The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Review

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  • Опубліковано 23 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 43

  • @juliana-zm2om
    @juliana-zm2om 4 місяці тому +3

    your video was recommended to me by youtube and I must say, as a person who’s majoring in modern languages and studying american literature at college, your channel was a great find! I read gatsby when I was around 14 and now I want to read it again. much love from brazil! (also, your son is adorable!

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      Thank-you Juliana, I am happy you enjoy the channel. Hopefully you will be able to find some other fun videos to watch, I sure do have a lot of them now.
      American Literature in Brazil! Is that fun? I hope it is. I always feel that teachers should try to highlight some of the fun books to give students a love of literature, and also a desire to read more.
      It's a shame that in an American literature class, they will rarely choose books like 'Winesburg, Ohio' or books by John Dos Passos, or Philip Roth, or John Cheever. It's always Hemingway, Wharton, 'The Scarlet Letter.'
      I've been struggling at university, but only one more semester left!

  • @emily.ck_30
    @emily.ck_30 3 місяці тому +1

    What an insightful video! A channel I can always revisit, time and again! I've just started my career as an English literature teacher, 2 months ago, and this channel feels like home.You've earned a sub here! Your son is adorable as well!

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  3 місяці тому

      Thanks a lot Emily, I hope you find some videos you enjoy. Good luck with your career teaching literature, I hope that you inspire a young generation with a love of reading good books.
      I'll tell Matthew you think he is adorable, I am sure he will appreciate it!

  • @naaataaaliaaa3320
    @naaataaaliaaa3320 3 місяці тому +1

    Loved your review Grant! I was in grade 8 when I read it for the first time, and it fascinated me. Forever grateful that UA-cam recommended this video :) Greetings from Mexico!

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  3 місяці тому

      Hello Naaataaaliaaa! Thanks for writing all the way from Mexico.
      I was a little down on Gatsby a little while ago, so I was very happy to read it this time and see how amazing this novel is to read at different stages in one's life.
      Grade 8! You must start with literature early in Mexico. I am at university and most of the English Majors haven't even read it.

  • @nikkivenable73
    @nikkivenable73 4 місяці тому +1

    Matthew is precious! Hi Grant, I’ll watch this one later but I just went back and watched your review of So Long, See You Tomorrow. I just finished that book again for the 2nd time. I think that review is one of your best ones, btw.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      Thanks a lot Nikki! That's an old one, I'm happy to hear it still looks good. How was it reading this short but very complex novel for the second time? I thought I was doing well, but now that I try to remember the book, it is really hard to put my finger on what exactly happened.

    • @nikkivenable73
      @nikkivenable73 4 місяці тому +1

      @@grantlovesbooks I loved it this time! I gave it 5* which isn’t something I do often. I hadn’t been in the right headspace to read it in 2020, although I knew it was my kind of book….but we had Covid insanity and the riots going on and I couldn’t focus. I’m so glad I gave it another go. Quite interesting also that Maxwell was so undone by his mother’s death when he was 10, that all of his books explore this theme and I find that very interesting. I also found an audiobook here on YT read by Maxwell himself when he was 87. Just so cool.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      @@nikkivenable73 Wow! Thanks Nikki for all the interesting information. When I made my video I don't think I looked into Maxwell's life at all. It looks like that was a big mistake. It sounds like it really had a positive reaction for you this time. I wasn't doing my book raffle then, so I still have my copy on the shelf!

  • @debpalm8667
    @debpalm8667 4 місяці тому +2

    Thanks for the review, Grant. I always talk myself out of reading any book for the third time. Maybe I'll rethink and give it a try. Matthew is a cutie.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      I really think twice is all that can be asked of someone, there are so many books to read. But it is quite short. And I felt on this reading I wasn't as preoccupied with waiting for those 'important' points. The green light, the clock falling off the mantle... all the high-school symbolism.
      I keep meaning to go back to Tender is the Night, but I've got such a backlog of books right now. I haven't even finished my 2024 TBR.
      But 2024 is turning out to be a great year!

  • @alelux4959
    @alelux4959 4 місяці тому +1

    Nice vid. I read this book in Spanish (as this is my native language) many years ago. I agree with you that the characters were horrible people. I want to read the book in English coz I feel I missed something in the Spanish version, or maybe it was my age.
    Greetings from Argentina.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  3 місяці тому

      Hello to you in Argentina! Thanks for writing. If you've read Gatsby in translation, you should definitely try reading it in English. There is a lot of colourful language, but if you have a good understanding of the story and the characters I think you should do it.
      When I was reading it I was never sure what this 'valley of ashes' was, until a professor told us it was basically Queens, New York, they were driving through. Somehow that seemed to clarify it all for me.

