By Fiona Stevenson — Columnist
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby”
As summer unfurls its warmth and vibrant greenery, it evokes a sense of renewal, much like Nick Carraway’s reflections in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
I’m revisiting Gatsby because my family is seeing the new musical adaptation at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. We all seem to first read it in high school and later on view the films (at least, some of us have seen the Robert Redford version; teens are more wired into Leonardo DiCaprio) but not to visit the book again. I’m curious to see how Florence Welch’s musical interpretation will breathe new life into the story.
I am finding it a melancholy read, with Gatsby less of a dreamy romantic figure than someone whose grand social aspirations, desperate attempts to fit in, and empty, crass commercial success feel oddly contemporary. I do like narrator Nick’s optimism about summer — a forgiving season where more time in nature, and hopefully living life at a slower pace, puts many of our problems in perspective.
It’s a perfect season to explore books that capture the timeless appeal of classic narratives and the thrill of new adventures.
“The Lost Story” by Meg Shaffer (Ballantine Books) is a story for those people who still knock on the backs of wardrobes and cupboards after a childhood spent with the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. The story follows two adults who vanished mysteriously as children into another world and now must return to rescue a lost girl.
“Swift River” by Essie Chambers (S&S) is a first novel with buzz about a biracial New England teenager who must unravel her family’s complex racial history in their fading mill town. Comparisons to authors like Dennis Lehane and Celeste Ng highlight the novel’s complex storytelling, emotional depth, and unmistakable local flavor.
While I’m waiting for the next season of “Slow Horses” to come out on AppleTV+, I’m hunting for good thrillers to keep my adrenaline pumping. “Assassins Anonymous” by Rob Hart (Putnam) has a nifty premise: What’s a reformed assassin to do when it feels like everyone wants his hide, but he’s promised never to kill again? “One of Our Kind” by Nicola Yoon (Knopf) sounds promising for suspense and social commentary; a Black family moves to an idyllic California community where things begin to go awry, a la “The Stepford Wives” or “Rosemary’s Baby.” People are already calling for Jordan Peele to make it his new horror film.
“One Perfect Couple” by Ruth Ware (Scout) is inspired by Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” Ware has established herself as one of the cleverest contemporary writers of suspense whose scorching sense of justice in finding out whodunnit echoes Christie at her best.
“Fair Rosaline” by Natasha Solomons (Sourcebooks) is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the point of view of Juliet’s cousin, dumped by Romeo and looking to escape a bad fate. For those of us who love the play, but wonder what happens to those characters who lived on the edges of the drama, this is historical fiction that makes you think.
If we must improve ourselves, Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” is one of those classics you read a little of at university (en français, naturellement), promise to read again (en anglais, merci), then read books ABOUT to compensate. Proust is a publishing mini-industry, n’est-ce pas?
“Clara Reads Proust” by Stephane Carlier, translated by Polly Mackintosh (Gallic), sounds like this year’s Proustian adventure. A young French woman begins to read an abandoned copy of a Proust novel, prompting a journey of self-discovery and joy. Oooh la la! It’s a delightful entry point into one of literature’s giants.
Dostoyevsky is also a challenge to face up to reading nowadays (gloom, doom, the end of humanism, the rise of faith in the face of nihilism — sound familiar?) In the meantime, I’ll give “The Sisters K” by Maureen Sun (Unnamed Press) a try. Three sisters come together to care for their mother and to confront their pasts and their futures. My family has been watching the Sopranos and appears to be as shell-shocked after every episode as I am reading Dostoyevsky. I like my family sagas with less gunfire, so I am starting “Long Island Compromise” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Random), her second novel after the excellent “Fleishman is in Trouble.” What would we do — or not do — to keep our family going?
You can revisit a place or time you thought you knew well — like the town where you live — with an astonishing new read. “American Bloods: The Untamed Dynasty that Shaped a Nation” by Joseph Kaag (MacMillan) will take the top of your head off with its revelations about one of Concord’s oldest families and their feats, feuds and unique realization of the American project. If you want more insight from the author, the Concord Museum interviewed Kaag in early June in a fascinating discussion available on YouTube.
Frantz Fanon — doctor, intellectual, Marxist, philosopher — is a complex figure whose influence on post-colonial thinking and the fading dominance of the West is felt if not realized by many who’ve never heard of him. “The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon” by Adam Shatz (MacMillan) is an illuminating biography.
After finishing watching the sometimes excellent, sometimes dull Masters of the Air series, I was recommended “Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World” by Caroline Alexander (Penguin Random House).
The Allies, led by America, continued to operate a perilous supply route during World War II in Burma (now Myanmar) to get supplies to China and keep Japan from sweeping through all of Southeast Asia. Everyone from Roosevelt to Churchill to Mao Zedong was invested in this struggle as plane crash after crash made it seem like a fool’s game.
This detailed account highlights the pilots’ courage and the crucial role they played in the global conflict.
Finally, if you want to revisit a beloved classic through a new lens, the Barrow Bookstore in Concord is doing hilarious reels on its Instagram feed in partnership with Concord Walking Tours. These two-minute “literary shorts” of works of New England literature feature a cast of dogs who encapsulate the themes of Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and the like as you’ve never experienced. Stop into the shop, one of our most charming shared spaces, curl up in one of their inviting chairs, and find a good read in the dog days of summer.
