Book of the Week #10

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner's, 1925)

Writing in the Washington Post in 2007 Jonathan Yardley explained the signifigance of this novel, "Reading it now for the seventh or eighth time, I am more convinced than ever not merely that it is Fitzgerald's masterwork but that it is the American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country's writers."

But what makes this a New Hampshire book? The Big Read: Southern New Hampshire Reads The Great Gatsby makes it THE New Hampshire book at the moment, at least in the southern part of the state.

"The Great Gatsby may be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. Since its publication in 1925, Fitzgerald's masterpiece has become a touchstone for generations of readers and writers, many of whom reread it every few years as a ritual of imaginative renewal. The story of Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes at once characteristically American and universally human, among them the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past. Though The Great Gatsby runs to fewer than two hundred pages, there is no bigger read in American literature."
(quoted from The Big Read website)

The festivities kick off with a party on March 20, 2009 (6-9pm) at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester. Tickets are $25 and must be purchased in advance. Some events are already going on, so check out the full event calendar.