Catcher in the Rye / Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye paired with The Great Gatsby
While I recognize either of these works would fill a single Salon, I am intrigued with the idea of placing them next to each other- using one to illuminate the other- to consider how each writer struggled to give voice both to the era that formed him and to scratch away at what hypocrisies, insincerities, (to invoke Holden) phonies exist even as the writer lived within this world. Both Salinger and Fitzgerald came to be considered the voice of their generation- why were they given this mantle? And, how effective was their writing as a critical contemplation buried in the first person narration?
Of course we will also have the pure fun of playing with the language, examining the layered symbolism of Gatsby’s world, the irony of Holden’s proclamations…there are images from both these texts so carefully wrought that I find the phrases echo, become part of my own vision- when I see a crystalline snow-covered street, when I am gazing across a bay in the evening, staring into a timeless world of water and land that humans have only left glimmering, desperate objects upon…the writing, I believe, will leave you breathless.