  • @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169
    @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 4 місяці тому +2

    Beautiful Child. I like your honesty about how the act of reading is an experience of emotional pleasure and if not the bottom line, your video essays subtly underscore that issue as criteria and I think that's important considering how literature study and appreciation seems so peripheral to contemporary culture. I love Gatsby & Fitzgerald from early on to now and used to read TGG every summer, but haven't yet this decade and your vid prompted me to look it over one more time while it's still summer. Thanks for the nudge. It's a novel about summer for me, and youth, America, class, etc. of course, but the way it universalizes life of these individuals in that historical moment makes the prohibition era society besides the point, The story is not about the lost generation's Long Island summer but love and the human condition. You're worth the whole dam bunch of them put together Nick tells him. Gatsby dismisses Buchanan's love for Daisy as merely personal. The idealism for love and America leading the new modern era but new money -even though life is tragic and love complex. It's romantic like Shelly and the prose is so perfect, just thinking about Gatsby again makes me want to read it again to see what this me brings to it this summer. America's the summer land and these Americans are in the last grasp summer of life -- almost middle age in the decade of a new media and consumer driven youth culture. I have more sympathy for the characters than you expressed. The story is not about Jay's love for Daisy -- it's about love. The recent film is annoying, although fun and did respect the source material. Music is horrible. It gave me a head ache. But a 20-something friend of mine not a reader loves the film and read the book because of if, so that's hopeful.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      Hello Timothy, That's nice you have such personal feelings about this novel.
      I simply can't enjoy any film made from a novel. I suppose I am too cynical. It already comes with a built-in supportive audience, which makes it sure to sell a lot of tickets. Also longevity, teachers with hangovers playing the film for their high school students. As well I've always felt it was almost like an antidote for the stupider films.
      If someone went to see Fast and Furious and King Kong vs Godzilla, now they can go and see Gatsby so that they can tell themselves they are not total morons when it comes to their film viewing habits.
      I suppose if you strip away the frenetic editing style, the wild music, and constant scene and wardrobe changes... Leo and Toby did put in a lot of hard work. Toby was onscreen nearly the entire film, and I can imagine it wasn't easy to constantly generate that wide-eyed, boyish look.
      Anyway, it was kind of a weird class, we watched Streetcar Named Desire, Apocalypse Now, and The Great Gatsby.
      The teacher did a great job, but the entire class was ruined by a student who wouldn't shut up and who knew everything about everything. (Not me.)

    • @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169
      @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 4 місяці тому

      @@grantlovesbooksInteresting reading list. One is a play and the film is pretty close, That's seems like cheating, it's not prose into film Apocalypse is quite distant from Heart of Darkness. In general I've found the better the literature the worse the film, Apocalypse does surpass the source material, a rare case indeed.

    • @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169
      @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 4 місяці тому +1

      @@grantlovesbooks have you ever read a novel after seeing the film and if so was your bias affected?

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      @@timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 I really had to think for a while, but I did remember one. No Country For Old Men. I think I had read The Road, but wasn't aware that Cormac had written No Country... I thought The Road was good, but pretty damn bleak, and I wasn't a huge fan until I read All The Pretty Horses. So when I later discovered he had written No Country, I hesitated with the book.
      Because they are so remarkably similar, there just weren't any surprises. Except, in the book Anton Cigurs eyes are blue. It really stuck out because there is almost zero character description, so when he had blue eyes it was a shock.
      I found it hard to enjoy, because the film was already imprinted in my imagination. And I don't really have any desire to read it again, because I know I'll be remembering the film, rather than reading the words on the page carefully.
      What about you?

    • @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169
      @timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 4 місяці тому +1

      @@grantlovesbooks Yes, one my favorite authors James Lee Burke I started reading after Heaven's Prisoners, but that's noir and it's more common with noir. I read Theater by Maugham after seeing the film Julia, but that was when I was obsessed with Somerset. If I like the film I'll read the novel, but most films of great novels fall short and usually I've read the book first, although I grew up with the Moby Dick so that doesnt' count. I had read No Country before the film -- the blue eye thing I didn't catch -- and have gone back to both. The film follows the book so closely that in my mind I see the film. I don''t mind it. Regarding the Road I read before the film, but I don't like either. Seriously, this praise for The Road is beyond me, it's just too obvious. Cormac genre-busted the western and noir, but dystopian sci-fic felt forced.

