What do high school English teachers across America and I have in common? Our overwhelming love for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby.

In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

One of the most recognizable covers in literature!

The Book

If you were to ask a room full of people what they would define as “The Great American Novel”, I’d be willing to bet that over half of them would choose The Great Gatsby. The book has become synonymous with American literature – the great, green light being equivalent to the American Dream. I, like many people, read The Great Gatsby for the first time in a high school English class (shoutout to Mr. Schofield!). My teacher was passionate when reading the book aloud and leading our class discussions. We spent an absurd amount of time analyzing the eyes of TJ Eckleberg and the light at the end of the dock.

The “Eyes of TJ Eckleberg”

At first, I resented all of the characters – the fanciful Jay Gatsby, the shallow Buchanans, and the arrogant Nick Caraway.  However, the more I read, the more I started to sympathize with them – they were simply products of their environment. I often say that the sole biggest indicator of my personality is that I am a staunch Daisy Buchanan apologist. I will defend her until the day I die – I don’t think I’ve ever read something that has resonated with me more than her wishing for her daughter to be “a beautiful little fool” (on that note, a FANTASTIC Gatsby adaptation is Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor).

The Great Gatsby is told through Nick Caraway’s perspective – that of an unreliable narrator, one of my favorite literary tools. Nick moves to the extravagantly rich neighborhood of West Egg on Long Island, where he becomes acquainted to it and its neighboring town of East Egg, as well as all the characters that live there. He sees the stark difference between old money and new money, and how wealth truly can’t buy happiness. Nick bears witness to a whole bunch of shady happenings, all the while being infatuated with Gatsby. It’s a fascinating look into the Roarin’ 20’s, including several autobiographical features from Fitzgerald’s own life.

Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, who inspired several elements of Daisy

The Great Gatsby also has a movie adaptation staring Tobey Maguire as Nick and Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, which was questionable at best – but any excuse to watch a DiCaprio movie is a win for me.

The Great Gatsby gets five stars from me – it is the definition of a classic, extremely engaging, and questionable characters that evoke intense emotions from the reader no matter what.

The Bop

The Great Gatsby‘s bop is “The Lucky One” by Taylor Swift. The song details someone having everything they ever wanted – only to realize it wasn’t what they wanted at all. This perfectly applies to Daisy as she struggles with societal pressures to marry rich and be the perfect socialite, only to be stuck in a dreadfully unhappy relationship she has no way to escape from. She also realizes that her daughter will have the same fate as her – hence why she wishes her to be a fool: if she’s ignorant, her future won’t be as painful as it is for the intelligent Daisy.

In conclusion, give The Great Gatsby another try – forgive your English teacher for the never ending symbolism discussions and immerse yourself into the Eggs and the 20’s in perhaps the greatest American novel ever written.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Post-apocalyptic United States, cannibals, and a startling lack of quotation marks – it may sound a lot like a zombie apocalypse movie, but these things can actually all be found in Cormac McCarthy’s award-winning novel, The Road.

When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.

The cover of “The Road” – or should I say The Road

The Book

The Road is set in a post-apocalyptic United States after an undisclosed extinction event wiped out the majority of life on Earth. It follows a father and son, who are never named (another of McCarthy’s unique writing quirks) as they travel South to try to avoid the harsh Northern winters. The father is clearly very sick, but continues to rally for his son. He spends a lot of time clarifying that they are the good guys amongst all the other crazy people still lingering in the world. We think this is all fun and games and morality fluff on top, until the characters actually start meeting other people. Anyone interested in cannibalism and baby farms? Yeah, I wasn’t either.

Another interesting nuance is their gun – a revolver with only two bullets. McCarthy avoid one of my least favorite plot holes – the never-ending ammo supply in the apocalypse. Instead of using the gun to kill literal cannibals, the father tells his son that the bullets are for them to shoot themselves in case they are about to get captured by said cannibals. It is also revealed that the boy’s mother killed herself shortly after his birth.

Their journey continues, and they face adversity at every turn. Barring spoilers, the book closes just like the rest of McCarthy’s greatest hits – with an ambiguous, what-the-frack-just-happened ending. I have my own (very passionate) thoughts on what I think happened after the book – please discuss with me once you’ve read!

Another fantastic part? A MOVIE ADAPTATION STARRING VIGGO MORTENSON. In my mind, he will always be Aragorn, son of Arathorn and the lost heir of Gondor, but he did a pretty good job as the father in this movie.

