Gyllenhaal is an incredible narrator

Where does The Great Gatsby rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This has to be one of my top ten favorites - no one can deny that this is one of the greatest American novels ever written.
There's a reason we all have to read it in high school, although lamentably we're mostly too young to understand it very meaningfully at that age.

What did you like best about this story?

Impossible to say - the myriad interpretations offered by various symbols; the forgiving and compassionate way human folly, hypocrisy, and unthinking offhand cruelty are portrayed throughout the book; the equanimity of the narrator; the rich detail of the descriptions of wasteful yet magical opulence; the heartbreaking, love-soaked idealism of Gatsby juxtaposed with the completely amoral and brutal source of the income with which he intended to pursue Daisy; ok so this is already too long and you didn't read it.
My review is really about supposed to be about Jake Gyllenhaal.

What does Jake Gyllenhaal bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

In short, his narration allowed me to fall in love with the characters.

Jake Gyllenhaal lends a quality to Nick's telling of the story that provides insight into varied aspects of the book - things I would not have understood quite as richly as a female reader with only a page in front of me.

He brings phrases such as "old sport" to life without the cartoonish and annoying cadence my brain would have imposed on them.

His voice is perfect for this. He's at just the right age to play Nick, whose point of view is so essential, and he perfectly portrays Nick's character as earnest, thoughtful, self-aware, unblinkingly critical, and yet still compassionate.
Gyllenhaal also has a more than impressive vocal range to bring the various other characters vividly to life. His portrayal of female characters is notably nuanced.

I'll be listening to anything and everything else he chooses to read.

Any additional comments?

Jake, please keep reading stuff so I can listen to it!

30 people found this helpful

Simple, Beautiful, and Exquisitely Textured

I am a ravenous reader. I consume books (audio, electronic, and paper) by the pound and byte. I RARELY go back and reread a novel I've read before. It just seems a waste of time, a waste of an opportunity for another book, another story. The Great Gatsby, however, is one of those handful of books, those rare literary jewels, where this rule of thumb is consistently bent and re-broken. For readers of good literature, this novel is like scripture. IT is something you read to enjoy the page, the paragraphs, the sentences, the words. It draws you back. It haunts future books you read. It invades you.

For American Literature, The Great Gatsby stands with 'Moby-Dick' and 'Huckleberry Finn' as a monument of not just literature but the uniquely American experience. It captures the excess, the energy, and the decadence of the 'Lost Generation'. Other Fitzgerald books are amazing, but Gatsby is one of those novels that seems to have surprised everyone, even Fitzgerald.

Finding the right narrator for any book is an art form (often misunderstood, almost always ignored). Certain books require a certain type of reader. Gyllenhaal was an inspired pick for the Great Gatsby. He has the range to subtly capture the different characters, but the charisma and the energy to embody the dialogue of Gatsby and the easygoing narrator Nick.

230 people found this helpful

Good narrator. Story is not good.

I know this is a classic, however it just did not do it for me. The narration got me through listening to the end. Sort of a depressing story. Clearly I'm in the minority here but I did not think it was worth a listen. I cranked the speed up for the last half just to get through it...

12 people found this helpful

A masterpiece that never gets old

Where does The Great Gatsby rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best, I own the book but Gyllenhal adds something to the narration that just reading it doesnt have.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Great Gatsby?

The ending of course, I wont spoil anything for people who havent read it or havent read it in a very long time.

What does Jake Gyllenhaal bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His performance slowly changes through out the book portraying the subtle nuances of the characters change from the beginning to the emotional end.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The end made me cry. This book is in no way a happy book, no one is actually happy and every choice each character makes just nudges them closer to the explosive end.

Any additional comments?

If you havent already, wait to watch the movie till you at least read the book. The 2013 version not the crappy old versions.

11 people found this helpful

Great listen!

I loved the reader, Jake Gyllenhaal, and I loved the book itself. They could not have picked a better reader for this masterful work of art!

