Nick Carraway, PI
Was ‘The Great Gatsby’ the forerunner to the hardboiled crime story? (Caution: Many spoilers)
In my younger years, my father gave me some advice — wait, that wasn’t me.
Let’s try again: In my younger years, I read The Great Gatsby twice. Once in high school, again in college, sprinting through its nine economically-written chapters so I could write the obligatory paper on “Car Culture and the American Dream in Gatsby.” Much like Daisy Buchanan, I didn’t slow down to pay attention to the details, because I wanted to get back to what I really loved in those days — reading hardboiled crime novels. Which is funny, because had I paid attention, I would have seen that Gatsby is, in all but structure, a hardboiled novel. Don’t believe me? Let’s go back to West Egg; I’ll fix you a julep and tell you what I mean.
A few caveats. First, this essay is going to contain spoilers. But then, you probably wouldn’t be reading this essay if you hadn’t first read the book. Second, at times I’m going to get distracted and write about Gatsby just as a novel, not as a hardboiled crime novel — there’s just so much fascinating stuff to unpack here. I’ll hope, at least, that these digressions are as absorbing as the main point.
