Our club in Denver keeps saying 'The Great Gatsby' is about love, but that's missing the whole point.

Fitzgerald himself called it a book about America's class system, which our group leader confirmed after reading his letters. Has your club ever argued about what a book is really about?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.jade1d ago

My old book club spent three whole meetings fighting over whether Moby Dick is about obsession or just a really long manual on whaling. We never did agree, and the group fell apart soon after. I still get a little mad when I see a whale. It's funny how people can read the same words and come away with totally different ideas. Your Gatsby example is perfect, because reducing it to a love story ignores all the sharp stuff about money and wanting what you can't have.

kim.stella1d ago

Ever get so deep into a book argument you forget what the story was even about? My group once spent an hour yelling about whether the green light in Gatsby was hope or just a bad harbor light, and I was the one who brought snacks for that mess. @chen.jade, your whale story makes me feel better about my own club's dumb fights. It's wild how we all see different things, but skipping the class stuff in Gatsby is like saying Jaws is about a boat trip.