Dear Great Book Guru, I loved your suggestion last week of THE GREAT GATSBY and was wondering if you can think of another book with a similar theme and setting ?   A Great Gatsby Fan

Dear Great Gatsby Fan, I have the perfect book for you: THE WINNER by Teddy Wayne.   Connor O’Toole is a twenty-five-year-old recent law school graduate who lands a dream summer job - teaching tennis at Cutters Neck - a very exclusive gated community near Cape Cod. The job comes with a lovely cottage.  During the year he lives with his sickly mother in a shabby, cramped apartment in Yonkers and he is burdened with mountains of credit card debt and school loans.  Covid fears permeate his daily existence. Life at Cutters Neck changes all this.  He quickly finds himself immersed in a romantic entanglement with his first student:  Catherine - a very wealthy, much older woman. When he meets her daughter, things become complicated, very complicated. Throughout Connor is confronted and confounded by the disparities of wealth and status all around him.  At times he is grateful to his benefactors but more often he is angry as he observes the privilege that wealth confers. This anger causes him to make some horrific choices and suddenly we begin to realize Connor has tricked us and everyone else he encounters.  The character he most resembles is not Jay Gatsby – a mysterious yet sympathetic figure - but the amoral, dangerously duplicitous Tom Ripley in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.  Highly Recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, I have been invited to a “Great Gatsby Gala.” It has been many years since I read THE GREAT GATSBY. Any suggestions as to how to prepare? P.S. I heard there will be a Gatsby trivia contest and I am eager to shine!  Gatsby Gala Guest

Dear Gatsby Gala Guest, What fun awaits you! First, of course, reread THE GREAT GATSBY. You will be astonished how much you missed your first time. Many believe it to be the greatest of the Great American Novels with its prescient commentary on race, class, and gender. When first published, it was viewed as a crime noir with its violent deaths, femme fatales, and mobster connections. Later it was appreciated for its commentary on the quixotic American dream of redemption.  Then for many years, it was seen as a cautionary tale of the danger of passions pursued. Today many readers admire it for its lyrical prose and profound metaphors. Of course, the setting  with its North Shore venues  plays a huge part in our enjoyment of the novel. Gatsby lives in the nouveau rich Great Neck (West Egg) as opposed to the more genteel, old wealth of Manhasset (East Egg), and the horrific climax takes place in- is it Douglaston, Queens?   This is a book to be read over and over with new insights to be found each time. As Fitzgerald wrote, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.” Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, Summer 2024  is moving along so rapidly and I falling far behind in my quest to read a good book each week. Please help me – I need a quick moving, interest catching novel – doesn’t have to be new … Summer Reader

Dear Summer Reader,  Lots of us see summer as the best time of year to catch up on books we might have missed, and for me it was Tom Perrotta’s THE LEFTOVERS. Made into a long running TV series, the novel has been on my must-read list for years so last week I tackled it and am happy I did.  I’m sure you will enjoy it too.  The premise of both the book and TV series is that three years in the past on October 14, over a million people of all ages disappeared from all parts of the world- a Rapture of sorts. The novel focuses on the aftermath of this climatic moment and its effects on families in one village- perhaps a bit reminiscent of Sea Cliff!  Kevin Garvey the new mayor and  his two children Tom and Jill are dealing with a loss-wife Laurie has left them to join a group seeking to make amends for the sins of those left behind- the Guilty Remanent.  Another villager Nora Durst   has lost both husband and children to the Rapture and she finds herself unable to go forth especially when secrets are revealed about the past. Holy Wayne is a local figure who has founded a   religion to make sense  of  who and what remains.  As each of the characters struggles to find meaning in this occurrence, we see glimmers of our own quests to explain the unexplainable.  A thought-provoking book and highly recommended! 

