Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Title: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Puffin Classics
Year of Release: 1925
Source: Borrowed 
Having heard mentions of this book all my life, without ever really knowing what it was about, I finally decided it was time to pick up this book and read it. There are many different versions and cover art of this book, having been written in the early 1920's. If you're interested in reading this book or something similar, visit Puffin Classics, for all the information you need. 
The Great Gatsby is a beautifully written novel. It is recounted in the first person- an uncommon writing style in the 1920's and it is argued that Fitzgerald wrote in this perspective because he wanted "something new". The Great Gatsby is arguably Fitzgerald's finest work, and I agree with this statement completely. 
The story is told in the perspective of Nick Carraway, an exceptionally ordinary man living an exceptionally ordinary life in the town of West Egg. His neighbour, on the other hand, is a little more eccentric. Nick lives next-door to Jay Gatsby, a middle-aged man known for throwing incredible parties in his over-sized mansion. Gatsby has everything- money, people, a reptation- women want him, men want to be him. His parties are usually packed to the rafters with people and by invitation only, so when Nick receives an invite from Gatsby himself without ever having spoken two words to him, his interest is piqued. The two bond immediately and become inseparable. During the course of their friendship, Nick and Gatsby find that they have more in common than they originally thought. Nick's cousin Daisy, who is married to an arrogant, self-centered man by the name of Tom Buchanan met Gatsby five years before the novel begins, when she was just a young beauty living in Louisville. The two fell in love but as he was serving overseas, she was getting married to another man. It's no wonder then, all these years later, that Gatsby would want to see Daisy again. But what events unfold behind closed doors will spark a chain reaction that will not only put stress on Daisy and Tom's marriage and Nick and Gatsby's friendship, but could essentially put lives in danger.  
The Great Gatsby is the best kind of poem and in it's attempt to find a balance between illusion and reality, becomes the supreme American novel, capturing the allures of money, ambition and greed. Lose yourself in the lives of the elite living in the raging 20's and leave me a comment below!