It is with incredulity that I now write my post-reading review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, when I started this I was greeted with warnings that it was a dull and slow book. Glad, though I am, that I read this book, perhaps these warnings should’ve been heeded.
The word “page turner” is used a lot with books, and this is not one of them, I began reading this book before I left for University, taking it with me to finish the miniscule 180 page, I had thought, very quickly. This was not the case, and the fact that I was busy with Uni work aside, my extreme slowness at reading this book was partially down to the fact that I felt no reason to continue the book.
Not to piss all over a literary classic with my ill-informed and simplistic A-level English analysis skills, but I simply cannot love this book as some do. I will explain why….given I’m reviewing that book that’s fairly implicit…..
The first fifty pages are an elaborate and detailed set up that holds no compelling consequence for the rest of the book, at least not initially as the metaphorical penny doesn’t drop until the very, very end. I had to skim through the first act of the book simply to remind myself of the themes and points that became relevant. It wouldn’t be as bad if I had been able to hold my attention to the dull opening, mostly due to the passivity of the protagonist, a wholly uninteresting fellow who would’ve been better off as a side-character or even ommited altogether for any of the other four (or so) main characters.
Further on in the book, the narrative of the book continues exactly as you would expect and a minor twist towards the end, altering the flow only slightly and still culminating in the expecting conclusion. The character’s personalities have been so obscure or else changing that you don’t know how you feel about their fates.
Overrall, this book starts off slow and tiresome, then a minor plot change masquerading as a twist, then becomes as predictable as John Prescott holding a Creme Egg. Granted, beyond the opening fifty or so pages the book becomes a vaguely comprehensible and sort of interesting story – but it’s far from engrossing.