So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be & Why it Endures by Maureen Corrigan (2014)

An appreciation and defense of The Great Gatsby by the book critic of NPR's "Fresh Air."

Book Review: So We Read On is one of the most valuable books ever written. Really. This book has the voodoo to enrich, maybe even save, countless lives. Do I exaggerate? Maybe. A little. If you love The Great Gatsby, or, like me, both love it and believe it's the Great American Novel (but first I must digress, why the GAN? Is there a Great Scottish, Spanish, or German novel?), you must have cringed many, many times as people told you how much they hated it when they read it in high school. Perhaps you mounted a defense, futilely argued, and ended up getting nowhere and convincing no one. Then So We Read On is for you, as this is the ammunition you needed in your feeble clash of minds. Maureen Corrigan makes the point that since Gatsby is so short, it is routinely assigned in school, when we are too young, know too little about America, or simply resent it as a book assigned to interfere with our teen-aged lives. So it is less appreciated than it should be -- read as an adult it is brilliant and irresistible. In her advocacy for Gatsby as the GAN (a small part of the book, but quite welcome as a comrade-in-arms), Corrigan claims it addresses who we want to be as Americans, reaching for the green light. That it not only says something big about America, but is also beautifully written. Her energy, enthusiasm, and love for Gatsby is infectious. She examines all of the book's elements to the smallest of details: social class, water imagery, New York City, cars, the intricate patterns, and much more. This is also a book for writers. Corrigan writes of the writing and publishing of the book, the classic cover, film adaptations, noir, the Fitzgeralds' lives -- it's all here. One point she makes is this is Fitzgerald's one completely successful novel. I agree again! We think his greatest strength was the short story, not the novel, and 50,000 words was the longest he could stretch the short story and still make it work, which was Gatsby. If you hate The Great Gatsby, are over 30 (mentally or chronologically), and have a shred of decency left in you, race to your local library and confront So We Read On, and then re-read The Great Gatsby. This is a challenge you shouldn't refuse. For all Gatsby fans and writers-to-be, an invaluable, informative, and enjoyable read. [5★]