The Great Gatsby

Get ready for a rant. I disliked this book upon first reading it - thinking it was trying too hard to be clever and is now the ultimate hipster go-to novel. I have no idea as to why. I do not like this book at all. 

Characters: 

Oh Jay, how I loathe you entirely. He's a character who is completely two dimensional. Yes, I understand there is an essence of mystery about him - but it's only mystery if the reader actually wants to know who he is. Personally, I did not care. 

Jay was a loathsome character who always seemed like he had something better to do than wherever he was at that moment, which is completely hypocritical to who he actually is because apparently he doesn't do anything at all. Except for throwing decadent, yet pointless parties every Saturday night. 

Themes:

There is a nasty little bugger of a theme called decadence. Every hipster likes to use this word to describe stuff, but very few know what it actually means. The decadence of The Great Gatsby isn't the parties, it isn't the affair with Daisy Buchanan and it isn't the friendship between Jay and Nick. It IS in fact, the way that Jay represents the decadence of Jazz Age America into the descent of the Wall Street Market Crash. And this, is only picked up by people who know where it is (kind of like Tortuga from POTC). 

Storyline:

I understand that the reason little hipsters like this novel is because of all the 'beautiful' and 'vintage' Jazz Age stuff - but the storyline itself is too short and cut short of being a great novel. It is like the novel is a decadent parody of itself - it could've been something great, but it was cut completely short of doing so. The only thing I liked about this book is the way language was used to convey and hide this true decadence and parody of culture in 20s America. A lot of people don't understand that this book is actually a sarcasm, which is the only thing I like about Fitzgerald. There, I said it. 

Verdict:

Out of 9, I give this book a 3.

1/3 for characters: I hated Jay more than any other character of literature. I did, however, like the fact that he was well portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the recent film adaptation. I couldn't stand Daisy in any aspect, Nick was a spoilt brat and Jordan was pessimistic - it was like everyone in this novel just wanted to end up miserable. Tom, Myrtle and George were none the better either. Even Daisy's daughter was a 'pretty fool'. 

1/3 for themes: The themes were well portrayed but a little too obvious. They needed to be better hidden to catch my attention, sorry F.Scotty. 

1/3 for storyline: Okay, so I like the way the story is a parody of itself, but it was frustrating to see it cut so short when things needed a better explanation - it was very underwhelming.

And here is the only reason to read it:

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then - but that's no matter. Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther and one fine morning -

So we beat on. Boats against the current, borne back, ceaselessly into the past..."