Viggo Mortenson stars in “The Road”(2009)

The Road has all the hallmarks of a quintessential McCarthy novel – the no-named characters, questionable punctuation, the open ending, and zero shyness around violence. My favorite McCarthy book is Blood Meridian, but that tackles different issues than The Road. A particular thing that strikes me about this novel is the stark realness of the women in the apocalypse. Sadly, harsh conditions bring out the worst of humanity, and a lot of times this means women are treated extremely badly. The Road is no exception – even though the main characters are not women, it is very clear that women received the short end of the stick (think of the baby farm…how does a group of men start a baby farm?). It’s horrible and terrifying and true – something that is important in books.

I first read The Road in 9th grade (Cormac McCarthy hails from Rhode Island, and my English teacher made it her personal mission to make sure we would never forget it), but recently reread it. I was in a little apocalypse rabbit hole due to the premier of HBO’s The Last of Us, based on the hit zombie apocalypse video game (I could talk about this for hours). The game, and now the show, does a fantastic job of showcasing the best and worst of humanity when they are pushed to their breaking point – something that is also displayed in The Road.

Side by side shots of “The Last of Us” show (top) and game (bottom) at the Massachusetts State House

The Road gets four our of five stars from Books & Bops – it had a thrilling storyline, fleshed-out characters, and raised moral questions even through the clunky grammar.

The Bop

The Road’s bop is “Wayfaring Stranger” by Johnny Cash. The song is a folk song, having many different versions that have been recorded and sung. Johnny Cash’s is my favorite – A) because it’s Johnny Cash; B) because of the haunting overture behind his voice. The song details the journey of a sad individual, dreaming of going to a better place. It is accurate to the journey of the man as he struggles day after day to take care of his son.

To wrap it up, read The Road (unless you’re squeamish). You’ll learn how to read with no quotation marks and be left screaming from…rage? Sadness? Confusion? Find out!

In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

A grumpy Swedish widower, a problem-seeking cat, and way too much car talk – all things that can be found in Fredrik Backman’s breakout novel, A Man Called Ove.

Ove is fifty-nine. He drives a Saab. He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s flashlight.

The traditional English cover of “A Man Called Ove”

The Book

A Man Called Ove follows the eponymous character as he adjusts to life as a widower. Ove, described a curmudgeon, is a chronic pessimist. He constantly gets into fights with all people he interacts with, holds onto a forty year-old grudge with his next door neighbor, and spends all hours of the day planning and attempting to execute suicide. However, through a series of flashback chapters, the reader begins to learn about Ove’s early life and the reason for his pessimism. As the novel progresses, Ove’s true nature is revealed through his relationship with a young couple who moves into his neighborhood. He begins to act as a father figure to the couple and helps them in any way he can (even as he pretends he doesn’t want to). The heartwarming message that lies at the center of the novel is not to judge a book by its cover – and that persistence does indeed pay off. The book is also in the process of being adapted into a movie, with Tom Hanks starring as Ove/Otto.

Tom Hanks as Ove/Otto in the movie adaptation, “A Man Called Otto”

I was reluctant to pick up A Man Called Ove – I was (and still am) in love with another one of Fredrik Backman’s novels, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and was worried that his other novels wouldn’t live up to my expectations. However, all my worries were for naught – Backman continues to me a literary genius. His tone, humor, and talent for packing punches with his words carry through each of his novels (even though they have been translated from his native language of Swedish) and draw you in. He makes you fall in love with characters who are painfully human – flawed, but still good at heart. He doesn’t focus on traditional relationships between romantic partners, parents, or siblings; rather, he looks for connections between the most unlikely of friends. His novels really speak to the baffling nature of the human condition and what connection truly means.

A Man Called Ove gets five stars from me – I was drawn right in and could hardly stand to put the book down. The ending was not a happily ever after, but still satisfying, and left me in a reading-induced trance for hours after I finished.

The Bop

A Man Called Ove’s bop is “Yesterday” by the Beatles. The song is a melancholy tune that focuses on the feel of nostalgia for days past, which is perfect for Ove. He so desperately wants to return to the past, where he was happier and less alone, and refuses to notice the goodness of life happening around him. Paul McCartney’s voice and words could almost belong to Ove – perhaps in another life.

In conclusion, take the time to read A Man Called Ove. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will come out of the experience with an unexplained love for Saabs.

The young man straightens up for the first time, smiles an almost undetectable smile, and looks her right in the eye with the sort of indomitable pride that only one word can convey. “Saab.”

IMAGE SOURCES:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/movies/a-man-called-otto-review.html

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman