So We Read On Quotes

“Fitzgerald’s plot may suggest that the American Dream is a mirage, but his words make that dream irresistible.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“It’s Fitzgerald’s thin-but-durable urge to affirm that finally makes Gatsby worthy of being our Great American Novel. Its soaring conclusion tells us that, even though Gatsby dies and the small and corrupt survive, his longing was nonetheless magnificent.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“Social class. Class remains our national awkward topic, usually mumbled over in academic diversity workshops; indeed, most people don't know how to talk about class without automatically coupling it with race. That's because we Americans are loath to recognize that the sky's-the-limit potential we take as our birthright comes at a price far beyond what many Americans--of any race--can afford to pay.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“Gatsby's fall from grace may be grim, but the language of the novel is buoyant; Fitzgerald's plot may suggest that the American Dream is a mirage, but his words make that dream irresistible.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“Jeffrey Makala, the friendly and astute rare-books and special collections librarian who will be my guide, confirms my opinion that librarians, along with independent-bookstore owners and dedicated middle- and high-school teachers, are the most selfless guardians of literature on earth.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“by 1929, one out of every five Americans had a car (as opposed to one out of thirty-seven Englishmen, one out of forty Frenchmen, and one out of forty-eight Germans).”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“As socially insecure people tend to do, he responds by apologizing.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“he’s a dead man the minute he falls for Daisy the siren. Gatsby “run[s] faster, stretch[es] out [his] arms farther,” until, propelled by all that yearning, he leans too far out toward Daisy’s dock, falls into the Sound, and drowns.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

“her “green light” was Harvard. “But if I don’t get into Harvard, I will not die, right? The journey toward the dream is the most important thing.”
― Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures