{Review #2} So We Read On will tell you why you should read The Great Gatsby

Spoiler alert: The main argument is that it's a masterpiece. (And so it's So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan).

The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books, and probably one of my most reread. For me, its power lies in its endless layers. Filled with beautiful prose and imagery, the story in itself is fun and full of intrigue. The characters reveal themselves to be nuanced, yet come across upon a casual read as both entertaining and infuriating. Short and sweet, The Great Gatsby is tightly edited: not a word out of place, or overbearing, or absent.

I am not sure I believe in perfection, but The Great Gatsby comes the closest when I think of a perfect book (yet, as Corrigan points out, the novel does have a handful of geographical missteps). It feels like, as all great literature does, it can be read in so many different ways. And yet it's not a pretentious novel. It is beautiful, certainly, but not complicated at its core. You can read it for the thrill of love affairs and murder and fake identities as much as for the shallowness and impossibility of the American Dream.

So We Read On explores the history of the novel, its (tepid) reception in its own time and its rise to ultimate classic (the when, the how, the why), as well as its current relationship with the American educational system and the endless multiple interpretations the text allows. Corrigan is magnificent, the professor we all want to have or be (in my case, both).

Here are all the adjectives I want to bestow upon Corrigan: funny, intelligent, illuminating, warm, sassy, clever, knowledgeable, compassionate, curious, sparkling, enviable. 

If you love literary criticism, read So We Read On, whatever your take on The Great Gatsby.

If you are looking to get into literary criticism but find it intimidating, read So We Read On and learn how literature people learn "to read like that".

If you don't get literary criticism (perhaps you're an avid nonfiction reader who's baffled by/looking to get into literature, or perhaps you want to begin enjoying your reads on a deeper level you have been unable to) but wish to, then READ SO WE READ ON.

You will not regret it.

And also, of course, read The Great Gatsby.

(PS. Giving credit where credit is due, I discovered So We Read On thanks to Olive from abookolive. Here's her review of the book.)