The Great Gatsby

sunnyf - The Great Gatsby is personally too deep for me to understand and dissolve all of it. This story was based on the Jazz Age, when the rich and fabulous were having marvelous parties after World War I. I like Jordan Baker the most in this story, because even though she is cynical, I think she was wise and knew a lot of things. Daisy was the person I don’t admire the most. Although she was beautiful and men were infatuated by her, but I feel like she was just a pretty shell without a deep soul. Her desires weren’t realistic and she was greedy. However, she reminded me and taught me to not become someone that resembles her. I saw there are a lot of things that weren’t reveal. I learnt that the world is make up of greed, lies, and insidiously and undoubtedly, reality. It’s hard to face the truth that people are actually selfish creatures that often think about themselves. People are fickle, like plants, we often choose the way that benefit us the most. It might sound disappointed and dark, but sadly and truly, it’s the truth.

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.