Dear Great Book Guru,  Every place I go in the last week people are talking about a new book set on Long Island about a kidnapping that took place fifty years ago. Have you read it and -if so- would you recommend it?  Lover of All Things Long Island

Dear Lover of All Things ….. Yes- I just finished Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s newest novel LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE and what an epic tale she tells.  At the core of the book is an actual  kidnapping with a fictionalized account of its aftermath on the lives of  Carl Fletcher -the victim, his wife, mother , three children, and their entire secular and religious community. The story actually begins decades before the kidnapping - during World War II when the Fletcher patriarch is saved from certain death and his fortune assured by a chance encounter in Europe. He arrives in New York, opens a plastics factory, and the family settles in the affluent North Shore village of  Middle Rock- closely modeled on Long Island’s  Great Neck. Their wealth grows as does their stature in the community. Traumatized by the kidnapping, each family member gets to tell his/her story and we quickly realize that no one has escaped the brutality  of the original crime. The community too is harmed irreparably with its realization that religion,  money and status offer no protection from life’s calamities. Ultimately, the myths that the Fletchers have based their identity also collapse and each family member must confront long hidden truths. Highly recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, I was at a favorite bookstore of ours in Brooklyn “Books Are Magic” when I noticed a posting of an author visit.  The book looked very interesting particularly to us living here in Sea Cliff: an old Victorian house with a long history - about to be renovated.  Are you familiar with it?  Lover of Old Houses

Dear Lover of Old Houses, J. Courtney Sullivan’s THE CLIFFS is a fascinating novel set in the cliffs of Maine, but, except for the ocean views, could have taken place in Sea Cliff.  Told from the viewpoints of five families who have lived in the cliffs, the book opens with the story of Jane Flanagan, a high school senior who has won a scholarship to nearby Bates College and is intrigued by an abandoned violet-colored Victorian mansion.  Everything is intact - books, dishes, paintings, furniture… but no one has lived in the house for many years. Fast forward twenty years and Jane - now a Harvard archivist - returns to discover a wealthy Beacon Hill summer resident has purchased the house and is the midst of modernizing it. But something is amiss - there is a haunting sense of foreboding and Jane is hired to trace its previous owners.  The remainder of the book is told from the perspective of  the women who had  lived in the house: the original builders, the Littletons; the Troy sisters who ran it as a boarding house; Marilyn - a ninety year old painter; Sister Eliza - a former Shaker; and finally Naomi, a Penobscot who gives us the insight of the original inhabitants of the land on which the house is built.  A fascinating look into the history of one house and indeed - a whole nation - highly recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru,  This has been an incredible few weeks filled with wonderful community building events from the Ice Cream Social, the Patriotic Bike Parade, Happy Birthday USA, and finally the iconic reading of the Declaration of Independence celebration  on the Village Green.  Now I find myself in need of a simple, relaxing beach read- and - yes, that’s where I’m headed : Sea Cliff Beach !    Beach Bound

Dear Beach Bound, Over the last few weeks I’ve read some compelling books: FOUR SHOTS IN THE NIGHT: A true story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland, OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II AND THE INVENTION OF THE MUSICAL, and SPY FOR NO COUNTRY… but since you are looking for a quintessential beach read I suggest: Emily Henry’s BEACH READ. Told from the perspective of January Andrews, a writer of romance novels, who has recently inherited a beach house next to a high school nemesis and literary fiction writer Augustus Everitt, this is a fast-paced study in contrasts.  January and Everitt while incredibly hostile to one another at first discover they are both suffering from acute cases of ‘writer’s block’.  Their back stories are filled with exquisite details and their daily encounters are humor packed. However, the story takes a “novel” turn when they decide to switch book genres. Can Augustus write a romance novel and January, a serious piece of literary fiction?  Their journey into new worlds is both fascinating and amusing.  A good summer read and recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, The weather has been so oppressive, my family and I have had little interest in leaving the air-conditioned comfort of our home, but I do feel this is the perfect time for a chilly mystery.  Any suggestions?   Chilling Out with a Good Book

Dear Chilling Out, I have just the book for a sultry summer day: WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA by Dervla McTiernan.  The story opens with Nina - a twenty-year-old college student recounting details of her long-term romance with Simon - a childhood friend.  The last words of her introduction are “And then I went downstairs to tell Simon we were over, and I never wanted to see him again.”  Each of the remaining thirty-six chapters is told from a different point of view: Nina’s parents, Simon’s parents, Detective Wright, friends of the couple, and Grace - a young sibling. We soon see this is more than a crime novel but rather a study of the effects of social media on the pursuit of justice as we view the cruel victimization of Nina and her family.  Simon’s parents’ wealth allows them to circumvent the law in many subtle and not so subtle ways: the hiring of a PR firm and high-powered lawyers, the manipulation of security cameras, and the intimidation of neighbors, while Nina’s family relentlessly pursues all avenues - legal and otherwise - to get their daughter back.  The characters are colorfully described and as we learn more and more about each of their stories, we wonder if the truth will ever be known.  Highly recommended!