ROARING OFF THE PAGE
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2013 | EVERY THING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT ’S HAPPENING AT YOUR LIBRARY
The
OLD VS. NEW GATSBY MOVIE
FILM CRITIC REVIEW page 3
Great Gatsby
BRING A SMILE TO FIDO'S FACE
MAKE THE LIBRARY YOUR PLACE FOR PET CARE page 4
f. SCOTT FITZGERALD
COMMUNITY CENTER COMPUTERS
PARTNERSHIP RESULTS IN NEW TECH
February is a gReat month for reading about
Old Fashioned Greed, Passion and Betrayal
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GATSBY READ-ALIKES page 2
page 5
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
LESSONS IN HISTORY page 5
DOING BUSINESS AT THE LIBRARY
TOOLS YOU CAN USE page 7
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
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hat makes up the American Dream? Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald certainly had an opinion of that dream in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is his interpretation of it and its limitations. More specifically, he wrote about the leisure class in their 20s and 30s, of which he was a member. Perhaps this classic novel is so widely read because it also tackles the theme of American character or lack thereof. Money and power does not always equal happiness for Jay Gatsby. The reader begins to question whether the illusions Fitzgerald’s characters believe real are worth the price they pay to find out. Set in 1920s New York, The Great Gatsby’s scathing satire of the newly minted “nouveau riche” class is narrated by Nick Carraway, a recent Midwest transplant and neighbor of the elusive, party-throwing Gatsby. Gatsby is secretive and filthy rich, choosing to hide how he came by his enormous wealth from most of his weekly partygoers, who really couldn’t care less anyway.
Fitzgerald is a master at weaving in the details of the poshness of the time period through vivid descriptions of the mansion’s décor, the attire of its visitors, and Gatsby’s own signature yellow convertible. The reader views the story through Nick’s Yale graduate eyes and learns that Gatsby has loved and lost and still loves a married woman named Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby convinces Nick, Daisy’s cousin, to invite Daisy to tea. The ex-couple, upon being reintroduced, start up an affair. Daisy's husband Tom, not being a fool, begins to suspect his wife’s infidelity and in the process digs up the unsavory source of Gatsby’s wealth. Driving back from New York with Gatsby, Daisy strikes and kills a woman during an emotional conversation about their affair. Gatsby shoulders the blame for the killing. What happens next is the one of the many reasons this book is worth reading again and again. Will Gatsby win Daisy back and be acquitted? Will his riches and power come to his aid? Will true love and material possessions last?
EVENTS ABOUND IN FEBRUARY
THE BIG READ RETURNS TO THE ROARING TWENTIES page 8
PLAY THE GATSBY TRIVIA GAME
FUN WITH GATSBY page 8
FAMILY FRIENDLY PROGRAMS AMAZING ART EXHIBITS FREE COMPUTER CLASSES
YOUR LIBRARY SCHEDULE
February–March schedule starts on page 10