The story follows a lower class Nick Carraway navigating the hustle and bustle of wealthy life in Long Island. Nick befriends the notorious playboy Jay Gatsby, his next door neighbor who seems to only live to party. Through his wealthy cousin Daisy and his neighbor turned friend, Nick learns of the piping hot affairs, drama, and tortured lives of the wealthy. He quickly learns that even if you have it all, you’ll still be chasing after that light across the water.
This book had a slow start for me. It was a hard one to get immersed in with the language being outdated and the pacing wasn’t really moving at the beginning. Then I fell in love with it. Fitzgerald was able to make every single character be at fault in some way for an important plot point in the story, including the protagonist. But then, he was able to make you sympathize with all of them as well. The characters were the most human I’ve ever read in any book. It made me uneasy and unsettled and it made me think about the importance of a reliable narrator.