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If you don't succeed at first, try, try again! On rereading this book 'Fitzgerald's crowning achievement - THE novel of the 1920s, and loved by every generation since' it's like my eyes have been opened and a shroud lifted! From the very first page the writing, the atmosphere and that reliable(!) narrator held my attention and kept it rivetted over all nine short chapters. As well as being a blistering critique of the American Dream, it's also about the narrator Nick Carraway's eye's being opened, just like mine were on truly understanding the story of the great Gatsby!

Personally feel that this story will always stand true for America, the way people are so easily thrown under the bus when their tide turns, despite being so 'invested in' and 'hung on to' when in vogue, see Gatsby; how the privileged live their lives and decimate the lives of the less privileged around them with little regard or indeed consequence, i.e. Tom and Daisy; how striving for the American Dream has no real rules and does not really call for a moral compass or integrity, see Gatsby; and how the enlightened, despite understanding this, do little about it, as the American Dream is a integral part of America itself, see Nick. The cherry on top is the writing and the utterly amazing feat of saying so much in so few pages. F. Scott Fitzgerald, I so stand corrected! 9 out of 12!

This book also underlines one of my strongest bookish beliefs, in that if I ever "don't get" a lauded read, I must one day return at another point in my life and reread it again, especially as my expectations are very much then lowered. If you didn't/don't think much of this book, please read it again one day. This book kicks ass!

2005 and 2022 read
Link to my 2005 one star review