going to come next at each point in the book. There was a lot of suspense and scandal amongst the characters. I found it hard to figure out for myself what I wanted to happen for the characters as they each were very flawed in their own ways. I think that the length of the book was a very important part, it was not particularly long, only about 180 pages, but there was so much happening that was constantly moving. There were no long boring stretches throughout the book, the scenes were always moving, going little time without an interruption. An interruption could be coming from another character entering the room or some sort of distraction that pulls away from the conversation. An example of this is on multiple occasions there is a phone ring coming from the next room. Overall, I would recommend this book to readers of all levels; it was not a hard read and kept me constantly entertained. The biggest critique that I would have is that it was hard to like the characters; they each had their own issues, many of them being extremely self-centered.

Reviewed by Grace S. 11th Grade