The Great Gatsby

[Margerma]

I have read this book couple of weeks ago, watched the movie with Leonardo Di Caprio, keep listening this soundtrack https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yoj2I6ZJLx8 and...cannot stop thinking about Gatsby. There are a lot of love stories in literature, but this one is so unique... the Great man, indeed... Surprisingly I understood that this book is not about love. It just shows that we need to learn to let go our Past. Whatever is holding us there. It becomes a History, that's all. Bringing History in the Present time is dangerous. If anybody else fall in love with this book or it is just me?

[Tyrion Cheddar]

I have read this book couple of weeks ago, watched the movie with Leonardo Di Caprio, keep listening this soundtrack https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yoj2I6ZJLx8 and...cannot stop thinking about Gatsby. There are a lot of love stories in literature, but this one is so unique... the Great man, indeed... Surprisingly I understood that this book is not about love. It just shows that we need to learn to let go our Past. Whatever is holding us there. It becomes a History, that's all. Bringing History in the Present time is dangerous. If anybody else fall in love with this book or it is just me?

Oh, heck no, it's not just you. It's generations of readers. I mentioned recently in a post about Steppenwolf that I was glad I didn't read Gatsby until I was almost fifty, because of the maturity and level of life experience needed to fully understand it.

You mention the love story aspect. What struck me perhaps more than anything else was Fitzgerald's devastatingly accurate portrayal of a man who was literally an empty suit, an invention, all bluster and lies, whose skill was to become the very wishes and hopes each person projected onto him. More to the point, the book points to the human capacity to not only fall for this trick, but embrace it. People love to celebrate affable frauds like Gatsby. Meanwhile, persons of integrity and character too often meet with scorn, particularly when they speak the truth out loud--or because they do.

[Margerma]

Oh, heck no, it's not just you. It's generations of readers. I mentioned recently in a post about Steppenwolf that I was glad I didn't read Gatsby until I was almost fifty, because of the maturity and level of life experience needed to fully understand it.

You mention the love story aspect. What struck me perhaps more than anything else was Fitzgerald's devastatingly accurate portrayal of a man who was literally an empty suit, an invention, all bluster and lies, whose skill was to become the very wishes and hopes each person projected onto him. More to the point, the book points to the human capacity to not only fall for this trick, but embrace it. People love to celebrate affable frauds like Gatsby. Meanwhile, persons of integrity and character too often meet with scorn, particularly when they speak the truth out loud--or because they do.

Funny enough, you have mentioned the age - Haruki Murakami was waiting till he is 60 to start a translation project of this book. I agree. It needs an experience to appreciate it fully... http://www.openculture.com/2013/05/haruki_murakami_translates_the_great_gatsby.html