March 2013—The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 In 1922 Fitzgerald wrote, “I want to write something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned.”  We would all agree that he met this goal with “extraordinary” brilliance.  This well known novel lives up to all the accolades it receives.  Written about a time well documented but long gone really (70 years), the overall themes are still fresh and surprisingly timely.  The lost American Dream still works as a driving force for a writer.  In our culture, the American Dream is about individual pursuit of success and happiness.  Unfortunately, we all recognize that in too many cases the pursuit of the dream often leads to a fruitless chase of “fun or happiness.”  This chase of pleasure is best shown in Fitzgerald’s characters, Daisy and Tom, who epitomize the people of “old” money who fritter away their lives with little or no effort to do something worthwhile for themselves or their world.  The “careless” attitude that Fitzgerald highlights in these people defines them as self obsessed individuals who use and abuse everyone around them in most cases without even stopping to realize what they do.  They live their lives like children completely oblivious to the carnage they leave in their wake.  Jay Gatsby is the counter weight to Daisy and Tom.  Coming from nothing, he manages to amass a huge amount of money, to acquire property and possessions, and to entertain the “important people” of the time.  But all of this is in vain it seems because Daisy/the dream cannot be bought with any amount of money.  The “haves” will never accept the “have nots” regardless of their material wealth.  Gatsby was “better than all of them” but he did not realize it.  He believed in the dream and he believed that he could reach it if he just tried harder.  We marveled over this book and its economy of words.  The beauty of the writing reminded us again why this is a classic.  We were well pleased by this read!! 

February 2013

Molokai byAlanBrennert
What a powerful, life affirming book this was. The story of Rachel, a victim of leprosy, was set in the early 20th century and detailed the life of this indomitable girl who lived in Hawaii at the time of internment/exile for anyone who developed the disease. At the age of six the little girl Rachel was taken from her home and family and sent to Molokai. There she lived her life and what an incredible life it was. Her determination to "beat" this disease never wavered and in the end she did leave Molokai healed of Hansons disease as it now is called. But the events of her life were amazing to witness in this story. We were reminded of Louie Zamperini in "Unbroken" who refused to be beaten by the circumstances of life. Rachel was a survivor who we all truly admired. We really loved this story and recommend it highly.