The protagonist takes you through the highs and lows of 20th Century high society. The protagonist, introduced to polite society by an acquaintance (Gatsby), shows you the landmarks and windfalls along the road to dinner parties, and points out the many trappings of culture and conscience that befit a beautiful young fool surfing the upper crust of industrial-age America.
Much of this book draws from the writer’s own life, as he watched his own wife suffer from many of the same symptoms of society as his book’s characters; obsession with the trappings and trimmings of the social elite; greed and spite; treachery and manipulation; alcoholism and insanity. This genuine point of view is distilled by careful selection in a tour de force of the ballroom lifestyle.
The author’s style relies heavily upon narrative, and his descriptions are potent. He mingles Western cultural artifacts (billboards, warehouse districts) and signs of life in America’s dustbowl (parked cars) to spot the low and high income parts of metropolitan culture like the warm and cold spots in the river. All in all, this is a book which draws its power from subjective interpretation of the narrative; very little is decided for the reader, who feels much like a back-seat passenger in Gatsby’s car, listening in and seeing the sights.