An Event to Remember

Fourth in a series

This week, I’m recommending an event that, as I compose these musings, is nine days in the future, so may very well be in the past as you read this. Fortunately, the Boston Public Library tends to videotape the series, of which this event is the 2025 iteration, and put the result on YouTube, so likely it will be available sometime in the future.

I plan to attend this year’s Hundred-Year Book Debate, at the Boston Public Library on March 4, 2024 at 6 pm. Maybe you’ll join me? You do need to reserve free tickets ahead of time, with no guarantee that they remain available. On the event registration page is a way to sign up for a Zoom link to the live event. One appealing aspect of a program devoted to books that have reached the ripe old age of 100 is that they are out of their copyright protection period, so I can provide you with links here to each of this year’s three contenders: The Great Gatsby, The Trial, Mrs. Dalloway.

As is my way, one recommendation tends to spawn more. So here are ten ways to expand upon the BPL event:

First of all, here from YouTube are the 100-Year debates from 2022, 2023, and 2024:

#2:

This annotated version of Mrs. Dalloway is richly illustrated as well as annotated. If you want a deep dive into Woolf’s novel, I’d suggest reading it through without the annotations, reading the annotations on their own from beginning to end, and then rereading the novel with the wider perspective you’ve now gained.

#3:

I’ve recommended Baz Luhrmann’s over-the-top adaptation of Fitzgerald’s classic before. While lovers of the novel may cringe, Luhrmann does capture for 21st century tastes the opulent world of Jay Gatsby and friends.

#4:

Coincidentally, OperaVision just this month debuted Der Prozess, a 1953 German opera based on Kafka’s novel by Gottfried von Einem. I find the music expressive and approachable, although I must admit that my positive feeling about modern opera is stronger than that of many of my readers, I suspect. OperaVision videos tend to stay on-line for about six months, so try it soon if you’re interested.

#5:

Michael Cunningham’s retelling of Mrs. Dalloway is lovely on its own; for those familiar with Woolf’s novel, what Cunningham has wrought is truly marvelous. Better yet…

#6:

…you can enjoy three first-rate actresses (Streep, Moore, Kidman) in the film version of Cunningham’s novel and play the endlessly fascinating game of comparing book to movie. Still better yet…

#7

…you can revel in Kevin Puts’ opera The Hours, where another classy trio (Renee Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Joyce DiDonato) embellish Cunningham’s characters in their own indomitable ways. To see the full opera, you can stream The Met for a seven-day free trial. Beware though. The Met’s offerings are fantastic, so you may very well become a paid subscriber after the trial.

#8:

This may be Ishiguro’s most polarizing novel. I gave away my copy, but more than most book’s I’ve relinquished, I find myself often thinking about reacquiring and re-reading it. Why is it on this list of recommendations? Of all the books I’ve read that are not by Franz Kafka, The Unconsoled is the most Kafkaesque.

#9:

I like to include on a list of recommendations something I haven’t read or seen. In this case, it’s the opera by John Harbison on Gatsby. The video is of a discussion of the opera hosted by the late Boston Globe classical music critic Richard Dyer. Seeing him will evoke memories for me of the days when the Globe seemed to feature a Dyer review almost every day. As for the opera, it’s not available in full on Spotify, but here’s the suite from the opera:

#10:

I’ll end with something I wish I’d seen. Just recently, the Public Theater in New York, ended its revival of the 8-hour long play Gatz, a theatrical telling of Gatsby by the Elevator Repair Service theater company. During the long day’s journey into night that is the play, the actors read the entire novel while also playing a group of office workers. Check out the interview above to hear more about what alas I missed.

Once again, don’t forget about the Boston Public Library debate on March 4. My memory is that those of us in attendance may get to vote; I’ll be casting mine for Mrs. Dalloway.