Maureen Corrigan on the story behind 'The Great Gatsby'

Is "The Great Gatsby" the Great American Novel? Maureen Corrigan, book critic for Fresh Air, argues that it is in her new book "So We Read On."

Corrigan first read the book in high school and it meant little to her. But over the years, it revealed its depths and she's been in its thrall.

From The Washington Post:

Taking what might be called a holistic approach, (Corrigan) examines "Gatsby" from every angle: from close readings of the novel's language (its chief attraction), to biographical matters, textual history, media reincarnations (movies, plays, homages, even computer games), critical responses and its place in today's culture. (In the final chapter, Corrigan returns to her high school and sits in on a few discussions of it.) She clearly knows the novel minutely, has read most of the criticism (a corpus as big as the Ritz), has visited the archives to report on its wonders, and is a fund of anecdotes about the Fitzgeralds and their world.

Corrigan joins The Daily Circuit to discuss her new book and what she learned in her research of "Gatsby."