The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote many marvelous stories and a couple of the favorites have been successfully adapted for the big screen: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Great Gatsby. This year it is Baz Luhrmann who is directing this latest adaptation and I must say I am excited. The jazz age was all about liquor and music and the story does a great job of incorporating this environment into the lives of these characters.

Quick Story Detail:

Nick Carraway is the narrator who moves to Rhode Island to start his career. His second cousin Daisy lives nearby with her husband Tom Buchanan. Carraway’s other neighbor is the millionaire and titular character Jay Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy used to be lovers during WWI, but were separated. Gatsby remained obsessed with Daisy and procured a fortune to try to win her back. When he finds out she has married he uses his newly acquired fortune to move into the neighborhood and throw lavish parties to get her attention, but she never attends. Gatsby befriends her cousin Nick and convinces him to arrange a clandestine meeting for him and Daisy. Their love affair begins again and sets the rest of the plot in motion.

Do not be fooled, this is not a love story people! This story has deceit, booze, women, secret pasts, money, and car crashes. All while delving into characters and examining selfishness at its core. Insight and action rolled up into one. That is just the book. Now you take this exciting plot and add Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan as seen through the lens of Baz Luhrmann and you have a promising movie. So dust off your copies of this amazing book and brush up before its release this Christmas. Perhaps also re-watch Leonardo DiCaprio in Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet.