THE GREAT GATSBY (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - June 4/13

Bleh. Another so-called classic that does absolutely nothing for me. I kinda enjoyed the book at the outset, as Fitzgerald does a good job of establishing the atmosphere and building up Gatsby as a mysterious yet intriguing figure. (And that's to say nothing of the cinematic sequences set at his opulent estate.) But Fitzgerald is far too impressed with his own writing style and the incredibly thin narrative is soon bogged down by flowery passages that are too descriptive and too uninvolving. I couldn't help, as a result, but glaze over whole paragraphs. (I didn't realize Gatsby had been shot until the narrative made a passing reference to his death.) I just didn't care about the self-obsessed characters or their problems. A bore. * out of ****