Read the excerpt from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby . The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together in a commuting town, it sounded like a great idea. He found the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month . Nick’s recent arrival at West Egg and his intention to stay for only a short time underscore the fact that