  • @CristinaInNeverland
    @CristinaInNeverland 4 місяці тому +3

    Hi Matthew!😊👋
    (your son is so lovely!)
    As for Gatsby, it's been a few years since I read it, and it's on my to-read list again, I remember liking it, but I'll have to refresh my memory, and it's a quick read.
    And by the way, on the subject of the movies marking the characters in the book with the respective actor, there is now a "very nice" craze (no, not really) of making the covers of the books with the covers of the movies!!! Not a fan! and it shows too the 'laziness' of the publishers, and it doesn't even matter who the actor is, for example, I just bought "Night Train to Lisbon" by Pascal Mercier, whose movie I only wanted to see after reading the book, but that's it, my main character already has a face and style, Jeremy Irons (who, by the way, he's an excelent actor!) but although I like the actor, I already have my character completely possessed!!! (well, but at least is with him, do you remenber him in Brideshead?)

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      I'll say hello to him for you!
      He's only lovely 30-40% of the time. But he is also very funny and does a lot of silly things that make me smile a lot more often than previously in my life.

  • @wizardkong2552
    @wizardkong2552 4 місяці тому +1

    Great review. Saludo desde brazil

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      Thanks a lot! hope you are having a great summer in Brazil!

  • @lotusman1819
    @lotusman1819 2 дні тому +1

    Bowles disliked "The Sheltering Sky" (my fave novel and writer), too. It flopped. He said Bertolucci wouldn't take any advice. Bert set it in Morocco even tho the novel took place in Algeria, and Bowles found it funny that in one scene Bert had a streetcar moving along. He said I've lived here 50 years and I've never seen a streetcar. But of course Bowles took the check for the book (which he said he did love) and made a cameo at the end of the film where he delivered his famous "Limitless" monologue as Debra Winger passes by. Winger told a magazine she was in love with Bowles as much as any man she'd ever met. Best thing about the film is the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  13 годин тому

      Thanks for writing. I tend to be very, Very, anti-film, but the cameo by Bowles has piqued my interest quite a lot.
      I love to watch the old interviews with Bowles, such a strange man, but it seems he really found a place for himself in Africa.

    • @lotusman1819
      @lotusman1819 2 години тому

      @@grantlovesbooks the 'limitless' bit is considered one of the finest things he ever wrote..it's in every documentary and book about him, always...a master at the peak of his powers. And the sentiment is very French, very existentialist, a testament to his influences

  • @nedmerrill5705
    @nedmerrill5705 4 місяці тому +2

    I saw the 1970's version of the movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. When I think of Jordan Baker I keep seeing Lois Chiles.
    Nick Carraway was Sam Waterston.
    It seems like this video's subtext is a discussion of Marshall McLuhan's "hot" and "cool" media, with films as hot and novels as cool media.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      Ms. Greupner showed us that version as well! It's so odd this constant desire to keep making the same film. There was another one in 2000 with Paul Rudd! Why don't they make a film of Daisy's life, or Jordan Bakers?
      I'll check out the hot and cool media idea, it sounds good.

  • @JohnTimothyRatliffe
    @JohnTimothyRatliffe 4 місяці тому +3

    Damn me, too late. I haven't read the book but I did see the movie, which I hated. Well, maybe not the movie itself. I just don't like empty-headed, foolish rich people. I wrote a travel piece about Asheville, NC, one of my hometowns, and in it I put a photo of the hospital where Zelda died in a fire. The old building is of course gone, but it has been replaced by a handsome stone building. And, on second thought, yes, I hated the movie itself. But based on your review I might attempt the book.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      Hello John! I would highly recommend reading Gatsby again, I think it really is something to read at different stages in your life.
      I forgot how Zelda died in a fire, that must have been horrific. What a sad end, but Scott, ended up not too much better.
      I'm completely anti-movie for anything literature. And it makes me wonder if I will ever read Gatsby again now that I have Leonardo in my mind, and all those glorious Hollywood images.
      I guess it's my own fault for signing up for that class.
      You've really been all over, haven't you!

