-
The Great Gatsby
- Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Of Mice and Men
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
-
-
My First Steinbeck... I've Missed So Much!
- By Jonathan Love on 08-31-16
By: John Steinbeck
-
Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
-
-
Masterpiece - in literature and narration!
- By Peter Y C. on 06-13-14
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
-
The Odyssey
- By: Homer, Emily Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed actress Claire Danes burnishes an epic story of heroes, gods, and monsters in a groundbreaking translation of The Odyssey, the first great adventure story in the Western literary tradition. When the wily warrior-king Odysseus sets off for home after the Trojan War, he doesn’t realize this simple undertaking will become a perilous journey of 10 years. Beset at every turn, he encounters obstacles, detours, and temptations—both supernatural and human—while his wife Penelope fends off would-be suitors desperate to take the throne.
-
-
Lisping ragged reading
- By J. Dixon on 12-12-19
By: Homer, and others
-
Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
-
-
Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
-
The Prince
- By: Niccolo Machiavelli
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From his perspective in Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli's aim in this classic work was to resolve conflict with the ruling prince, Lorenzo de Medici. Machiavelli based his insights on the way people really are rather than an ideal of how they should be. This is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, or a president.
-
-
The problem with Machiavelli is that he is right.
- By Michael on 11-17-16
-
The Tao of Pooh
- By: Benjamin Hoff
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Benjamin Hoff shows that the philosophy of Winnie-the-Pooh is amazingly consistent with the principles of Taoism and demonstrates how you can use these principles in your daily life. Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Robert on 01-09-14
By: Benjamin Hoff
-
Of Mice and Men
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
-
-
My First Steinbeck... I've Missed So Much!
- By Jonathan Love on 08-31-16
By: John Steinbeck
-
Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
-
-
Masterpiece - in literature and narration!
- By Peter Y C. on 06-13-14
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
-
The Odyssey
- By: Homer, Emily Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed actress Claire Danes burnishes an epic story of heroes, gods, and monsters in a groundbreaking translation of The Odyssey, the first great adventure story in the Western literary tradition. When the wily warrior-king Odysseus sets off for home after the Trojan War, he doesn’t realize this simple undertaking will become a perilous journey of 10 years. Beset at every turn, he encounters obstacles, detours, and temptations—both supernatural and human—while his wife Penelope fends off would-be suitors desperate to take the throne.
-
-
Lisping ragged reading
- By J. Dixon on 12-12-19
By: Homer, and others
-
Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
-
-
Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
-
The Prince
- By: Niccolo Machiavelli
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From his perspective in Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli's aim in this classic work was to resolve conflict with the ruling prince, Lorenzo de Medici. Machiavelli based his insights on the way people really are rather than an ideal of how they should be. This is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, or a president.
-
-
The problem with Machiavelli is that he is right.
- By Michael on 11-17-16
-
The Tao of Pooh
- By: Benjamin Hoff
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Benjamin Hoff shows that the philosophy of Winnie-the-Pooh is amazingly consistent with the principles of Taoism and demonstrates how you can use these principles in your daily life. Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Robert on 01-09-14
By: Benjamin Hoff
-
Miracle and Wonder
- Conversations with Paul Simon
- By: Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam, Paul Simon
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon is part memoir, part investigation, and unlike any creative portrait you’ve ever heard before. Recorded over a series of 30 hours of conversation between Simon, Gladwell, and Gladwell’s oldest friend and co-writer, journalist and Broken Record podcast co-host Bruce Headlam, the conversation flows from Simon’s music, to his childhood in Queens, NY, to his frequent collaborators including Art Garfunkel and the nature of creativity itself.
-
-
A lifelong companion who will never know my name
- By scsurfer on 11-16-21
By: Malcolm Gladwell, and others
-
Letters from an Astrophysicist
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Vikas Adam, Piper Goodeve, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world’s largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by unveiling his candid correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 100 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto.
-
-
Dear Neil...
- By Tina G. on 10-14-19
-
Greek Mythology
- Fascinating Myths and Legends of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monster from the Ancient Greek Mythology
- By: Simon Lopez
- Narrated by: Neil Hamilton
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you know that the Olympians weren’t the original immortals? Or that the Goddess Hera restored her virginity each year? The ancient Greeks wove one of the richest and best-preserved collections of stories of all the early civilizations, from the dawn of creation to the bloody siege at Troy.
-
-
Fabulous! Highly recommended
- By Elizabeth Arndt on 01-31-20
By: Simon Lopez
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Please God, no more James Franco.
