Book Reviews

The Great Gatsby- Report

For decades The Great Gatsby has been a well known 'must read' novel. The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is known to be the greatest novel written by this author. This novel offers an insight view of America in the 1920's. I chose to read this novel because it is known to be a 'must read' classic and because it is on the Leaving Certificate English course. 
     The genres of The Great Gatsby are fiction, drama and 1920's America, it is set in the fictional town of West Egg. It was written by one of the greatest American authors of the 20th Century in 1925. Fitzgeralds work has been adapted into films many times, The Great Gatsby directed in 2013 by Baz Luhrmann was a huge success staring Leonardo DiCaprio. 
     The Great Gatsby events were described through the eyes of its narrator Nick Carraway who moves into a small house in West Egg next door to a mansion owned by mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. This novel deals with the unconditional love of Gatsby. As the story progresses we discover that Gatsby is in fact searching for his old love who he lost after going to war. Every week Gatsby throws a big house party where all are welcome in the attempt to find his true love Daisy, during each party he desperately waits for her to walk through the door, but she never comes. Gatsby asks Nick (who he discovers is Daisy's cousin) to help him meet her once more.
     Although I have not yet finished the whole novel, I have found the character of Nick who is the first- person narrator to be very interesting. He is a honest character 'I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known', which is a great quality for him to have because most of the characters in this novel are dishonest, for example the character of Jordan Baker is 'incurably dishonest'. I find his character to be intriguing because he happily helps Daisy and Gatsby and puts his best foot forward in order to help those who need it. Therefore I believe Nick is a very pleasant and trustworthy character.
     I enjoyed F. Scott Fitzgeralds style of writing. I liked that the story was told using a narrator, I also enjoyed his use of dialogue and his descriptive writing. Due to Fitzgeralds use of imagery language he allows you to explore the lives of the characters living in America during the 1920's. From his style of writing I have realized that friendship and love were based on class and social status. Women would marry men who have money in order to support them, people did not marry for love. Because couples didn't marry out of love, most of them were very unhappy, for example, Daisy was unhappily married to Tom who she married because of his wealth. It is clear that many people only went to Gatsby's parties because it was 'the place to be', Gatsby was rich and had a mansion. Most of the guests weren't even invited by Gatsby himself and didn't know who he was, they were just invited by other friends who heard about the parties from someone else.
     I am definitely enjoying 'The Great Gatsby' so far, and I am anticipating reading the rest of the novel. I would recommend this novel to others, it is well worth your time. Especially to those who are interested in reading about relationships and American history. I have also heard great things about the film and I am looking forward to watching it after I have finished the book :)




