The Great Gatsby

Starred review from December 2, 2002
Audio reviews reflect PW's assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version. Fiction THE GREAT GATSBY F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Tim Robbins. Caedmon Audio, unabridged, six cassettes, 7 hrs., $27.95 ISBN 0-06-009890-2 Readers in that sizeable group of people who think The Great Gatsby
is the Great American Novel will be delighted with Robbins's subtle, brainy and immensely touching new reading. There have been audio versions of Gatsby
before this—by Alexander Scourby and Christopher Reeve, to name two—but actor/director Robbins brings a fresh and bracing vision that makes the story gleam. From the jaunty irony of the title page quote ("Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!") to the poetry of Fitzgerald's ending about "the dark fields of the republic" and "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past," Robbins conjures up a sublime portrait of a lost world. And as a bonus, the excellent audio actor Robert Sean Leonard reads a selection of Fitzgerald's letters to editors, agents and friends which focus on the writing and selling of the novel. Listeners will revel in learning random factoids, e.g., in 1924, Scott and Zelda were living in a Rome hotel that cost just over $500 a month, and he was respectfully suggesting that his agent Harold Ober ask $15,000 from Liberty
magazine for the serial rights to Gatsby.

October 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Timed to coincide with the public domain debut of The Great Gatsby, this atmospheric adaptation translates the high school staple to graphic novel format. Nick Carraway takes up residence next to mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby on Long Island. At a lavish party at Gatsby's estate, Nick learns that during the Great War Gatsby fell in love with Nick's cousin Daisy Fay, who now lives across the bay. While Gatsby was deployed, Daisy married the well-heeled Tom Buchanan; upon returning, Gatsby made his fortune as a bootlegger to rekindle Daisy's affections. Their affair ends when Tom exposes his nouveau riche rival's misdeeds at a hotel. Driving home, Daisy inadvertently kills Tom's mistress with Gatsby's car, and Tom's mistress's husband soon shoots Gatsby. Nick leaves New York following Gatsby's sparsely attended funeral. Rather than rendering "an exact literal interpretation of the novel," Woodman-Maynard aspires to "capture the mood" of the work. Though her medium can't help but slough off some narrative nuances, differences are largely unobjectionable. Pacing, for instance, ticks a tad faster, chronology shifts slightly, and a suicide and anti-Semitic overtones are omitted. Synesthetes will delight as the Roaring Twenties come alive in mellifluous watercolors informed by both period ephemera and pure imagination. As visual metaphors wash over the page, fascinating experiments with figure and ground toggle between surrealism and pitiless reality. Snippets of text blend paraphrase and direct quotation, and key lines-the sort found in study guides-appear verbatim. VERDICT Like other graphic novelizations of canonical works, this adaptation explicitly intended to serve an auxiliary role stands as its own immersive accomplishment.-Steven Thompson, Bound Brook Memorial P.L., NJ

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2020
Nearly a century after its first publication, the English class mainstay is presented in graphic form, presenting the story of Nick, a young man who rents a mansion in Long Island for the summer, and an enigmatic party host named Gatsby. Fitzgerald's dialogue appears in speech bubbles while Nick's signature nonjudgmental judgments are woven into the art itself, appearing in the beam of a lightbulb, the shadow of the self-important Tom Buchanan's imposing frame, or the chaise that Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker seemingly ceaselessly lounge on. Woodman-Maynard's adaptation of the text is understandably quite abridged, but it does the book no favors. The great revelation that Gatsby is (spoiler alert) not a trust fund kid but an imposter is afforded a single page, and the fact of his past affair with Daisy is so murkily depicted that it feels less tragic romance and more moony boy and Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The class issues that make the original novel so compelling are thus less than adequately examined. Where the book truly shines is in a few striking images, some metaphorical and some text based, rendered in cool, languid watercolor and digital art. As Woodman-Maynard indicates in the author's note, those who are not familiar with the novel should begin there; those more familiar with the story will be able to fill in the gaps as they read this condensed version. A disappointing stand-in for the original. (author's note) (Graphic fiction. 14-adult)

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February 1, 2021
Grades 9-12 Adapting The Great Gatsby into a graphic novel is no easy feat because the metaphor and imagery are so well-known. Instead of a strict recreation of every word, Woodman-Maynard uses muted single-color panels and pages to communicate the different moods of the story, from excessive parties to melancholy remembrances. When Nick Carraway moves to West Egg, he quickly gets pulled into the world of his nouveau riche neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Over in East Egg, Nick spends time with his cousin Daisy and her hulking husband, Tom Buchanan. Nick then finds out that Gatsby's plan is to recreate his past with Daisy, and he gets caught in the middle of their reconciliation. Woodman-Maynard chooses to turn many metaphors into literal drawings, adding to the heightened euphoria of Gatsby's parties. Although most readers will know the story, Woodman-Maynard's artwork brings a new perspective to the character's histories and actions--Daisy especially benefits from this. This adaptation deftly pays homage to Fitzgerald's iconic phrases through the artwork and pushes readers to question Nick's status as narrator.

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