11 people found this helpful

Trite, lacks real substance.

The only reason this book has such high ratings is that most people must look back on it in a nostalgic light to their required high school reading. Gatsby was a challenge to finish, the plot jumped around more than Pulp Fiction and read like a thesaurus. Themes portrayed were sophomoric and shallow.

10 people found this helpful

Revisit an Old Friend

Fitzgerald's classic written in simple prose tells the story of the upper crust's frivolity from the point of view of an outsider looking in. You relive the pretense, wastefulness, desire to fit in and aching loneliness lurking within all.

Gyllenhaal embodies Nick so well, you see him as the mild wallflower character instead of the handsome, charming actor. Well read.

For $5 and 2.5 hours of time (on 2X speed) this is a great way to revisit a classic or prep for the movie.

71 people found this helpful

zzzzzzzz

Are you are having a hard time sleeping? Insomnia got ya down? here you go.

7 people found this helpful

Impressed with Jake's reading

Where does The Great Gatsby rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best. I've listened to it twice now, the older version when I was re-reading it before going to see the movie and immediately after seeing the movie because I found the critical reception upseting. I thought for a movie trying to remake The Great Gatsby the movie was pretty dead on. I know it was Lermany (like my new word) but of course it was. With a story as brash as The Great Gatsby, Lerman needed to be over the top and I think that Fitzgerald would have been pleased. But, I digress. I thought Gyllenhaal's reading was very well done -- understated, not too emotional, but easy to follow.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Gatsby. How can it not be Gatsby?

What does Jake Gyllenhaal bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The ability to listen to the book in the garden, in the car... everything that a good audio book can give you, this gave me.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, (SPOILER ALERT) the funeral and that no one showed up.

Any additional comments?

Such a classic in American literature. If you haven't read or listened to this since your high school days, you really should. You will have a much better perspective now than you did in high school, well, at least I did.

18 people found this helpful

Thought It Might Sober Me Up to Listen to Gatsby

I more or less enjoyed reading Gatsby back in high school. Reading it now as an adult, it’s easy to see why the book is considered such a classic. It’s a critique of the American Dream – that you can become whatever you want to be. It’s a story of the disenfranchised taking a shot, and being put down for it. It has a memorable cast of characters – most of them loathsome (Tom Buchanan most of all – he’s a raging knot of contradictions, and a great foil for Gatsby). There’s some intense social commentary – part of what we loathe so much about Tom is his classism and racism. The former I think has probably been easy for Americans to loathe for a long time; the latter is easy for us to loathe today, but keep in mind this book was written in the 20s, a good 40 years before the Civil Rights movement. (You go, Fitzgerald!) Also, and this is emphasized in the audio format – it’s a very short, economic book, and at under 5 hours, packs a pretty mean punch.

Some things that I didn’t appreciate so much as a 14 or 17 year-old which I found fascinating as an adult: that the whole story is set during Prohibition, and what a bizarre and broken era that was. There was so much booze flowing, so much partying, so much philandering…it’s ridiculous to me that the United States thought it would be moral to outlaw alcohol. I was also surprised by how funny it was when it wasn’t such a downer – particularly at Gatsby’s parties. There’s a scene where we find a man sitting in the library of Gatsby’s house and the stranger says: “I’ve been drunk for about a week now and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.” That line just tickles me in so many ways, and I enjoyed discovering Fitzgerald’s sense of humor this time out.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives a very solid narration as Nick Carraway, our portal into Gatsby’s world, who proclaims he’s “the only honest man he’s ever met.” Gyllenhaal’s performance isn’t a flashy one, and I think that’s a wise choice on his part – it matches the understated power of the book, and let’s Fitzgerald’s prose carry the story. He’s received a lot of praise for his reading of this novel, and it’s well-deserved.

The Great Gatsby continues to be a serious book with a lot on it’s mind, and was a treat to revisit.

(Originally published at the AudioBookaneers)

40 people found this helpful