The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is the quintessential novel of the Roaring Twenties.  It is a story about the promise of wealth and privilege turning to ashes, about the American Dream gone awry.

James Gatz is a penniless Midwestern youth who comes back from the Great War determined to become somebody important.  His dream is fueled by his devotion to Daisy, a breezy socialite who is secure in her inherited wealth, whose enchanting voice is “full of money.”  Through various shady business deals in New York City, he succeeds in transforming himself into Jay Gatsby, who buys a lavish mansion across Long Island Sound from the equally imposing mansion of Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan.

Another penniless young man from the Midwest, Nick Carraway, lives in a small bungalow next door to Gatsby’s estate.  Nick commutes into New York each day to work his somewhat aimless job in the “bonds business” and to gaze wistfully at the lives of the rich and famous.  He is a distant cousin of Daisy, who likes to invite him over for tea so she can have a handsome young man to flirt with in front of her husband (who is rumored to “have a woman” in the city) and so she can confide in him all her romantic sorrows.

When Gatsby discovers Nick’s connection with Daisy, he seizes this chance to display to her all the splendor of his new identity and lure her away from Tom.  With Nick as a go-between, he arranges to meet Daisy and to rekindle the love they shared before the attractively wealthy Tom came on the scene.

These bare details make the characters sound coldly calculating, but what makes this novel so compelling is all the romantic illusions they have about themselves and each other.  At times Nick, who is the narrator, is completely charmed and taken up into the dream, and at other times he has a razor-sharp insight into the meagerness behind the façade.

The reader’s experience is similar.  Fitzgerald’s prose is so beautiful and Gatsby’s almost boyish hopefulness is so absolute that we really want to believe it will all work out for him.  He flashes his smile and for a moment we see him as Daisy did when she first met him—a handsome, charming young man in a soldier’s uniform who pays her the irresistible compliment of placing her at the center of his world.

When reality comes crashing down, we can no longer deny that Gatsby’s romantic longing is prettified adultery, that wrenching apart people’s lives to satisfy your hopes and dreams has a rebound effect.  Gatsby and Tom’s mistress Myrtle pay the price, and it seems that Daisy and Tom come away unscathed, protected by their money and their unabashed devotion to selfishness.  The one last hope we are left with is that Nick, who is in many ways like James Gatz once was, has learned the cost of at least one version of the American Dream.

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Lynn W.’s Picks

Today’s blog talks about five audio books I’ve enjoyed during 2012. I listen to fiction and memoirs, and if read by the author, all the better. Each year, I stumble onto a children’s book title and find juvenile fiction altogether as engaging as adult fiction, so one is included here. — Lynn W.

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
Carol presents a series of short vignettes from her private and performing life. Some feature her grandmother, Nanny, a real character, who loved show business and the contacts she made through Carol and capitalized on them. There are funny stories, like how her adoration of Jimmy Stewart panned out the first time they met on a set when she got her foot stuck in a pail of whitewash and walked out with it still attached, too tongue-tied to say a word. The author reads this collection, adding to the emotional depth and also the comic moments.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – a Love Story by Ree Drummond
If ever there was a mismatch, it was Ree and Marlboro Man. Ree, a native Oklahoman, went to southern California for college and never looked back towards Tulsa except for holidays. Now in her mid-twenties, home is a pit stop on her way to the big time in Chicago. While there she hits a bar with friends and meets Marlboro Man, a tall, strong, real-life cowboy. Their story, read by the author in her authentic and charming Oklahoma voice, is a true love story. We never learn Marlboro Man’s name, but we sure feel the heat develop between them.

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith
This eighth Isabel Dalhousie mystery set in Edinburgh, Scotland pleases the ear with soft Scottish accents and descriptions of the gray city and green countryside. Isabel Dalhousie, a philosopher, is approached by a visiting Australian philosopher seeking her biological father’s identity. This is the “mystery.” Isabel and her fiancé Jamie are planning their wedding, all the while watching their beautiful son grow from day to day. This series is a leisurely walk through Scotland’s capital, meeting along the way fascinating people and places and everyday concerns.

