Unpopular opinion: "The Great Gatsby" is way overhyped by book clubs

I brought up in my Austin group last Tuesday that Gatsby is just a story about a creepy stalker with money, and three people nearly walked out. One side says it's a masterpiece about the American Dream, but I think it's boring and Nick is a terrible narrator. We spent 40 minutes arguing over whether Daisy was a villain or a victim, and nobody changed their mind. Has your club ever split over a classic like this and somehow kept meeting?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaretk891mo ago

Flip that whole thing around honestly. Gatsby is the most American story ever written because it's all about wanting something you can't have and spending everything to chase it. Nick being a bad narrator is the whole point, he's just as unreliable and obsessed as everyone else in that book. Daisy was never a villain or a victim, she was just a real woman trapped between two men who treated her like a prize. The beauty of the novel is that nobody is right or wrong, everybody is just a mess trying to survive the Roaring 20s. Your book club arguing for 40 minutes over Daisy proves the book is working exactly how Fitzgerald intended.

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casey_barnes1mo ago

Nah you lost me at "most American story ever written" lol.