How Many Miles To Babylon- Review

The novel I chose to read was 'How Many Miles To Babylon' by an Irish author Jennifer Johnston. I decided to read this novel because my friend read it and recommended it, it is also on the Leaving Certificate course so I thought it was a good idea to read it. How many miles to Babylon was written in 1974 and is one of Johnston's most celebrated novels. It has been adapted for television  in 1982 and into a stage production in 2005 and 2006.
     This novel was written in the genre of fiction and social realism, which basically means that it does not exceed the limits of reality.This novel is a story about the lives of two boys, Alexander Moore and Jerry Crowe in Ireland prior to and during World War 1. Alec is the only child of a wealthy Anglo Irish couple whereas Jerry is part of the Catholic underclass, two very different cultures. Their personal qualities reflect these backgrounds as do the prejudices that divide them at home and at war.
     The story was described through the eyes of the narrator Alexander Moore, it recounts the events of his life that have led to his present circumstances. As a child Alec, the only son of a bitter marriage, formed a close friendship with a village boy named Jerry Crowe who shared his passion for horses. However Alec's mother Alicia has a very strong dislike for Jerry. Jerry's social status means that for Alicia he is not a suitable friend for Alec. Having found out about Alec's and Jerry's friendship, Alicia forbids Alec to see Jerry anymore and takes him on a holiday to Europe in the hope that separating them for a period of time would make them forget about eachother and fall out of friendship, however this did not work and when Alec returned from Europe their friendship continued. Alicia's final attempt to keep Alec and Jerry apart was to send Alec off to war, this would mean that Alec would become an officer because of his social status and mix with men from his own social background. While she doesn't know that Jerry also plans to go to war to earn some money for his family, it is irrelevant to her as Jerry's social class are separated from Alec's. Alec and Jerry both find themselves under the command of the cold and heartless Major Glendinning. The Major treated their close friendship with confusion and suspicion and when Jerry runs away for a few days to search for his wounded father, Glendinning sentences him to death, making Alec take command of the firing squad that will carry out Jerry's execution. Due to their close friendship Alec was unable to follow such a command, he visits Jerry in his cell and shoots him with his own pistol. The last paragraph of the novel describes Alec himself waiting for the firing squad after being sentenced to death. 
     The character I found to be most interesting was Jerry Crowe. Jerry is part of the Catholic underclass, a very different culture to his best friend Alexander. Even though the village people and the majors judged and looked down at them for being friends, Jerry ignored them because he didnt care what people thought of them. Their backgrounds were very different, Alec was home-schooled while Jerry's background was in an ordinary school, which he left at a very young age to work. I really admired Jerry near the end of the book. After receiving a letter from his Mam saying that his Father had gone missing Jerry risks his life to go look for him, this showed great courage. After finding his critically injured father, Jerry returns to the war. He decides to face the consequences of running away from war like a man and gets turned in. He was sentenced to death, however Jerry's death showed how much he loved his family and that really impressed me!
     How Many Miles To Babylon is set in the early 20th century during World War 1. I found this book extremely interesting because it was set in Ireland, but life for Irish people back then was extremely difficult and different to my life today. It was really interesting to see the separation between social classes. I also found this book extremely easy to read because the author really allows you to get dragged into the world of the book and it becomes nearly impossible to put the book down, you just want to keep reading! I enjoyed the style of writing, it was easy to understand and was a nice change from other novels on the English syllabus that are all written in the old fashioned English language. 
     I really enjoyed reading 'How Many Miles To Babylon' by Jennifer Johnston and I would definitely recommend it. The story captures your attention from cover to cover, and I am really looking forward to reading another novel by this author!

Ciara :)



Pride and Prejudice Review


The novel I have chose to read was Pride and Prejudice, one of the best and well known novels written by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 and celebrated its 200th Anniversary last year. This classic is on the Leaving Certificate course for 2016 so I decided it would be a good idea to take the time out to read it. Pride and Prejudice has been adapted into films and into a television series. 
          This novel centres around the Bennett Family. Mr and Mrs Bennett have five daughters Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Mary and Kitty. They do not have any sons, therefore the family home and the land from which their income is made are entailed to a male heir. This means that on the death of Mr Bennett, the land will be passed on to their cousin Mr Collins, leaving the girls and their mother poor and homeless. Pride and Prejudice follows the girls on a hunt for a husband, to the Bennett girls it is essential to find a husband of comfortable means as soon as possible.
          Marriage is a theme that is explored at length in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. This is established straight away from the opening sentence "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife". Jane Austen immediately links marriage to money. In the world of Pride and Prejudice, marriage is a woman's career. A woman must find a husband for comfort, convenience and money. Marriage was not born out of love in the nineteenth century. I learned from reading this novel that marriage should be born out of love. You come across eight different marriages in Pride and Prejudice and I have discovered that the delightful marriages of Jane and Mr Bingley and Elizabeth and Mr Darcy show the result of long periods of love. The other marriages are unhappy and loveless as a result of a lack of courtship or marrying for the wrong reasons.
          I admire Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. Her role is to deliver Jane Austen's view on marriage, know-one should marry for convenience, you should only marry for love. Elizabeth follows her heart and doesn't get pulled in by the ways of society or family who marry for wealth and status. I have learned from Elizabeth's relationship with Darcy that love does not come about over night, it comes about so gradually that you hardly even notice it. Another reason why I admire Elizabeth is because at the beginning of the novel she only believed in first impressions and always believed that she was right. It is clear that Elizabeth matured during the course of the novel because by the end she was able to admit that she had been wrong about Mr Darcy, she had been "blind, partial, prejudiced and absurd", her initial impression of him was wrong.
          I enjoyed reading this novel because it is still relevant to our lives today, marriage is a usual event in young peoples lives and you can learn a lot from this novel. Pride and Prejudice has taught me not to give into the ways of society. Copying other people is not the right road to take, you must stay true to who you are and do what you think is best for yourself.
          I really enjoyed reading 'Pride and Prejudice' and I would definitely recommend it. It is a timeless classic full of romance and suspense that captures your attention from cover to cover!