GOOD READS: ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a classic tale for the ages

In literature, when a work of fiction is referred to as a “Great American Novel,” it generally means that its author has captured the spirit of America and the unique American experience during a certain time period in such a way as to make it a literary epic. Novelist and short story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” has earned a spot on that very short and prestigious list because, simply put, there is no other American work of fiction that describes as well the wretched excess that engulfed and destroyed upper crust northeasterners in 1920s America. Fitzgerald, a mid-westerner from St. Paul, Minn., based the novel’s characters on people he knew – both admired and despised – and a lifestyle he emulated that would eventually lead to his early death. His characters partied away their hours in worthless pursuits of personal pleasure – drinking, carousing, gossiping, traveling, and living lives of people with too much money and too little sense. Nick Carraway is the story’s narrator, a young Midwesterner and recent Yale graduate who goes East to work on Wall Street during the stock market craze of the 1920s. He calls himself the “only honest man he has ever known.” Jay Gatsby is a millionaire of questionable background and a hollow soul, most likely a bootlegger, who spends lavishly on parties with the hopes of winning back the heart of Daisy Buchanan, the woman he is obsessed with but who scorned him to marry another. Daisy and her husband Tom are rich but selfish and idle acquaintances and cousins of Carraway’s, and Myrtle Wilson is Tom’s mistress, whose husband will be Gatsy’s undoing. “The Great Gatsby,” at 180 pages in the paperback version, is not a novel to be hurried through, but one to be savored. Read a page, and then read it again. You might pick up a word or phrase you missed the first time. “The Great Gatsby,” written in 1925, was Fitzgerald’s third novel and the most successful in his short and tragic life. It details a time – The Jazz Age – that many of us have only read about and only a few can remember. It was a time when Prohibition gin was the most popular drink and sex was the most popular pastime. At least among the “smart crowd.” I doubt that was the case with my ancestors – poor dirt farmers who toiled the southern soil. “The Great Gatsby” has been filmed five times, the most recent one starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby set for release next week. I remember seeing Robert Redford cast as Gatsby in the 1974 version, and realize now how miscast he was in the role. I hope DiCaprio is more true to Fitzgerald’s vision of the character. “The Great Gatsby” has also been called the second greatest novel of the 20th century by The Modern Library Publishing House. It follows “Ulysses,” by James Joyce, published in 1922. Do yourself a favor and read, or re-read if your first attempt was in high school English class, “The Great Gatsby” as an adult. Novelist Jonathan Franzen, author of “The Corrections” and “Freedom,” has been quoted as saying he reads it yearly. I might do likewise. The words are so beautifully crafted it would be a pleasure each and every time. Editor’s Note: Good Reads is a weekly book review column written by staff members of The News. To recommend a book for review,

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