She reminds us that perhaps one true promise of that elusive green light at the end of the dock resides in our creative imagination, and the intimate relationship between a book and its reader.'- Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination

'We have to be thankful to Maureen Corrigan for letting us in on her intriguing love affairs with great books, as in this wonderful account of her grand passion for The Great Gatsby. Smart and compelling, persuasive without demeaning other interpretations.a 'An intoxicating cocktail of talent, celebrity, gangster noir, and the vicissitudes of reputation that create a classic.'- Ron Rosenbaum, author of The Shakespeare Wars As with the book that inspired it, my only complaint about So We Read On is that it comes to an end.'- Susan Choi, author of My Education 'Second only to the pleasure of re-reading Gatsby is the pleasure of talking to someone about it, and Maureen Corrigan is the ultimate someone: boundlessly erudite, blazingly funny, and infectiously passionate. As a biography of a novel, it reads like a novel.'- Morris Dickstein, author of Gates of Eden and Dancing in the Dark Her vividly personal evocation of Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby is at once a labor of love, the story of a quest, and a mother lode of information and insight.

'No one is better at bringing a book to life than Maureen Corrigan. 'Maureen Corrigan has produced a minor miracle: a book about The Great Gatsby that stands up to Gatsby itself.'- Michael Cunningham Along the way, she spins a new and fascinating story of her own. 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. 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. 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. 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.'Ĭonceived 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.

So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan