Anirudh 's Reviews > The Great Gatsby

Not sure why everyone liked it so much. I had great expectations from this book but sadly I was disappointed.

The prose was different than some of the other novels I have read. But different does not necessarily mean great. I don't think I would call it a classic. It is basically a tragic romance where a poor boy does everything he can to win a selfish girl's heart.

Some of the metaphors used in the book were strange and it was difficult to grasp the connection. The book went out of print for a couple of decades and then suddenly some people decided it was a classic and so it became a classic! I read a lot of reviews about his book, thinking maybe I have missed something. Many readers felt that the human emotions in this book were exceptional. Personally I couldn't see it. I couldn't appreciate any of the characters nor their actions. And the emotions were not as complex as in some other books I have read. It felt like a love story with a hint of reproach of the lifestyle of the 20s.
Gatsby as a character is portrayed as a romantic who yearns for the past, unable to see the reality of things, or rather refusing to see it. There are a few good things about the book, but overall I don't think it deserved the hype it is received.