The Night Train by Clyde Edgerton
Two teenage boys in 1960s small town North Carolina form a friendship over their love of jazz, a relationship not exactly accepted in this segregated community. Dwayne absolutely loves James Brown’s Live at the Apollo album, while Larry Lime is a pianist wanting to learn Thelonious Monk’s style from a jazz musician called the Bleeder. Their story and shenanigans will entertain while showing music is truly one of the ways humans unite and move beyond their differences. This audio is well-read, giving voice to accents and origins with accuracy.

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
If your parents disappeared one stormy night and your fishing village neighbors were forced to take you in, how would you feel? Especially if almost everyone is sure your parents were drowned at sea and you are absolutely certain they are merely delayed returning? Primrose Squarp tells her own story; her twelve-year-old point of view of friends (does she have any left?) and neighbors (including Miss Perfidy, who is paid by the town to care for Primrose) is fresh and rings true. Over the months, Primrose rediscovers her uncle, goes into foster care, and begins work on a cookbook while she awaits her parents’ return. This is a delightful mood lifter.

While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

Jo hasn’t seen Eli in over thirty years. In the meantime, she has married a minister, had three daughters and for the most part forgotten the event that marked her 20′s and those last horrific days spent at the house on Lumley Street. Now Eli and his wife have moved not far from her, into the rural Massachusetts town just as she has begun a period of restlessness, searching,  and transition in her life. The last time Jo felt like this she up and left her first husband then ran away to reinvent herself in the communal house in Boston where she hid her past from the free-spirited occupants. Even calling herself by another name. Will her secrecy resurface now that she’s been reminded of all that freedom and creativity? Will reunion with Eli kindle a yearning to escape her staid family life?

Sue Miller has a balanced view of her characters. She shows us how people hurt each other, which is what people do, then asks, can this act be forgiven and if so, how? Sometimes, there is heartbreak either way. And how we live with this heartbreak and love and go forward is what she writes about in an unsentimental, believable and ultimately compassionate way.

In the three books that I’ve read so far, Miller rather boldly explores the role that sexuality has in our lives. Not that they are extremely explicit, but sex plays a large part in the plot and character development. Fans of Jodi Picoult or Nicci French may like Sue Miller. The wintery setting and dark emotional territory of this novel reminded me of Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag.

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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

People have been recommending this book to me for the last three years and I have been completely resistant to its charms, mostly because of how it has been described to me – something along the lines of “it’s about a hostage situation, but also about opera.” Bo-ring. Or so I thought.

After having any book recommended to me often enough, I’ll eventually try it, which is how I wound up with a copy of Bel Canto on my nightstand, waiting to be read. The story is loosely based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis that occurred in Lima, Peru in 1996 when the terrorist group the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement took hundreds of government officials hostage, some for as long as 126 days. In Patchett’s fictionalized retelling, a Japanese businessman, Mr. Hosokawa, visits an undisclosed location in South America for a party honoring his birthday. Although invited in the hopes that he would bring business to the area, Hosokawa’s sole reason for attending is the evening’s entertainment – opera singer Roxane Coss. An avid opera-goer, Hosokawa is enchanted by her voice and jumps at the chance for a semi-private performance.

As Roxane and her accompanist finish their recital, armed terrorists descend upon the party in an attempt to make demands of the President, who was presumed to be in attendance (though was in fact at home, watching his soap opera.) What follows is the story of a group of disparate people from different cultures, speaking different languages, and how they help each other survive, hostages and terrorists alike. Some people might say that music becomes the common language for the characters in this book, but I don’t really think that’s true – it gives people something to do with their days, and something to occupy their minds, but the common language is perhaps time; how much of it they have left, and how to best spend what they do have.

The narrative weaves together different characters’ stories and shows how they build a life together over the several months that the hostage situation lasts. The book ends in much the same way that the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis did (so, sorry if I just ruined it for you) and a brief epilogue gives the reader a glimpse into what life after the event looks like for two couples.

This was my first Ann Patchett novel, and I’ll definitely come back for more.

For another perspective on this book, take a look at Brandy H.’s review of it on our blog two years ago.

