I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.

It's April, and this month marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Great Gatsby,

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel about

America, the roaring 20s, New York City, wealth, class, love tragedy, and one very powerful

green light. Joining me this week is A.O. Scott, a critic at large here at the book review.

Tony, as we call him in house, recently wrote a piece looking at the evolution of Gatsby over those 100 years, as well as its many incarnations in culture, both high and low.

Tony, welcome back.

Great to be here, Gilbert.

For those of you who don't remember everything that happens in the Great Gatsby, because it's been a while since you've read it, I'm going to start.

Tony, if that's okay, by quoting a piece that is not written by you, one that is written by your colleague, our colleague, Parles Sagan, who wrote about the Great Gatsby in 2020, right, when the book's copyright was about to expire.

So this is how she describes the plot.

Quote, you recall Nick Carraway, our narrator, who moves next door to the mysteriously wealthy

Jay Gatsby on Long Island.

Gatsby, it turns out, is pining for Nick's cousin, Daisy.

His glittering life is a lure to impress

her to win her back. Daisy is inconveniently married to the brutish Tom Buchanan, who in turn is

carrying on with a married woman, the doomed Myrtle. Cue the parties, the affairs, Nick getting

very queasy about it all. In a lurid climax, Myrtle is run over by a car driven by Daisy.

Gatsby's blamed.

Mirdle's husband shoots him dead in his pool and kills himself.

And then the Bicanons discreetly leave town, their hands clean.

Nick is writing this book, we understand years later, in a frenzy of disgust.

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