LitPicks - January '09

The Gatsby Effect—What does it mean to be an American? In this month's novels, three characters, two immigrants and one American, each attempt to re-invent themselves in order to realize their versions of the American dream.

A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully Written | Great Works




Away
Amy Bloom, 2008
256 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
It may be the sumptuous cover that makes this book hard to resist, but the inside is delectable, too.  Away is the story of Lillian Leyb, a young Russian widow and immigrant, who takes us on a whirlwind cross-country journey. In the process, Lillian discovers America and her place in its vast landscape.

It's the 1920's, and Lillian arrives in New York City from Russia, where a violent tragedy has left her bereft of family and home. Clever and determined, she ingratiates herself into the arms of a well-known Yiddish theater family, only to leave them upon learning that her young daughter may yet be alive in Russia. Thus begins her epic trek across America in the hopes of crossing to Siberia and finding young Sophie.

But let's get back to that book cover—with its luxuriant array of fruit set against a sweeping, panoramic vista—a thematic piece of symbolism if ever there was one. Think of the continent's prodigious abundance, of America's vast potential, of opportunity, of fruitfulness . . . and variety. Lillian is exposed to it all, both good and bad.

Also, I've talked before about the mother-daughter myth: of the goddess Demeter searching the earth in sorrow for her daughter Persephone (see The Lovely Bones). Some of that is at work here, as are America's own national myths about the West with its unlimited possibilites and rugged individualism.

Away is becoming a book club favorite . . . and for good reason. It's a fast-paced, terrific read. And be sure to check out our Reading Group Guide for Away.

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Netherland
Joseph O'Neill
272 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
Many tout this as the top book of 2008—and it's easy to see why. Netherland is a stunning read, a 21st-century send-up of The Great Gatsby—the Gatsby figure, in this case, a charming, enigmatic immigrant from Trinidad, Chuck Ramkissoon.

The Nick Caraway narrator for the book is Hans van den Broek, a Dutch banker living in Manhattan, whose wife, in the aftermath of 9/11, leaves him for their home in Britain. Lost and abandoned, Hans turns to the game of cricket to fill time and alleviate his loneliness. It's how he first meets Chuck Ramkisson.

O'Neill gives us a kaleidoscope view of New York—a world of immigrants and Wall Street bankers, of shifting identities and aspirations, of solitary desolation and odd relationships. Chuck, a gregarious, charasmatic, and tireless entrepreneur, draws Hans in through the force of his personality—and it's mainly through Chuck that we see the variety that is New York.

Chuck's "field of dreams" is a pristine cricket field, which he creates and nurtures in the hope of turning the game into the true American sport. The field represents Chuck's ineffable yearning, his spot of green ... akin to Gatsby's green light at the end of Fitzgerald's book.

Netherfield covers a lot of ground—memory, marriage, self-knowledge, spiritual bareness, filial love, and so much more. Beware, though: as one reviewer wrote, the book is "slow on action and heavy on musing." But O'Neill writes with such wit and intelligence that I treasured every sentence, every word.

Be sure to see our Reading Group Guide for Netherland.

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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
143 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
Confession time. I don't really like The Great Gatsby. But I think I'm alone in the universe on this—and it's for that reason that I'm recommending it as this month's Great Work.

Critics have long considered The Great Gatsby one of the quintessential American novels because it is bound up in the uniquely American myth of self-identity. Unbound by blood lines, family lineage, caste, or religion—Americans are free to self-invent—to overcome the past and forge a personal future. Or so the myth goes. It is Jay Gatsby's fate to test that myth.

Gatsby is also a love story between poor Jay and wealthy Daisy, who met and fell in love during the World War I. Daisy eventually married within her class, but Jay, years later, rises (through unspecified, nefarious means), purchases a mansion across the bay, and attempts to win Daisy back—thus, setting in motion a tragedy.

The book is also seen as a coming-of-age story, in which Nick Carroway, the young narrator, witnesses the eventual destruction that lays about his feet and returns to his home in the Midwest— with a wiser if not jaundiced view of humanity.

I think it would be terrific fun for a club to read Gatsby first, then read Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.
Or read Chris Bohjalian's 2007 book Double Bind, a wild, crazy "sequel" to Gatsby. I think Netherland is by far the better read, but many book clubs adore Double Bind.

Check out our Reading Guide for The Great Gatsby.

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