Great by Sara Benincasa

Great by Sara Benincasa
Series: N/A
Source: Bought
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: April 8, 2014

In Sara Benincasa's contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, a teenage girl becomes entangled in the drama of a Hamptons social circle, only to be implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community.

Everyone loves a good scandal.

Naomi Rye usually dreads spending the summer with her socialite mother in East Hampton. This year is no different. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the teenagers who have been summering (a verb only the very rich use) together for years. But Naomi finds herself captivated by her mysterious next-door neighbor, Jacinta. Jacinta has her own reason for drawing close to Naomi-to meet the beautiful and untouchable Delilah Fairweather. But Jacinta's carefully constructed world is hiding something huge, a secret that could undo everything. And Naomi must decide how far she is willing to be pulled into this web of lies and deception before she is unable to escape.

Based on a beloved classic and steeped in Sara Benincasa's darkly comic voice, Great has all the drama, glitz, and romance with a terrific modern (and scandalous) twist to enthrall readers.

The reason that I rated Sara Benincasa's Great three stars isn't because I didn't like it - in fact, it's just the opposite. But I ran into the same problems in this one that I did in the original one. Sometimes, the drama of this one (and the original) was just too hard to keep up with. It's not that they're bad reads, not at all... but sometimes they're just a bit too complicated for my taste.

I really loved the writing style of Great. It has the same elegant, descriptive narrative of the first one, but it was much easier to understand this time around. It was interesting to see the parallels of the story, but it was also interesting to see the differences. For instance, Nick was genderbent into Naomi, which honestly makes more sense. And then we have Jacinta, the female counterpart of Jay, who was just as over the top and weird as the original. And then, of course, we have Delilah... and I'm sure you can all guess exactly where that goes. It was really an interesting update, to say the least.

Naomi did a good Nick, and I feel like we got to know her better than we got to know Nick in the original. Her voice was a lot less disconnected. She was very even keel, and she wasn't annoying or anything - which Jacinta could be. It was nice that she balanced out.

As for Jacinta, I really don't know exactly what to say about her character. It was obvious that she was Jay, but her personality was a bit different, and truly a lot more twisty. Not to mention the fact that she's obviously a girl, but... her and Delilah end up being in a relationship, and it was a bit confusing.

Great mostly follows the original plotline of The Great Gatsby, but there are a few new twists here and there. All in all, I'd say that it was an interesting enough read; and I'd definitely recommend it if you enjoy the original story.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Series: N/A
Source: Gifted
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: September 30, 1999

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.


It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.

Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. I know that The Great Gatsby is a big literary classic, and that it defined a generation and all, but I just can't love it. I liked it, and that was that. Because, to be honest with you - the writing just didn't hit me right. There are a few amazing lines, but when you put them all together they just sort of become confusing, and I didn't care for that.

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful sort of confusing - full of words and poetry... but still confusing. I can't get past that - several times in the book, I even wondered who Nick was talking about. To be honest, for about the first half of the book, I couldn't figure out who was narrating. It just never stood out to me, and I never really did connect with Nick as a character.

I'm going to come right out and say that I didn't read the synopsis of this at all - I read it solely on recommendation, so I didn't know that Gatsby and Daisy had a history. And let me tell you, that was one of the most romantic shocks ever. I loved that, and I wanted to see more on that front.

I loved the backstory on Gatsby - it was quite the crazy amount of coincidences, and I'm not sure how much of it was true - or how much of it was a lie. I'd like to think that all of it was true, but the personality of Gatsby doesn't necessarily allow for that. In the end, I'm not sure where this book really even took me. I liked it, of course - but I was easily confused by the language of that time, and don't even get me started on the movie. Once I read the book, the movie kind of just died.

All in all, The Great Gatsby is a good read, but it's slightly confusing and actually pretty sad. Gatsby built everything that he was, and in the end it didn't even matter.

Scene it Sunday #9 - The Great Gatsby Movie Review

The Great Gatsby
Source: Gifted
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Leads: Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan

An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Long Island-set novel, where Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby's nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

I have no desire to tell you that I liked this movie, because as made obvious by my star rating, I didn't. Let me just start off by saying that I had just read the book when I watched this, so everything in the book was still pretty fresh in my mind. I noticed everything that they changed. And I hated it all the more for that.

