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Comment by klodolph | Hacker News Reader

It can be hard to appreciate The Great Gatsby if, like many Americans, you were forced to read it in high school. The book is stained with your own memories of high school.

Even if you like reading, the experience of being forced to read some particular book can make it feel like the book itself has wronged you.

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I love reading. I didn't read it until my early 30s, other than the last lines, there's nothing memorable at all about it, and honestly they're so out of character of the rest of the book, they feel like they were taken from something else. I kept waiting for it to get good. I'm still waiting.

De gustibus etc, but when you describe it like that I almost feel like you’re reading a different book. I can go to my bookshelf, pick up my copy of Gatsby, and almost any page I flip to I’m bound to find at least one striking sentence, vivid image, moment of sublime beauty.

That's just how taste works. I read Gatsby multiple times and found it a classic example of something that's popular but not universal. It was overall just bland and forgettable, because I just don't care for that kind of literature or story.

Yes! I read it and other classics when I was ~20. Maybe it was my age/where I was in my life at the moment, or that I didnt "read into it correctly", but it was one of the most boring things I've ever read. Nothing ever happened. I'm on of those the article mentions that would call it "a dud".

At the same period of time I also read Catcher in the Rye and loved it. Not sure if I would feel the same about it today. And maybe Gatsby would have grown on me now. But I'm not gonna try again, so much other good stuff to read.

To each their own. I wouldn’t tell you you’re wrong - there are so many books (and films for that matter) over the years that people adored and just didn’t resonate with me at all.

Art is subjective, and in the same vein that the parent is saying your perception can be stained by your own negative memories of the time, I’d say it would also depend on how much of your own life you can relate to the story. I liked Gatsby, not as much as others, but I enjoyed the read.

As an anecdote - one of my favourite films is Contact. I can watch it and know it’s far from being objectively the greatest film ever made. It’s clearly not Oscar-worthy. Even so, the subject matter is something I’m so fascinated by that I watch that film at least once a year and I’m still enthralled by it.

The book can’t possibly live up to its reputation. I still think it’s a good book.

To each his own, but I’ll add that my experiences are much like grandparent post’s. I “read” it in high school (I.e. usually just read cliffnotes on the internet) and it was just another boring book. I read it again in my mid 20s and it hit me like nothing else, particularly the last chapter. I still remember smiling at the beauty and eloquence of that end, it resonated especially to me for its description of a person’s aspirations and authenticity in the dimension of our human relationships and our professional goals, as that was something I was myself struggling with at that time.

I recommend giving it a read. And if you can’t, I guess watch the movie: https://youtu.be/rARN6agiW7o of course the movie gets a lot of it wrong, with its choice of music and all, but at least it’s got interesting Baz Luhrmann choreography.

As someone else who read it for the first time as an adult, it’s a perfectly fine book. But it certainly doesn’t deserve the iconic status it seems to have in the US.

From what I remember when I read it, the book (intentionally?) felt kind of 'jazzy'. No matter how hard I try, I can't really like jazz beyond the 'smooth jazz' muzak I might occasionally have on in the background.

A friend of mine studied jazz and is a great musician, and so I've come to appreciate it a bit more, but only conceptually. I still can't listen to it, for some reason.

I had the same experience with it, around the same age.

I also read "On the road" far too late in life, and it just didn't work for me.

I couldn't stand "on the road". Not sure when "too late" would be but I read it in my mind twenties. For a good amount of it, I gave it the benefit of the doubt telling myself it's simply from another time, but I quit half way through, unmoved, unchanged, and completely disinterested.

I agree, in the Netherlands we were forced to read about 20 Dutch and 10 English books in "high school" (around age 16-17). I was an avid reader. I lost it for quite some years after that.

I did learn some things and some books were memorable but I think I actually enjoyed about 2-3 books of that time.

Same for me. Re-reading some of the books as an adult made me appreciate them more though.

The one exception was The Chosen. That book was just awesome.

I had to read it in high school and, while I didn't really feel forced, I can't say I liked it very much.

It's clearly well written, but I just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about any single character throughout.

> but I just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about any single character throughout

That's okay—neither could they.

My high school had it as required reading (over summer vacation). I was never a big reader to begin with so this book along with others (Jude the Obscure, A Separate Peace) have always been in a bad light for me in my mind (I guess having a book that I would tested and grilled over first thing in the school year does that). However, as an adult I found reading books such as IT, Silence of the Lambs and The Grapes of Wrath really entertaining. When I have some time I think I'll give this classic another try.

My high school assigned it. Thinking back now, I'm sure this was a mistake: most of the themes Gatsby deals with are way ahead of high-schoolers and just won't resonate with anyone under thirty.

I loved reading, but hated every book I had to read in high school. Just couldn't relate to them. Only later did I realize most of them were pretty good and meaningful.

I honestly think it's a terrible book that happened to retain its popularity because it got shoved in as a classic that you need to read.

There are works that I genuinely enjoy, like Anthem by Ayn Rand, even though it's moralistic propaganda.

I supposed I could reread the work again to see how I feel about it, but there are million of other works I could read.

You can’t really think it’s a terrible book, can you? I could understand thinking it’s merely good, but thinking that thousands upon thousands of literary types who absolutely treasure this work are simply wrong about its quality seems ridiculous.

Just because lot of people like or treasured the work doesn't mean I have a duty to share the same opinion as everyone else.

It's not a duty, but I'd certainly be nagged by the thought that I'd 'missed something'.

Novel writing isn't a completely subjective endeavour.

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