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My first encounter with the novel
Revolutionary Road was through Barbara Ehrenreich’s smart volume
The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight From Commitment (available at the Snell Library,
HQ1090 .E36 1983). Ehrenreich’s elegant examination of a variety of historical sources and works of fiction, spins her interpretation of the changing role of man in American society from the baby boomer generation to present day.
Chief among Ehrenreich’s sources is the novel Revolutionary Road. Currently on hold at the library (PS3575.A83 R4x 1971)
, this 1961 book is now a film nominated for several Academy Awards. In the summer months, I will be looking up Revolutionary Road, which Kurt Vonnegut referred to as,”the
Great Gatsby of my time… one of the best books by a member of my generation.”
Speaking of
The Great Gatsby PS3511.I9 G7 1996 (a book which I inhaled in one night it was THAT good), imagine my surprise last December to discover that the film
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, also in the running for a slew of Academy Awards, was based on a short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It speaks to the power of the writing medium that a 15-page story can be turned into film 166 minutes in length. Fitzgerald’s
Button as well as his other great writings, can be found in the library under
Jazz Age Stories PS3511.I9 A6 1998