Monday, June 23rd at 11:30am at Port Richmond Library, 75 Bennett Street, SINY 10302

Join Staten Island OutLOUD and our fabulous librarian friend Jocelyn Victoria & all the excellent librarians at the beautifully renovated Port Richmond Branch Library as we explore F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”. Copies will be available at the library for you to check out ahead of time. 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of this timeless classic.

Often described as a picture of the Jazz Age, “Gatsby” was praised by T. S. Eliot: “It seems to me to be the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James.” The story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made man who pursued a lost love, a beautiful woman who seemed beyond his reach, is a story of hope and dreams – or delusion – that feels relatable to readers today.

The novel illuminates some of the dramatic changes in American life during the years following World War I, and current events reflect elements of those changes. “Some of those radical changes included the rise of wealth… An agrarian society was rapidly becoming industrialized as Congress passed laws that allowed for railroad subsidies and new immigration and tariff increases….”