The Great Gatsby is a famous novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in the year 1925, the book didn't get instant recognition. Over a period of 15 years, about only 25,000 prints were sold. But when the book was republished in 1945, the book got wider appreciation and the book got wider readership.
We get to read the novel from Nick's point of view and the incidents depicted in the novel are Nick's recollection of things happened during his stay in the West Egg.
Nick is a young man from Minnesota who happens to move to New York for some work. He has a biased opinion about rich and he always wanted to be rich. In the West Egg, he stays in a rich area. The West Egg is situated just opposite the sea and to the other side, East Egg is situated. In the East Egg, Nick has some friends and relatives, including his cousin Daisy with her husband Tom. Jay Gatsby i the protagonist of the novel who resides in Nick's neighborhood. Though Nick have never seen this person for sometime, he gets intrigued by Gatsby's way of living.Gatsby throws open parties every weekend and this is the reason for Nicks interest in him.
One day when Nick goes to Daisy's house, he sees that the relation between Daisy and Tom is strained. He meets a lady Jordan there and develops an attraction for her. Jordan tells Nick that Tom has a mistress. Soon Nick comes to know about the lady named Myrtle from Tom. At one time, Nick gets excited when he gets an invitation for a party at Gatsby's residence. Nick sees Jordan there and they accidentally bump into Gatsby and are very surprised to see that Gatsby is a young and friendly person.
Slowly we get to know that a friendship starts between Nick and Gatsby. Nick gets to know from Jordan that Gatsby loves Daisy and he throws these parties and lives lavishly to impress her. Gatsby get to know that Nick is Daisy's cousin and asks Jordan to arrange a meeting between Daisy and him. Nick obliges and the meeting goes smooth, despite initial awkwardness. Soon an affair starts between Gatsby and Daisy and between Nick and Jordan.
Meanwhile Tom gets suspicious about Daisy's friendship with Gatsby and confronts them. At the same time Myrtle's husband, George gets a suspicion over his wife. One day an accident happens and Myrtle dies in that accident. Gatsby is shown as the person who did the accident. But we get to know at a later time that it was Daisy who did the accident. When George gets to know that Gatsby killed Myrtle, he thinks that Gatsby is Myrtle's lover and kills him.
We read all these incidents in Nick's recollections. Nick gets disgusted of the people in the 'rich' category and goes out of the place. We can consider the whole book as a part of Nick's autobiography.
Sam Waterston was portrayed Nick very well.