- By Rhiannon on 04-20-18
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Consider This
- Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different
- By: Chuck Palahniuk
- Narrated by: Chuck Palahniuk, Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this spellbinding blend of memoir and insight, best-selling author Chuck Palahniuk shares stories and generous advice on what makes writing powerful and what makes for powerful writing. With advice grounded in years of careful study and a keenly observed life, Palahniuk combines practical advice and concrete examples from beloved classics, his own books, and a "kitchen-table MFA" culled from an evolving circle of beloved authors and artists, with anecdotes, postcards from the road, and much more.
-
-
Poetic Justice
- By Dave Green on 01-20-20
By: Chuck Palahniuk
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
- By: John Koenig
- Narrated by: John Koenig
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A truly original book in every sense of the word, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express - until now. By turns poignant, relatable, and mind-bending, the definitions include whimsical etymologies drawn from languages around the world, interspersed with otherworldly collages and lyrical essays that explore forgotten corners of the human condition - from astrophe, the longing to explore beyond the planet Earth, to zenosyne, the sense that time keeps getting faster.
-
-
Saver in Small Listens
- By Georzetta on 12-18-21
By: John Koenig
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
-
Exquisite - A Journey Into Fitzgerald and Gatsby
- By KB on 11-15-17
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
The Handmaid's Tale
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all-controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred is a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name.
-
-
Ridiculously stupid & gloomy
- By CW in ATX on 02-20-20
By: Margaret Atwood
-
Lolita
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Among the great literary achievements of the 20th century, Lolita soars in audio thanks to the incomparable Jeremy Irons, bringing to life Nabokov’s ability to shock and enthrall more than 50 years after publication. Lolita became a cause celebre because of the erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Nabokov's masterpiece owes its stature not to the controversy its material aroused but to its author's use of that material to tell a love story that is shocking in its beauty and tenderness.
-
-
Surprising good reading
- By Yvette D Skinner on 05-28-09
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
-
-
not to miss audible experience
- By dallas on 12-08-09
-
The Godfather
- By: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola - introduction, Anthony Puzo - note, and others
- Narrated by: Joe Mantegna, Anthony Puzo, Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and loyalty continues to stand the test of time, as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. A #1 New York Times bestseller in 1969, Mario Puzo's epic was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the original classic that has been often imitated, but never matched.
-
-
"Mafia, Character History, and Gross Adult Content"
- By Heather on 02-28-20
By: Mario Puzo, and others
Publisher's Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Classic, 2014
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. There, he has a firsthand view of Gatsby’s lavish West Egg parties - and of his undying love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.
After meeting and losing Daisy during the war, Gatsby has made himself fabulously wealthy. Now, he believes that his only way to true happiness is to find his way back into Daisy’s life, and he uses Nick to try to reach her. What happens when the characters’ fantasies are confronted with reality makes for a startling conclusion to this iconic masterpiece.
This special audio edition joins the recent film - as well as many other movie, radio, theater, and even video-game adaptations - as a fitting tribute to the cultural significance of Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic, widely regarded as one of the greatest stories ever told.
Critic Reviews
"Combining a deeply loved classic like The Great Gatsby with a well-known Hollywood voice like Jake Gyllenhaal’s could create magic or disaster. Could there be competition between the two? Which side would come out stronger? This production strikes a graceful balance, with both big names blending to complement each other. Gyllenhaal’s reserved tone lends polish to Fitzgerald’s text, accentuating the mood of poetry that pervades the novel. His delivery is simultaneously youthful and experienced, aware of the subtleties of the characters and the plot nuances as he infuses them with life. Gyllenhaal controls his performance with style and careful pacing, seemingly keeping as reverent an eye on the novel as Gatsby himself kept on that elusive green light." (AudioFile magazine)
Featured Article: 20 Best Classic Audiobooks to Listen to Again and Again
Classics are known for their timeless quality, their ability to endure through generations and still hold something significant for the modern listener—whether it’s commentary on a long-gone era or an ageless tale of adventure. In this roundup, each story is paired with an exceptional, show-stopping narrator who takes the tale to new heights. While you may have read some of the stories below, you’ve certainly never heard them quite like this.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Great Gatsby
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lauren
- 04-24-13
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darwin8u
- 04-09-13
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe M
- 11-21-19
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- dragonrider2007
- 12-01-14
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jason
- 04-23-13
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Riley Covfefe
- 11-12-19
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- FanB14
- 05-13-13
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen
- 11-13-19
zzzzzzzz
Are you are having a hard time sleeping? Insomnia got ya down? here you go.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Todd
- 05-28-13
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dave
- 09-02-13
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