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So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be And Why It Endures (2014)

by Maureen Corrigan(Favorite Author)

3.83 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316230073 (ISBN13: 9780316230070)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: Sooooo..... not to be a crazy asshole, but I'd be really interested in what other Fitzgerald scholars think about this book because I am unable to shed my lens while reading (which is weird, because when reading trashy books [which I am not saying this is] I shed the "I'm a scholar" lens ALL the time-- because it is both useless and boring in these cases). I am ALL for books that speak about literature for non-specialist audiences. So I SWEAR I'm not being a smug, superior asshole about this book. Actually, I'm really interested in what everyone else thinks about this book- because it has high ratings, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.My issue was not that this is "bad" criticism, or "not academic" enough in any way. My issue here is mainly to do with to... morene--which is that it feels like the author herself is overly-present in the book. I've never loved Corrigan's tone on NPR, come to think of it. In the book, I felt like I was reading a lot more about why *Corrigan* loved Gatsby rather than why Gatsby itself was lovable (or great, or epic, or a classic, or the Great American Novel, etc.). It felt almost more like a Corrigan travel narrative (/ memoir) in which we journey with Corrigan: -through the archives (what luck we got there in time, Maureen--they're boxing up these archives next week!)-across the freeway to the Fitzgerald graves (how wonderful you live so close and spend many lunches here thinking deep thoughts, Muareen!)-rehashing our credentials (oh! Are you a professor at "an elite University" and an NPR book critic, Maureen? I would have never known!")Okay... now I kind of am being an asshole. But my point remains: what makes Gatsby interesting is not Maureen Corrigan's journey finding out what makes it interesting. Also, Corrigan makes some grand epic pronouncements about the novel, which are lovely to read and are so lyrical you can read right over them nodding your head in agreement, until you stop mid-next-sentence and think "wait a tic... what's the rationale for this? What's the evidence? What makes this true?". I find myself sometimes doing this in my non-elite university classrooms, when I'll make some grand pronouncement and think "whew-- good thing students just write this shit down, because if they pressed, it'd be a hard road to hoe." I try NOT to do this, obviously, because 1) it's terrible teaching and 2) it's lazy criticism. I love Gatsby, and Fitzgerald (they collectively represent about 1/2 my dissertation; I re-read the novels for pleasure; I recently saw a ballet of Gatsby and endured what I knew would be terrible singing in it just to see how they interpreted it). And, like everyone, certainly, I love Gatsby and Fitzgerald for my own, complicated reasons. Not because I have some weird fascination with "broken" or sad people (fictional or otherwise), but because there is just SO much to talk about -- so much weird, crazy shit happening in the novel (and Fitzgerald's life) about race, gender, nation, identity-- all issues I like to talk about. And Fitzgerald is entirely a product of his time in interesting and complicated ways (e.g. he is both aware and skeptical of nationalized prejudices and fully participating in them; critical of author hero-worship, yet craving it) and, happily, ways that connect back to our present moments-- and I do think the many contradictions in his life and work make the stories more compelling (though The Beautiful and the Damned is a snooze-fest if you ask me). These questions, inevitably dripping with loss and anxiety, make them excellent fodder for revisiting (in ballet; movie; book discussions; national policy). Consider Tom Buchanan's outburst about race: ---"Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “[...] Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ [...] Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be — will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”---I'm pretty sure I've had this exact Facebook conversation with relatives about Ferguson, "illegal" immigration, and our black president. Or Daisy's heartbreaking proto-feminist moment (yeah, I just called Daisy proto-feminist... let's debate that!):--- "I asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘all right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”-- is the quote every feminist knows to be horrifyingly, dishearteningly true when being trolled by anti-feminists on the internet--which is, seemingly, the entirety of the internet. (except, of course, it's not true: WE RAGE ON, FEMINISTS! I believe that we will win!)And this isn't even to mention, of course, themes of loss, regret, love, sacrifice, moral compromise-- I mean, this is the shit we live whether or not we wear flapper gear, so yeah: I'd argue it's a crazy relevant novel worth reading, talking about, thinking about... But I also love Gatsby because of the prose themselves. The writing can be lyrical and beautiful-- heavily symbolic but never impossible; accessible to multiple levels of readers but offering new insights with further reads -- this is why you had to read it in high school, btw: it's accessible. And it's why the novel is in many dissertations, articles, critical books: there is a LOT to say about it. And the symbolism can, at times, feel a bit heavy-handed (reaching toward the green light anyone?), but then will retreat back to a character with real emotions and whose interior monologue is often at odds with a more poetic version of itself. If you don't think that's wonderful and interesting, than you won't like Gatsby, that's for sure. But it's why I ENJOY Gatsby-- even in its (many) racist or sexist moments, it's beautiful written, complicated and flawed in its claims, but so earnest in its poetic pursuit. All this to say, in a book about why we read Gatsby, I thought there'd be more talk about, well, what the reasons are we read Gatsby. This would not have to be just a conversation about style and prose (which is, admittedly, very difficult to do without getting boring/technical/or both), but more on national narratives that made this book popular-- she hints at this when she mentions that she suspects the cultural moment of the cold war and the need to be "more American" may be at work in the Gatsby revival-- which is BEYOND interesting... but that's the end of that thought: back to how Maureen used acid-free gloves to be in the archive. Sigh. Also, and I need to say this, she takes a jab at Zelda devotees that was petty and unnecessary. I'm not a Zelda scholar or defender, but comparing them to "Rush Limbaugh [arguing about] Obamacare" is cheap-- and frankly, unprofessional and bitchy (obviously you have to agree with me, the dyed-in-the-wool democrat, that Limbaugh is the devil for this to be offensive in any way).All this to say: a serious let-down. Bummer.
review 2: You'll probably enjoy this book most if you're already a fan of The Great Gatsby. But even if you're not, I think you can appreciate the unique way Corrigan tracks the development of the novel, its connections to its era and to its author's personal life, its initially disappointing reception and eventual renaissance, and all the absolutely crazy ways (a regular seven-hour read-aloud! a computer game set in the Gatsby mansion and the Valley of Ashes!) it has permeated American culture. less

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