THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Our readers group has been going for almost four years now. We meet once a month in the library and our books are provided in sets by the library service, which makes things much easier and ensures that we are accessible for all. This last year we have expanded from about 14 of us to having around 23 members and we are still attracting new members. From the very beginning we have had three male members, which is great as it means that we have a wider perspective (and some good disagreements). We like to keep things informal and enjoyable, enjoying a good laugh as well as some serious discussion.

Present for this meeting were – Margaret, Lyndal,  Julie, Betty, Joan, Jane, Louise, Lynn, Phyllis, Marion, Josie, Catherine, Pam, Duncan, Justine and another Margaret and Julie. 

We began by wondering how many of us had read this book before – only six as it turned out, possibly because seven of us had taken the easy option and watched the film, although some of us had done both.
Maybe it’s something to do with the reputation of the book but a lot of us, including those who had read it before, thought it would be much thicker than it is. However, as Duncan pointed out, the novel loses nothing by this, it’s concise and written in such tight prose that the reader misses nothing.

Betty commented that at first she thought the book was light and easy, but as she read on she found it became deeper and she ‘fell into it’ as she went along. Josie was the only member who didn’t like the book because she felt it spent too long on descriptions of the people who went to Gatsby’s house, however, she did mention that a dear friend had died suddenly and her concentration is not all it could be at the moment. The rest of us were drawn in to the book and found its lightness was merely a cover for a very deep examination of, ostensibly, the life of the rich in the Twenties, but actually about human nature and the effects of too much money and time.

We loved the way the Twenties were so clearly evoked, we felt the atmosphere of those parties so clearly. Yet Jane commented that, though the book was so evocative of the era it was written in, it was very relevant to today. So many celebs, It girls and wannabe’s that we read about in the newspapers could have fitted seamlessly into this world. As a portrait of a materialistic, hedonistic and chronically immature society that is unwilling to shoulder any responsibility and is, at heart immoral, we could see parallels with today’s society too.

We felt the book almost embodies what its content is – it seems thin and light at first, just like Gatsby’s parties, yet there are undercurrents, dark depths that are compelling and belie the apparently frivolous surface.

We had a long discussion about the shallowness of Daisy and Tom compared to Nick, the narrator of the story. Some of us felt Nick was honourable, some felt that really he was almost as bad as Tom and Daisy. What is interesting is that we were talking about these characters as if they were real people. Despite the fact that none of us (unfortunately) are rich and privileged, due to Scott’s writing skills, we felt we knew these people and their world. The contrast of poor Wilson and his world is also clearly drawn. We feel the atmosphere of Gatsby’s parties as surely as we do the interior of Wilson’s garage.

Just as the characters in the book find Gatsby a man of mystery, so we felt that we couldn’t decide whether he was better than the Daisys and Toms or not; after all, there are hints that he has made his money in an underhand fashion. But, as Lynn pointed out, many people have done so, especially around that time. The Kennedys came to mind, whose father Joe was allegedly involved in bootlegging and possibly the mafia too. But we all liked Gatsby – nobody’s perfect after all and he was generous and capable of love. 

The cover of the book comments that this is one of the great love stories but we all disagreed with this statement. This is not a love story because Daisy is incapable of real love and we decided that Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy rather than in love with her. It’s her lifestyle and the aspects of the American Dream that she embodies for him that drive him; not genuine love, but aspiration for the attainment of a dream.
  
We all felt that this was very good writing. So much so that, when a few agreed with Lyndal, who felt that the ending was rather contrived, we could forgive this set of seemingly too convenient coincidences, because the writing is so good that it carries you along.

Margaret commented that she loved the book when she first read it a few years ago, but she enjoyed it more on this second reading. Such a complex novel lends itself well to a second read. This surely is the sign of a good novel.
     
If you want to read a ‘heavyweight’ book in terms of literary merit, if you want to impress the academics, but you can’t face the hard slog that lots of worthy books seem to be, then The Great Gatsby is the book for you. Not only can you impress with the fact that you’ve read – you will probably have enjoyed it too!