I once drove east on 25A

{Selected Comments on New York Times article / cover art, The Great Gatsby -- April 26, 2013 article}

[from Quincy, Illinois]:  To my mind The Great Gatsby IS the Great American Novel.  I loved the Original cover and the Movie with Robert Redford....Just Great!

[from Quebec]:  I saw the original cover a few weeks ago at the book store and thought that it was the movie edition! 
My copy of The Great Gatsby is a 1974 paperback edition with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow on the cover.
I didn't choose the cover, I just bought the book.  Of course when given a choice I'll choose the cover that is the most appealing to me but it doesn't matter, it's the words inside that do.

[from Connecticut]:  The character of Daisy was based on Fitzgerald's old flame Ginevra King, a brunette.  Gatsby himself looks down on Daisy's dark, shining hair.  So why do they always choose a blonde for Daisy?

[Elizabeth in Florida]:  Sacrilege.  I hate covers that force an interpretation on readers, and/or when they are violated by an Oprah sticker.  Let us decide for ourselves, please, what to like and what characters look like.  That's the beauty of reading.

[from Laguna Beach, California]:  You can't judge a cover by its book.

[from California]:  The continuing mystique of Gatsby absolutely baffles me.  Most overrated book in the American canon.  No one to like.  A fawning sycophant of a narrator.  A fraud of a title character.  Boring parties and overripe language.  I just don't get it.

[New Jersey]:  I re-read Gatsby every year, usually around early May to herald the approaching summer season.  I still read my dog-eared, underlined copy that I bought in high school 15 years ago when I was first assigned to read it.  The best thing about the book is that each time I read it, I observe something different -- whether it's a minute detail or a perfect turn of phrase.

[Pennsylvania]:  I reread it too...and love it more every time.  What it says with such ease about the American Dream, human nature and class in the US is important to remind ourselves.

[Tim F., New Jersey]:  I don't think an Australian can understand the Great Gatsby.  It is a quintessentially American story about money and messy people.

[from West Harrison, NY]:  Most of this conversation is foolish....

[David, in Diamond Bar]:  The original cover art was approved by Fitzgerald himself and serves as a useful, insightful commentary into the novel.  The artist understood the book well.  The floating, amorphous face in the night sky, the deep blues, the yellow party scene underneath, the red sensuous lips, the sad, mournful eyes -- all of these hint at some of the novel's key themes.

Americans will never stop dreaming, and never stop reaching towards their "green light," no matter how far away or far-fetched that dream may be.

"No amount of fire or freshness will challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."

[Kurt Klein, New York]:  [quote from the article] -- "They may also have discovered the book through the 'Gatsby'-themed merchandise showing up at retailers like Tiffany and Brooks Brothers."

How many customers at either of these stores haven't already been exposed to this novel?

[Jen in Connecticut]:  I teach college American history courses and often assign a novel, usually giving the students a choice.  The assignment is to write an essay in which they consider the historical context of the novel's setting and when it was written and/or published.  Gatsby and To Kill A Mockingbird are always the top choices....

[Sarasota, Florida]:  ...The very thought of Baz Luhrmann tackling this rather straightforward period story alarms me....

[NY]:  As long as people read "The Great Gatsby" it doesn't matter what cover is on the book.  Bravo Scott Fitzgerald!

[Washington, D.C.]:  ...Fitzgerald didn't waste one word....

[Bristol, Rhode Island]:  ...Baz Luhrmann...remains a director of astonishing skills and vision....

[Florida]:  It's nice to have the time to read an array of comments - some erudite, some amusing.  The book for me is a joy to read, and when my wife and I are done, we will see what BL has conjured up....

[Ronald Cohen - Wilmington, North Carolina]:  "The Great Gatsby" may be the great American novel and its packaging is truly irrelevant....

Today, more than ever, the 99% is looking at the light on Daisy's dock and knows that the gap is unbridgeable.

[New Jersey]:  I probably will skip the movie, but after reading these comments I'm going to go back and re-read the book.

[Carol - Santa Monica, CA]:  ...Fitzgerald's novel, whose beauty seems to defy film adaptations. ...

[AP - Boston]:  ...Too many books, too little time!

[New Jersey]:  I'm convinced Gatsby is one of those books you don't really get until you've been out in the world and lived through how dreams of success can be an illusion.  As well, it's a very subtle, everything's-under-the-surface book which makes more sense after you've experienced how adults hide more than they actally say/do.  I didn't get it when I read it in high school, but when I returned to it after being out in the workforce, I understood it all too well.

[Dave - North Strabane, Pennsylvania]:  ...Stephen Colbert's take on the movie is particularly engaging.  He said the movie is earth shaking because it throws alienation and loneliness at you in 3D.

[Gene - Brussels]:  "it throws alienation and loneliness at you in 3D."

Kinda like real life, eh?

[NYC]:  Reading, to me, is about imagining.  Having a movie star on the cover immediately paints a picture of Gatsby, instead of letting it develop in the reader's own mind courtesy of the transcendent words of Fitzgerald.

[Ellen - Long Island]  ...There is an unpleasant proclivity among a wide swath of commenters here to denigrate whatever topic a story covers.

...I have in front of me a paperback copy of "The Great Gatsby" I bought forty years ago.  It does not have the original cover.  The cover is a painting of a man and a 1920s luxury car.  It is a renewal copyright of 1953....price - $1.65.

[Joseph Bianco - St. Louis]  I have that same one...

We Long Islanders should be proud of that book (I've been transplanted to St. Louis -- to the "West" as Nick Carraway would say).

I once drove east on 25A all the way into Manhattan just to follow the route Gatsby and the others took.  I didn't hit anyone on the way back.  And I drove all along the two shores of "West Egg" and "East Egg," looking for Daisy's green light!

[Big M - NYC]  In 1960 I first read Gatsby in college from a Scribner's paperback that I still have.  No art at all on the cover, just the book title and author's name.

[ACW - New Jersey]  In the past few years advertisers have taken to promoting outdoor advertising opportunities with a huge pair of eyes and the gleeful caption, 'Made you look!  Customers will, too! for this space, call:  (etc.).'  Weirdly, the landscape is now littered with billboards exactly like the one envisioned by Fitzgerald (who , if I remember correctly, was inspired by an actual placard).  Thus life imitates art imitating life.

[Robert Dana - NY 11937]  I prefer the original cover, but anything to get young folks to read this fine book -- with one of the best openings ever.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.  Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

[James Hadley - Orleans, Massachusetts]  This all brings to mind another well known and beloved piece of our literary heritage:  "Much Ado About Nothing."

[RJ - NYC]  More than just the story, Fitzgerald had a lyrical way of constructing sentences.  There are certain passages - Nick describing the first party he witnesses at Gatsby's,..."In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars"

[dms - NYC]  Yes...And to think Fitzgerald was only in his late 20s when he wrote it....

[Bill Carter - Fargo, North Dakota]  The power of Fitzgerald's great story continues to attract new readers 88 years later!  Now THAT's great writing...when the content, after that length of time, can create a semi-controversy over the jacket cover!

[Donald Waits - New Orleans, La.]  I have read "Gatsby" at least four times.  The first time I did not fully appreciate its beauty because I was too young to have had any life experiences.

...It took a while for me to focus on the real story:  a man who was hoping and imagining that his great love was shared by his beloved, only to find that it was all one sided and not what he had believed.  He had lived in a delusion of love, not the reality of it.  "Rich girls don't marry poor boys, Jay Gatsby."

[J. L. Anderson - Virginia]  "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.  It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning --

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

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