There are some definite flaws in this novel, but I can't help but love it as I read it one hundred years after it's publication, in the same city its characters traverse. I pass by the Plaza every day on the way to work, the same Plaza that Gloria is living when she meets Anthony. I recognize those trains that pass Pelham Bay as the equivalent of today's Metro-North. I understand, reading in the heat of a New York summer, why people didn't stay in New York for the summers back then (before air conditioning!).

Fitzgerald's prose again shines here, though his story devolves quite swiftly--it starts strong, but ends weak. The last third of the book is quite puzzling. Where I understood the characters motives before, they seemed to veer as the ending drew near.

I would still recommend this book to anyone who is interested in or loves New York City, enjoys portraits of marriage, or would (as I kind of did) analyze the book psychologically/sociologically in today's context. There was many similarities in the world then, and today...