It’s a short book but a lot happens in it. F. Scott Fitzgerald really keeps the plot moving with his writing. I find it hard to write about any aspect of this book without the context of the whole book. I’ll give it my best shot though.
The story feels like a mix of a Shakespeare tragedy and the TV show Succession. It’s told from the point of view of Nick Carraway, the next-door neighbour of Jay Gatsby. The main plot line is that Gatsby is trying to chase a girl called Daisy. He made a fortune bootlegging alcohol in the prohibition era (i.e. committing crimes) and is using it to throw lavish parties in Long Island to catch her attention.
Daisy comes from a wealthy family and is in a rather loveless marriage with another elite called Tom. As the story progresses, we find that Gatsby’s love-struck image of Daisy is quite detached from the kind of person Daisy actually is. Gatsby isn’t really chasing Daisy so much as he is chasing an idea he fabricated in his own head.
Fitzgerald wrote this book in 1925 (the “Roaring Twenties”) when everyday people like Nick Carraway were making fortunes in financial markets. Gatsby’s story is a cautionary tale for people chasing their own imaginations of getting rich in the stock market, published 4 years before the Wall Street crash of 1929.
It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
I can't help but wonder whether I'm chasing any Daisies. Obviously it's a good thing to have goals and strive towards them. So how are we supposed to know when a goal becomes delusional? And when does the pursuit of a goal become a bad thing? The Great Gatsby is a beautiful piece of literature that leaves me with a lot to think about. What more could I ask for?
P.S. I read this book right after spending the summer in New York City. It was really nice immersion to have major plot developments happen in places I’ve recently been to or seen in real life (e.g. Queensboro Bridge, Penn Station, Plaza Hotel).