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Careless People
Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby | Sarah Churchwell
15 posts | 16 read | 22 to read
Kirkus (STARRED review) "Churchwell... has written an excellent book... shes earned the right to play on [Fitzgerald's] court. Prodigious research and fierce affection illumine every remarkable page. The autumn of 1922 found F. Scott Fitzgerald at the height of his fame, days from turning twenty-six years old, and returning to New York for the publication of his fourth book, Tales of the Jazz Age. A spokesman for Americas carefree younger generation, Fitzgerald found a home in the glamorous and reckless streets of New York. Here, in the final incredible months of 1922, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald drank and quarreled and partied amid financial scandals, literary milestones, car crashes, and celebrity disgraces. Yet the Fitzgeralds triumphant return to New York coincided with another event: the discovery of a brutal double murder in nearby New Jersey, a crime made all the more horrible by the farce of a police investigationwhich failed to accomplish anything beyond generating enormous publicity for the newfound celebrity participants. Proclaimed the crime of the decade even as its proceedings dragged on for years, the Mills-Hall murder has been wholly forgotten today. But the enormous impact of this bizarre crime can still be felt in The Great Gatsby, a novel Fitzgerald began planning that autumn of 1922 and whose plot he ultimately set within that fateful year. Careless People is a unique literary investigation: a gripping double narrative that combines a forensic search for clues to an unsolved crime and a quest for the roots of Americas best loved novel. Overturning much of the received wisdom of the period, Careless People blends biography and history with lost newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival materials. With great wit and insight, acclaimed scholar of American literature Sarah Churchwell reconstructs the events of that pivotal autumn, revealing in the process new ways of thinking about Fitzgeralds masterpiece. Interweaving the biographical story of the Fitzgeralds with the unfolding investigation into the murder of Hall and Mills, Careless People is a thrilling combination of literary history and murder mystery, a mesmerizing journey into the dark heart of Jazz Age America.
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Litsi
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Pickpick

Super informative about what Fitzgerald‘s influences were when writing Gatsby. Unfortunately, of course, the story ends the same. His last check was for $13 in royalties. The price of genius, I guess.

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BekaReid
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Pickpick

The story of F. Scott Fitzgerald & the world that prompted The Great Gatsby -including two brutal 1922 murders. More than just an origin story of the iconic Gatsby, Churchwell also reconstructs remarkable moments in American history. I loved how she wove throughout the story bits of changing words & meanings, snapshots of people, menus, newspaper clippings. She even includes Fitzgerald's conjugation table of "cocktail" as it entered use as a verb.

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BekaReid
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Finally able to snag a bit of reading time in this morning after an insanely busy week. I'm really enjoying this book.

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BekaReid
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"Filaments of fact and fiction shed different lights on each other, and also throw shadows back on us."

I love Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and am excited to finally start this book that has been on my radar for quite some time! This quote is from the preface, which was fascinating. High hopes for this one! ?

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Sporto
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Good

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Reviewsbylola
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Pickpick

Part true crime, part biography, part critical study. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald not only lived a fascinating, albeit tragic life, but the world in which they lived was rendered perfectly by Churchwell. I loved the inclusion of photographs and newspaper clippings. My one regret is that it‘s been 15+ years since I read Gatsby. I need a reread. #carryonmywaywardson #marchintothe70s

Cinfhen This sounds really interesting especially since our bookclub recently read 6y
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Reviewsbylola
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Tonight‘s #bathandbook is very low key. Just some epsom salt, body oil, and my current read.

#walkonthewildside works with this one, which is about Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, the writing of The Great Gatsby, and the murder of the decade that may or may not have influenced Fitzgerald during his writing. #marchintothe70s

Cinfhen Cool cover! You‘re quite the party girl 💜🥳🙌🏻 6y
Reviewsbylola It‘s a Saturday night so I‘m raging over here. 😆 @Cinfhen 6y
charl08 Oh I loved this one: so well written. 6y
gradcat Sounds like a great “bath” party to me! 🥳 🛁 📖 6y
121 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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Reviewsbylola
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#bathandbook tonight is the amazingly scented Chamomile Flower bath bomb. It smells wonderful. 😍

AlaMich The water is turning a pretty color, too! 6y
ChasingOm Is it from Lush?? I ask because I have plans to go there next weekend when I‘m traveling, lol. (edited) 6y
Reviewsbylola Yes it is! It‘s one of their spring bombs, so it won‘t be there for long! @ChasingOm 6y
Megabooks Lovely! My life goal is to have a bathroom big enough for a HUGE tub. Like a hot tub. 😁😁😁 6y
Reviewsbylola That‘s an amazing life goal and I fully support that! @Megabooks 6y
119 likes5 comments
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Ash.on.the.line
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Mehso-so

The idea of this was up my alley. The things around Fitzgerald that brought about his work. Ultimately fell flat though. Does show that the 20s wasn‘t full on glitz and glamor which I think is refreshing. A few interesting facts and insights in their life but mostly it‘s meh.

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Mdargusch
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I️ love coming back from vacation to my bookmail. All my books for #booktoteswap and #whodunitdoeschristmas swap have arrived! Plus a few for me. 😁#📫 #📪 #📦 #emojinov

Reviewsbylola Nice!! 7y
emilyhaldi Cool!!! 👏🏻👏🏻 7y
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CKtheLibrarian
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Lost Generation reading continues into March! 🙌

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BookishMarginalia
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It's so loud at the tournament that I can't read. I'm bored out of my 💀 , so I'm weeding books from my kindle... #teachersoflitsy 🙉🙉🙉

TheBookHippie Oh I need to do that... 8y
kspenmoll This year I was able to stay away with students who could not handle noise level -- what a sacrifice !!!!👏😃 8y
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passingfair
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First shelf of first bookcase in new country filled. 💕

MrBook Nice!!! 8y
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Matchkim
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Bailedbailed

Made it 3/4 through this. I even tried switching to audio book format and it didn't help. Writing style was trying to hard, but that may be that the premise was trying to hard to connect things that just didn't fit. I enjoyed the photos and some of the facts about Fitzgerald's life were enjoyable. Wouldn't recommend.

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bookishbunny
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Can't believe I managed to get an autographed copy for $1.49. Really looking forward to this one! The Hall-Mills murder took place in 1922 in New Brunswick, NJ (where I did my undergrad). The police investigation and trial were a mess and apparently that case was an influence on The Great Gatsby. Also, the house in which Eleanor Mills had lived was the residence of the dean of my college.

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