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Say Nice Things About Detroit by Scott Lasser

OK, I’ll say it up front: I was born in Detroit, so this title piqued my interest right away. In his spare little gem, Lasser has given us a snapshot of today’s down at the mouth, but not completely down and out, Detroit. David Halpert, our hero, though from Detroit, lived in Colorado until the tragic death of his young son and subsequent failure of his marriage, followed by his father’s call to come home because of his mother’s mental decline. A very decent sort of fellow, David visits and decides to “come home.” At the same time, his high school girlfriend Natalie and her brother Dirk, retired FBI, are gunned down in Dirk’s Mercedes in a not so nice area of Detroit. David contacts Natalie and Dirk’s mother to express his sympathy and meets the younger sister, Carolyn, home for the funeral from Los Angeles. Seems a lot of people leave Detroit as soon as possible.
Carolyn has her own story of a loveless marriage held together for the sake of her young son. The attraction between David and Carolyn is real, but tentative on her part because of her married state. This story has lovely vignettes of the relationships between David and his father, a gruff working class man, and Carolyn and her mother, German born and first married to a black man, Dirk’s father, and later to the doctor/father of the sisters. These relationships evolve and other characters enter their lives, such as Marlon Booker, a young black man on the run from a drug dealer whose profit he skimmed.
Admirers of tight writing such as Stewart O’Nan’s and John Steinbeck’s will enjoy this novel that doesn’t shy away from street grittiness, drugs, and, from an outsider’s view, almost futile lives of some citizens, yet in a few words portrays inner feelings of both black and white characters. These Detroiters each have a story, dreams, hopes, and once in a while the opportunity to start over right. Say Nice Things about Detroit was a must-read for me, but I recommend it highly if you appreciate contemporary urban American settings and a fast, but thoughtful, read.

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Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

This is a masterfully crafted novel that reveals the evolution and demise of a relationship through the mementos saved.

The book begins with 16 year old Min dumping a box of items she collected throughout her relationship with Ed Slaterton, a known womanizer. From the bottle caps she snuck into her pocket when they first met, to an expensive vintage cookbook Ed bought her, Min releases them all, chapter by chapter, as she recalls the circumstances under which they came to her.

Daniel Handler ( aka Lemony Snicket, author of the children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events) does an excellent job of creating an authentic voice for his characters. With so many young adult novels creating unrealistic, overly mature situations for teen characters who seem to lack any parental controls and have bottomless pits of money and resources, I began to think all the teenagers I know had ended up with a really raw deal. Handler brings us down to earth again with characters that have the typical meddling parents and transportation woes. Min and her crowd speak like real teenagers–trying to be independent and testing their boundaries, while still suffering from the lack of experience that defines immaturity.

I love the way Min is completely duped by Ed’s charm (which, in addition to his good looks, is obviously what gets him a steady stream of girlfriends), and even convinces the reader that he’s very sweet–Min’s friends must be wrong about him. The reader and Min together struggle to accept Ed’s shine wearing off as the novel progresses, with each artifact of their relationship serving both to reveal Ed’s “love” and to explain why the relationship cannot last.

Min’s relationship with her friends is also authentically handled–as commonly happens when a girl begins dating, her friends are left behind. Of course they remain loyal, though their influence over Min is negligible, since she rarely even speaks to them anymore. And though the reader sees friendship complications develop over the course of the novel, Min is too blinded by her obsession with Ed to pick up on them. The suspense of what will happen when she finally “wakes up” carries the reader through to the end.

Handler has created an authentic novel with a fresh format. And, though it was written for teens, its quality appeals to adult readers, too. As a matter of fact, every book by Handler I read is better than the last–can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

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All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps edited by Dave Isay

Remember those how-we-met vignettes that punctuated the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally? The two who were born days apart in the same hospital and grew up in the same apartment building but never met until, as a young adult, he rode up nine extra floors just to keep talking to her? The man who married his high school sweetheart, then divorced her, then fell in love with her all over again and re-married her thirty-five years (and several wives) later?

If you were charmed by those, you will probably also enjoy All There Is : Love Stories From StoryCorps, edited and with an introduction by Dave Isay. Unlike most of Wake County Library’s audiobooks, there are no readers or actors in All There Is — just real people telling their own love stories in their own words to their children and families. The stories were recorded through Storycorps, an oral history project that allows regular people 40 minutes to interview a loved one about any topic in a recording booth. The best interviews are edited and then broadcast and podcast on National Public Radio. The one-disc, one-hour audiobook retains the documentary-style sound and the feel of a radio interview or podcast. Each 40-minute session is edited down to three or four minutes and most contain the voices of both interviewer and storyteller.