I wanted to like this, I really did. I enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor (I mean, very few people don't), but he just didn't shine in The Great Gatsby. He failed at playing the part of Gatsby - and it's not really his acting skills that are the problem - the problem is that I won't be happy with anyone as Gatsby. And yes, it is kind of his acting. He's just not "suave" or even "debonair". If he was, he could have pulled this off.

And don't even get me started on the way that Nick was portrayed - I always thought of Nick as kind of a casual observer, watching life but not really taking part in it. For the movie, they made him take part in some - but he was played with such... GAH. They made him into a momma's boy, and I didn't like that. Not to mention the part that they through him into a mental institution... the boy's perfectly sane.

My mother and father, while listening to my ranting about this movie commented that actors from this time "don't know how to play characters from that time period. They aren't suave, and there's nothing about them that seems gentlemanly". I think that they're right, and it was probably one of my biggest issues.

On the other hand, I thought that Carey Mulligan did wonderfully as Daisy Buchanan. She is quite the destroyer, and she doesn't even realize that she's doing it. Carey played Daisy with the perfect disregard for other's emotions - the perfect feel for the character. Her acting was well done.

I don't wish to alarm anyone, but don't expect period music with this movie. I was expecting great music (from the '20's, of course) to play in this movie, but the soundtrack appears to be completely made up of top 40 type music - meaning that it's the new stuff. Rap and pop dominated, and I did watch the special features - it appears that they wanted to make this generation understand the time better.

That backfired, because I'm of this generation and it threw me out of this movie. Top 40 hits should not be played in a classic book to movie, in my humble opinion. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this movie for fans of the book, or even those like me who just "liked" the book. It's not particularly worth the time.

Scene it Sunday #8: Nick is in an Asylum

The Great Gatsby
Source: Gifted
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Leads: Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan

A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

Nick is in an Asylum, Book Scene -

Nick lives in Chicago. The asylum thing was made up completely for the movie.

Nick is in an Asylum, Movie Scene -

The movie starts out with a panning view of the outside of an asylum. It zooms into show us Nick's shrink and his file - which was never in the book at all.

I really think that this idea sucks. I mean, making Nick have a disorder of the mind just... makes the entire story kind of meaningless, because there's not a reason that you should be trusting him at all. I don't like it, 'twas a poor choice. Especially because Nick... wasn't insane. Not even a bit. Caught up, yes. But not a speck insane.

Scene it Sunday #7: "In my younger and more vulnerable years..."

The Great Gatsby
Source: Gifted
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Leads: Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan

A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years...", Book Scene -

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me," just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

"In my younger and more vulnerable years...", Movie Scene -

*Nick is speaking as a green light flashes in the distance. We haven't seen him yet.*

"In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice. Always try to see the best in people, he would say. As a consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgements. But even I have a limit."

I must admit, that similar things are said... but by changing the overall passage, I feel like they changed the tone as well. The original version just has a much better and deeper ring, and I wish that they had kept it. Of course, this is just another small thing... that I noticed immediately, and it's driving me crazy!

Scene it Sunday #6: Dan Cody & His Millions

The Great Gatsby
Source: Gifted
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Leads: Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan

A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

Dan Cody & His Millions, Book Scene -

And it was from Cody that he inherited the money -  a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars. He didn't get it. He never understood the legal device that was used against him but what remained of the millions went intact to Ella Kaye. He left with his singularly appropriate education; the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man.

(Ella Kaye was Dan Cody's mistress.)

Dan Cody & His Millions, Movie Scene -

In the movie, it's said that Dan Cody's family took the money - when in reality, Dan Cody had no family, except for Gatsby. (Who wasn't related by blood, just by... I don't know. You know what I mean!)

I don't exactly have very many things to say about this change - it's really a small thing, but the original way just went better with the themes, and it just... it was deeper. Kind of like a betrayal or something. It was a lot more intriguing.