  • @stellaburnell7947
    @stellaburnell7947 3 місяці тому +1

    Best novel of 20th century

  • @MH-ql4nh
    @MH-ql4nh 4 місяці тому +1

    I read The Great Gatsby many years ago and I liked it. However, when the movie came out I had zero desire to watch it. I feel that I have a rather distinct feel of Gatsby as a character and it's not Leonardo DiCaprio. Needless to say, I also can't reconcile the Nick Carraway in my mind with Tobey Maguire (incidentally, now I'll never be able to watch Tobey Maguire without noticing that expression of his 😂). This video, however, has inspired me to read the book again.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      It sounds we feel exactly the same way. I suppose I am at the age where I constantly ask myself, 'Which age group was this made for?' So it was strange watching the 2013 version of Gatsby, and wondering who their audience was. I suppose these high-school books have a longevity due to teachers with hangovers needing to get a little marking done.
      I wanted to make a sequence of clips putting together all the times he does that side-eye, but it would have been too much work. But I do think he does it often!
      Let me know how you feel about Gatsby the next time you read it.

  • @LuckySidhu-ln6vk
    @LuckySidhu-ln6vk 4 місяці тому +2

    Hello, I hope you are well.
    Your son is very cute may God bless him with the best ❤🙏
    Love from India

  • @TheSalMaris
    @TheSalMaris 4 місяці тому +3

    New Haven of course, is conservative, ivy walled Yale. I've known a few of these "peaked in their prime" types. They're rather dull, lethargic, and while they'd have you believe themselves intelligent men, I really haven't found that to be the case. What I like about the Great Gatsby is it comes close to defining the American Dream that we are subjected to everyday and in some ways actually drowning therein.
    I've read it twice already probably not again.
    Lucky for me I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest before it became a movie. I loved that book. I hated the film as it missed all that was good in the book. And having met Kesey a couple of times, the image of McMurphy, as I read the book, was always the image of the author. Which I imagine is just slightly better than Jack Nicholson. But to your point, yes, it's always best to read the books first and wince in the cinema later. Look at what Huston did to Hemingway's To Have and To Have Not. Obviously, Literature and Cinema are just two different art forms and don't really mix well.
    Thanks again Grant. And thanks to the Broccoli Kid.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому +1

      Hello SalMaris! Great to hear from you. There's a movie of To Have and To Have Not!! That really must be a strange one.
      I will always remember Kesey had a quote when asked if he went to see "One Flew Over..." You'll have to search for it, something along the lines of 'Having a child abducted by the Hells Angel's...' You met him? Wow, you've really been around. I was always fascinated by that troupe of crazies called The Merry Pranksters, those must have been some strange times to be alive.
      The sad thing now is that writers are trying to write more cinematic novels, because that's how they can get the big money, and maybe get a selfie with the latest celeb who pretends to have read their book.
      I don't know. Right now I am reading Germinal by Zola and absolutely loving it, and it is Long. And I think they have made several film adaptations. Even though that old style of novel with a lot of luxurious description would lend itself well to a film or series. I just can't find any interest.
      I suppose my main complaint is that of all the arts, the cinema, should be absolutely the one that allows the most freedom. Get really weird, absurd, cartoon, go crazy. But so many films are so formulaic, and simply copying a standard format.
      I remember how blown away I was when I saw David Lynch's Wild At Heart. I think almost every other film I have seen since then has looked dull and obvious compared to that monster of a movie.

    • @TheSalMaris
      @TheSalMaris 4 місяці тому +1

      @@grantlovesbooks i like some of the formulaic movies- if they’ve got something in addition to the formula like Groundhogs Day perhaps, but I’m really taken by Being John Malkovich, or Wings of Desire, or The Kingdom, or Mulholland Drive. Those movies are few and far between. Foreign films are best.
      I knew Katherine Dunn too. If we ever get together over coffee, I’ll tell you some stories.

    • @grantlovesbooks
      @grantlovesbooks  4 місяці тому

      @@TheSalMaris Hello, those are some wildly unusual movie titles to string together! Just like my tastes in movies.
      Was Groundhog Day the first of its kind? To do the repetition of one day in history? Today, it seems like such common idea that has been copied many times. But I wonder if Groundhog Day was the original one to use this idea. I know there were a lot of 'going back to the past' films. Every time I see one of those I always think, 'There's a writer getting old with some serious regrets.'
      Mullholland Drive, that's a nice memory for me, I went to see that in Budapest, the film was sold out, I think it was opening weekend.
      Strand there aren't more good films these days. I wish Spike Jonze made more movies.
      I'll have to check who Katherine Dunn is.

    • @TheSalMaris
      @TheSalMaris 4 місяці тому +1

      @@grantlovesbooks Geek Love, by K. Dunn