100 years after its original publication, “The Great Gatsby” continues to inspire reimaginings, including from author Claire Anderson Wheeler (new novel: “The Gatsby Gambit”) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok, (new musical “Gatsby: An American Myth”). Ultimately, the novel is a condemnation of greed and the upper class, an examination of the fallacy of the American dream, and, in Fitzgerald’s own words, a story of “aspiration”. In Jay Gatsby’s America, self-making and reinvention is, at once, possible and celebrated, and feared and reviled. This critical examination of the unachievable American Dream makes “The Great Gatsby” a target for book bans and challenges – and it is often pulled from shelves. It’s “one of the most potent translations of the American mentality,” says Majok. “This is our American myth.”