Some stories are stranger-than-fiction fun, like the pair who meet only because their email addresses are separated by just one character, though their physical addresses are oceans apart. And some are tear-jerking and poignant, like the Army widower who dispatched his own wife to the war zone where she died. All of them end with several seconds of mood music to guarantee that listeners experience the emotional after-effects they’d expect from any expertly-crafted short story.

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The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

The Space Between is the story of two families who have been tied together for many years, yet live completely separate lives. Bhima is a servant who leaves her home in the slums of Bombay every morning to spend her day cooking and cleaning for an upper class family. Sera is the seemingly fortunate woman she works for who is hiding the fact she is in an abusive marriage. These two women spend the majority of each day together and have shared much of their lives, yet there is a barrier that can’t be crossed.

Sera has often used her family’s wealth and position to help Bhima through hard times, and has even promised to contribute money for Bhima’s granddaughter, Maya, to attend college. Bhima hopes are focused on Maya. She believes if Maya succeeds in college she will pull the family out of the slums forever. All of Bhima’s savings and sacrifices are threatened, though, when Maya turns up pregnant at 17. When Bhima turns to Sera for help once again, their fragile relationship is changed forever.

This novel gives a glimpse into a society which was difficult for me to understand. Sera seems to both care for Bhima and be repulsed by her at the same time. She gladly helps her when she can, but she will not allow Bhima to sit on her furniture or drink from her glasses. She is happy with the relationship the way it is and can’t cope with any changes that might come.

Umrigar’s writing is beautiful and I liked most of the characters even if I sometimes didn’t agree with what they chose to do. This book was also one of my book club’s favorite selections. It made for a great discussion.

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Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

I’m a huge fan of Marisa de los Santos, so I was greatly looking forward to this most recent book (she’s also the author of Love Walked In and Belong to Me). At the end of Pen and Will and Cat’s story, am I’m still meandering over it and deciding exactly what I think. The writing, of course, is beautiful. I love the way her sentences sort of go on forever and then I’m disappointed when they come to an end. Her use of language to invoke just the right feeling is extraordinary.

This particular story, that of the friendship of Pen and Will and Cat and how it’s affected by time and distance, seems familiar, yet has the added twist that they were once inseparable friends but are brought together now only by a strange email from Cat asking Pen and Will for help. As is typical of the author, it’s told backwards and forwards, through flashbacks and memories. It’s a technique that has worked well for her, though some may be a touch irritated at the slow pace in the beginning.

This is a wonderful, lovely book that has a lot to say about friendship and relationships and whether they can really ever be gone. It’s a treat just to read her writing, as very few writers seem to make me feel the characters as she does.

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The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

I read a review of this novel last year, and was intrigued, so I put it on my “to read” list. Last week I found myself in want of a light read, so I picked up The Last Letter from Your Lover. I was pleased to find that it was a poignant story, not just about love, but about discovering yourself and making difficult choices.

This is two stories that merge, one in the early 1960s, and one in 2003. Jennifer Stirling is a woman who has it all. She is poised, lovely and witty, married to an incredibly successful businessman. The novel opens with Jennifer recovering from a tragic car accident that has left her unsure of who she is and remembering nothing. As she slowly begins to piece her past together, she realizes that her life has not been what it appears. She finds several love letters hidden in her belongings, indicating that before the accident she was in love with someone else.

Forty years later, journalist Ellie Haworth’s life is a mess. She is involved with a married man and her career is careening towards disaster. An assignment sends her to the newspaper’s archives, where she stumbles upon a love letter buried in a file of apparently unrelated papers. With the tenacity of an investigator, Ellie goes in search of the people connected to the letter. She finds Jennifer, who willingly tells her story. In the process, each woman finds that what she believes isn’t necessarily the truth.

Although the conclusion of the novel is a bit predictable, the path to it is not. Several interesting twists and surprises will keep you reading, even when you think you know where this enjoyable story is taking you.

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