by Ann Kaste
Quick Summary
This past year marked the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, a reminder to consider a return to a book many of us first encountered in school and discover why it still resonates as an American tradition.
If it’s been a while since you last read it, you can read The Great Gatsby right now on Ebooks Minnesota. As you consider picking it back up, you may be inspired by an episode from this year of The New York Times podcast The Daily, featuring a thoughtful, wide-ranging look at how Gatsby went from a critical flop in 1925 to what many now call the great American novel. In the episode, critic A.O. Scott and host Michael Barbaro talk about why this slim novel continues to act like a mirror for American identity.
The podcast digs into what makes Jay Gatsby such a haunting figure: a self-invented man driven by longing, ambition, and a belief that the past can be reclaimed if you want it badly enough. That tension, between striving and fraud, innocence and corruption, new money and old, still feels incredibly current. As Scott notes, Gatsby is both deeply American and deeply contradictory, which may be exactly why we keep returning to him.
There’s also a lovely discussion of Fitzgerald’s language, especially how the novel gestures toward meaning without ever fully pinning it down. So much of Gatsby is about things that can almost be said, almost remembered, almost recovered. That sense of something lost, whether it’s love, possibility, or an idea of America itself, is part of what gives the book its enduring power. If you’re looking for a short but rich read, or a reason to revisit a classic with fresh eyes, this is a great moment to do it.
Grab the ebook from Ebooks Minnesota, press play on the podcast, and see what The Great Gatsby reflects back to you now, even a century later.
