The Virginia Yerxa Community Read has a host of activities lined up this week for children and adults to celebrate this year’s book in common: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel is set during the Jazz Age, on Long Island’s North Shore, and tells the story of mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby as he tries to revive his youthful romance with Daisy Buchanan.
VYCR events this week include painting piggy banks at libraries throughout Colusa County, the showing of a documentary about the inspiration behind one of the world’s most beloved novels, a social hour and roundtable discussion, a lecture on modern literature, a tour of Colusa’s historic homes and buildings, and floral design.
The local book-in-common project honors the late Virginia Yerxa, a Colusa icon who pushed for higher reading skills and higher educational goals in the Colusa community for more than 60 years.
“The committee has been talking about The Great Gatsby for a couple of years now, and ultimately it was selected for the 2022 Read for several reasons,” said organizer Stacey Costello. “It felt like the right time to celebrate Fitzgerald’s seminal work, which was set in the summer of 1922, because 100 years later we hoped to be celebrating the end of a global pandemic with a Gatsby-worthy fete.”
Last year, the book-in-common selection was Richard Adam’s adventure tale, “Watership Down,” although activities were limited to one outdoor event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Costello said the committee generally spends the summer reading books suggested by community members, and narrows them down to one selection, which they announce in December.
“Then, we get to work planning Virginia Read Day and working with other community groups to help support any other activities related to the selection,” Costello said. “Our hope is to inspire a wide range of community events around Read Day and to engage with as much of our community as possible.”
After its publication in 1925, “The Great Gatsby” received generally favorable reviews, though some literary critics believed it did not equal Fitzgerald’s previous efforts. Compared to his earlier novels, the book was a commercial disappointment, selling fewer than 20,000 copies. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten.
It wasn’t until World War II that the novel experienced an abrupt surge in popularity when free copies were distributed to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found popularity launched a critical and scholarly re-examination, and the work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades.
“As we dug deeper into the story, we realized that as fun as a Gatsby party would be, the book held so much more, and the topics Fitzgerald so adeptly wrote about are as relevant as ever,” Costello said. “From the division of wealth, privilege, and power to social awareness, the impacts of war and plague, the historical parallels were too similar to ignore. On top of all of this, Gatsby is just a really great read.”
This year, the Virginia Yerxa Community Read project has multiple events, lectures, and performances centered around the novel. ■
Virginia Yerxa
Community Read Events
Thursday, April 28:
4Paint a Piggy Bank 3:30-5 PM, Colusa Library; 4-5 PM, Grimes Library
4Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story viewing, 6:30 PM, Colusa Library
Friday, April 29
4Paint a Piggy Bank 12:30-2 PM, Stonyford Library; 3-5 PM, Princeton Library
4Book Club with a Twist, 7:30 PM, Rocco’s Bar and Grill, Colusa. Must be 21.
Saturday, April 30
4Pierce High Jazz Ensemble, 9:30-10 AM, Colusa Community Theater, 10th St., Colusa
4A Glimpse of Gatsby, a Stagehands performance, 10 AM, Colusa Community Theater
4Great Gatsby lecture, Dr. Matthew Stratton, 10:15-11 AM, Colusa Community Theater
4Historic homes and building tour, 11:30-1:30, 10th Street to downtown IOOF Building
4Art Deco Floral Arranging, 2-3:30 PM, Friendship Hall, 511 Oak Street