CHURCHWELL SARAH, CARELESS PEOPLE

Careless People : Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby

By Sarah Churchwell

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Imprint:

Virago

Pagination:

448 pages

Description:

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.'

A fascinating look at the autumn of 1922, when F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda returned to New York and the seeds for The Great Gatsby were sown

Since its publication in the spring of 1925, The Great Gatsby has become one of the recognized masterpieces of the twentieth century, beloved by readers across the world and regularly named one of the greatest novels ever written in English. Now comes a book which tells of the mayhem, and the surprising story behind the novel, exploring in newly rich detail the relation of Fitzgerald's masterpiece to the chaotic world he in which he lived. Careless People is a fascinating reconstruction of the crucial months during which Fitzgerald returned to New York in the autumn of 1922 - the parties, the drunken weekends at Great Neck, Long Island, the drives back into the city to the jazz clubs and speakeasies, the casual intersection of high society and organized crime and the growth of celebrity culture of which the Fitzgeralds themselves were the epitome.