The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pages: 180

Genre: Classic, Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Jay Gatsby is fabulously wealthy, owns a home on Long Island and hosts huge parties nearly every weekend in the summer.  Gatsby is trying to catch the eye of Daisy Buchanan, his love and obsession, but who is married to the rich and snobbish Tom Buchanan. Imagine Gatsby's luck when her cousin moves into a small bungalow next to his mansion.  He befriends her cousin, Nick Carraway, in an effort to lure Daisy back into his life.

My Review: Alison and I watched the new Gatsby movie which inspired me to re-read this classic, which I had last read in High School.  The movie followed the book fairly well and did a good job for me of visualizing the excesses of the Jazz Age and Roaring 20's here in the US.  The book is great, some classics are hard to identify with, I don't think that this is one of them.

This Side of Paradise

Title: This Side of Paradise

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pages: 6 discs

Genre: Classic

Grade: B-

Synopsis: F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel was also his most popular during his life.  The book was published just a few years after the conclusion of World War I and quickly became a symbol of the excesses and restlessness of the young people during the Roaring Twenties.  The novel follows the rich, young Princeton student, Amory Blaine.  Amory is a self-absorbed egotist obsessed with his image and creating a name for himself.

My Review:  I found this book to be quite boring and simply uninteresting.  Not much happens and there didn't seem to be anything in the story that is meant to grab you and keep your interest.