Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "The Great Gatsby"

What a treat to have a dear broadcast friend join in this week's Hitting the Books. Suzyn Waldman is a New York baseball institution, currently covering the Yankees on radio.

Her rich history runs deep into musical performances as an actress and singer. She is highly educated in the arts, which are a major part of her life.

Her book choice: "The Great Gatsby".

Consistently rated as one of the great literary works of all time, this book by F. Scott Fitzgerald has generated as much comment, criticism and accolades as any work ever.

When it came out in 1925 the April 19 New York Times review said:

"With sensitive insight and keen psychological observation, Fitzgerald discloses in these people a meanness of spirit, carelessness and absence of loyalties. He cannot hate them, for they are dumb in their insensate selfishness, and only to be pitied. The philosopher of the flapper has escaped the mordant, but he has turned grave. A curious book, a mystical, glamorous story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than hitherto has been enjoyed by Mr. Fitzgerald. He writes well-he always has-for he writes naturally, and his sense of form is becoming perfected."

Suzyn explains what this book has meant to her and finds the core reason why the work as only grown in stature since its first printing.

"What I'm looking for is not out there, it is in me." - Helen Keller

I have no idea where social media is going beyond those walking down sidewalks, staring at their texts, convinced the next one will alter their lives forever. Whatever the future, or lack thereof, you might be interested in this take.

"Why are the most important people in media reading 'The Awl'?" - "What We're Reading," New York Times, July 21, 2015.

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2015 season is his ninth with the club and 30th covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The Orioles and Sarasota County have partnered on the Big League Reader Program, which rewarded kids who read three books in February with tickets to a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in March.

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