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Title: Great Writer-Terrible Book
Review: Fitzgerald is obviously one of America's greatest modern writers-his prose style and use of language is amazing and The Great Gatsby is a classic that everyone should own and re-read on a regular basis. Yet this book, his first, has one of the most obnoxious, least-likeable protagonists in American literature- Amory Blaine. Blaine is arrogant, self-centered, self-important, and a pompous windbag; yet not in an interesting way such as Holden Caufield. Also, Fitzgerald's description of the idealism of Ivy League life and society is so corny and hokey that it is difficult to read at times.Of course, the book has its merits for the fact that it is the first novel of a great novelist and it contains the seeds of the literary style that he polished with later works. You can still find insights and character descriptions that lesser authors could only hope to create.
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