"there are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired"

I have to say that The Great Gatsby has been one of the most enchanting books I've read in quite some time. It amused me in the way that the beauty of past eras does, and it drew me into a world that I kind of fell in love with. Written in the twenties, during a time of booming economic growth and mass production, the story is narrated by Mr Gatsby's neighbour who is absorbed by Gatsby's lifestyle, just as we become absorbed in it too. What is most successful about the way The Great Gatsby is narrated is how it creates the atmosphere that represents this lifestyle of carefree leisure and decadence. Through elegantly composed descriptions, we are invited to the party, to breathe in the smoke, dance to the music and watch the beautiful people, until it's time to go home. 

"And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."

The book is a short escapism into a slice of world recovered from the damages of war, one that we unfortunately don't live in today.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

This last line addresses the conflicting argument within the story, of whether it is possible to repeat the past. Of course, it is not. Time moves on in spirals, not circles. Yet the proposition that it does repeat is telling of the human condition, that in times of insecurity, we live in a world that we feel peace in, even if it is only in our memories.

Overall, The Great Gatsby, to me, is like a daisy chain of summer gatherings, and moments made infinite in text. A dreamy summer read...