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    So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
    Unavailable
    So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
    Unavailable
    So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
    Audiobook10 hours

    So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

    Published by Hachette Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The "Fresh Air" book critic investigates the enduring power of The Great Gatsby -- "The Great American Novel we all think we've read, but really haven't."

    Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.

    Offering a fresh perspective on what makes Gatsby great-and utterly unusual-So We Read On takes us into archives, high school classrooms, and even out onto the Long Island Sound to explore the novel's hidden depths, a journey whose revelations include Gatsby's surprising debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its rocky path to recognition as a "classic," and its profound commentaries on the national themes of race, class, and gender.

    With rigor, wit, and infectious enthusiasm, Corrigan inspires us to re-experience the greatness of Gatsby and cuts to the heart of why we are, as a culture, "borne back ceaselessly" into its thrall. Along the way, she spins a new and fascinating story of her own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateSep 9, 2014
    ISBN9781619696068
    Unavailable
    So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

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    Reviews for So We Read On

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    • 5/5
      So We Read On is not strictly a bio of Scott Fitzgerald and/or the time he spent writing The Great Gatsby. Author Corrigan (a big fan of The Great Gatsby) focuses on the history and meaning (also covering symbolism in this book) of this novel. Also discussed is Fitzgerald's relationship with others, including Hemingway: "There are many reasons why Fitzgerald struggled for nine years to write a novel after Gatsby, but the seed of self-doubt that Hemingway watered certainly may have contributed to the blight." In addition to Corrigan's thoughtful discussions on Gatsby and Fitzgerald, interesting tidbits are also included. For instance, until reading this book, I didn't know that there were naked ladies swimming the eyes on the iconic cover designed by Francis Cugat, older brother of band-leader Xavier. Not only that, Francis Cugat received a flat fee of $100, without any royalties, and never did a book cover again. Corrigan suspects it was because it was too much work for too much money. Next time I read The Great Gatsby, I will probably have this book by my side.
    • 4/5
      I came late to Gatsby. I don't remember any mention of Fitzgerald when I was in high school, and freshman college english in the late 1950s. But by the 2002 American Lit class I took after retiring it was a major text we read in detail, though without a lot of context. Thus I read Maureen Corrigan's So We Read On mainly to answer the second question in her subtitle, "why it endures." Now I'm reading The Great Gatsby for my second time and seeing all it's lyrical language, and noticing its symmetrical structure. Can't say I like its characters any more than the first time, but I can appreciate what the novel is doing. Sometimes, learning about an artwork it is as revealing as experiencing it. Corrigan does a great service for those of us who have wondered what is the big deal about this novel.
    • 3/5
      "The Great Gatsby" is regarded as one of the great fictional insights into American culture. This book may offer additional insight into "Gatsby's" creation and significance.
    • 5/5
      This book is about a love affair, but not one between two people. Rather, it's a love affair between a reader/book reviewer/English professor and one of the acknowledged classics of 20th Century American Literature.Corrigan tells the story behind the book's composition, tracing its roots in Scott Fitzgerald's own troubled life and the period that he and Zelda (who, by that point, had been institutionalized) lived in and came to epitomize.She also traces the novel's trajectory in the pantheon of America literature. Originally published in 1925 to little critical acclaim, it wasn't until a generation after Fitzgerald's death in 1940 that it became a mainstay of the literature of the first half of the 20th Century..
    • 3/5
      I've always admired The Great Gatsby and I really like Maureen Corrigan's book reviews on "Fresh Air", so I grabbed this book the minute I saw it on the new release shelves at the library. Ms. Corrigan loves both the book and FItzgerald and in her book takes us on both a tour of his life and also down a deconstructed tour of the novel. I'm not a literary critic, but I think she excused Fitzgerald way too much in his personal behavior, especially his well-known habit of stealing fiction from his wife. However, I did find her assertion that Gatsby is really a noir novel interesting, and the book's rebirth from the dead pile of remaindered volumes was fascinating. If you are interested in the whole literary canon from the 1920's and 1930's, this is an interesting read.
    • 5/5
      I have been totally immersed in the enthusiasm and the symbolism of all things Fitzgerald and Gatsby. Not sure I would have appreciated this as much years ago but I sure did now. So many things, new ways of looking at old things, and just a wonderful foray into the past. I have been remiss. or did I never know how prolific a writer he was in his short years. Have since bought a book of his short stories, he wrote over 200. His relationships, where he wrote, his reverence of other authors, his love for Cather and his favorite Dickens story. "Bleak House and his favorite Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Never knew he was such a big reader. Where he wrote, the houses he and Zelda rented, their relationship and their child, Scotty. So much is contained in this book, a wonderful book to have and to read alongside some of his novels or stories. I have a greater understanding, not only into the Great Gatsby itself, but into the time period, his writing process and his character. This is a book I want to own, so even though this is an ARC from the publsherI am going to go out a buy myself a copy. I enjoyed this very much and can see much re-reading in my future.