{"product_id":"careless-people-isbn-9780143126256","title":"Careless People","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Churchwell... has written an excellent book... she’s earned the right to play on [Fitzgerald's] court. Prodigious research and fierce affection illumine every remarkable page.”—\u003ci\u003eKirkus \u003c\/i\u003e(STARRED review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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, \u003ci\u003eTales of the Jazz Age\u003c\/i\u003e. A spokesman for America’s 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet 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 investigation—which 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel Fitzgerald began planning that autumn of 1922 and whose plot he ultimately set within that fateful year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e 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 America’s best loved novel. Overturning much of the received wisdom of the period, \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e 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 Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInterweaving the biographical story of the Fitzgeralds with the unfolding investigation into the murder of Hall and Mills, \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling combination of literary history and murder mystery, a mesmerizing journey into the dark heart of Jazz Age America.\"\u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e blends biography, scholarship and literary journalism to generate a narrative that is almost novelistic in its urgency….Ms. Churchwell is committed not only to digging up long-forgotten historical nuggets but also to telling a well-crafted story....The finest achievement of \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e may be to return \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e to its moment. Time, place and the material world necessarily feed the imagination, and Ms. Churchwell presents a wealth of historical material that ought to inform any reading of Fitzgerald's great novel as a product of its era.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] compelling biography….The book is stuffed with wonderful and quirky cultural nuggets….Above all, Churchwell does a fantastic job of conjuring the magic of the Jazz Age, as well as its more lurid side. Regardless of how much of Fitzgerald's great novel was the result of fate, coincidence or pure imagination, it is fascinating to read about the era that shaped him, and to see how brilliantly he captured the happenings of his time.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] rewarding work, a history of 1922 as it was lived by the Fitzgeralds and their circle, as well as by the fictitious cast of \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e. Like the jazz that defined the era, the book tells its story through digression and repetition, building up a pattern of internal references and refrains.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[T]he liveliest contribution to Fitzgeraldiana to come my way in years... [Churchwell’s] delight in everything she's dug up renews the novel's enchantments even for the Gatsby-wearied likes of me... a vivid and often witty account of all the zany, sad, ridiculous things that Scott, Zelda and their fellow Jazz Age glitterati got up to during the boozy summer and autumn of 1922... impressively researched.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Prospect\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If you put all the books about F. Scott Fitzgerald in a stack, the resulting tower would be—apologies for the scientific jargon—really, really tall. In fact, it would almost certainly fall over. So it takes a bold writer to try tossing another one on the pile—and here comes one now! Sarah Churchwell’s \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e concerns the writing of \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e and the cultural and societal forces that inspired its superdrunk author. The book’s an unusual mix of criticism, biography, and true crime, all of it bound together by Churchwell’s lyrical prose and, frankly, the sheer force of her will. Not everything is new here (how could it be?), but it's an evocative read. It belongs on the tower, even if somebody else’s book has to come off.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sarah Churchwell’s zesty cocktail of history, biography and literary criticism (with a dash of philosophical musing) so vividly captures the disordered existence of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald during the 18-month sojourn on Long Island that inspired his greatest novel, many readers will close her book astonished that Scott managed to write \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e at all....She does a brilliant job of re-creating ‘the world that prompted F. Scott Fitzgerald to write \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e,'….Insights such as this make \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e a book that anyone who cares about \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e will want to read.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Churchwell introduces real-life equivalents of Fitzgerald’s characters, and she follows the stories in their morning papers. The results are often as glamorous, lurid, depressing, and fun to read as one would imagine… [\u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e] brings 1920s New York City vividly to life.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Chronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A thoughtful book that’ll be catnip to all \u003ci\u003eGatsby\u003c\/i\u003e lovers….we’re given fascinating glimpses of social history.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sarah Churchwell, in this utterly pleasing and thorough ‘biography of a book,’ brings the two views together in a worthwhile effort at achieving whole sight…. Re-read The Great Gatsby, read Careless People and, if you still have any lingering doubts, go see ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The latest to fall under its spell is the scholar Sarah Churchwell, whose own seductive style borrows liberally from the novel….Grounded in archival evidence, but also richly speculative, her book is delightful reading for lovers of the novel and a provocative introduction for everyone else....[an] often fascinating reconstruction….Churchwell’s narrative has three principal strands: an account of the murder investigation, biographical information about Scott and Zelda, and a smart critical reading of the novel itself.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fascinating….Churchwell has produced an intriguing glimpse into how his mind worked, as he mined the Jazz Age innovations that still shape our world.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookpage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sarah Churchwell proves herself a master mixologist combining meticulously researched historical detail, equally tantalizing biographical tidbits and a subtle reading of Gatsby—the resulting cocktail is an intoxicating biography of a novel.”—\u003cb\u003eThe Daily Beast\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sarah Churchwell has done something almost unimaginable: She has discovered something new and she has written something fresh and revealing about the most chewed-over piece of fiction in the American canon….Churchwell’s book is handsomely illustrated and her research into the existing source material is prodigious….A literary journalist and author of \u003ci\u003eThe Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe\u003c\/i\u003e, Churchwell even unearthed a few morsels than no Fitzgerald scholars were aware of—most notably a letter by Fitzgerald about his intentions in \u003ci\u003eGatsby\u003c\/i\u003e that was quoted in a lost review of the novel by Burton Rascoe. Churchwell, clearly thrilled by her spadework, calls Fitzgerald’s letter ‘a tiny, heart-stopping treasure….’ \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e is a delightful blaze of a book….One of the chief virtues of \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e is the way it leads the reader back to its source material.”—\u003cb\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Churchwell... has written an excellent book... she even manages to find fresh facts that escaped previous scholars... At times, Churchwell attempts Fitzgerald’s lyrical style—one chapter-ending sentence alludes to “the vagrant dead as they scatter across our tattered Eden”—she’s earned the right to play on his court. Prodigious research and fierce affection illumine every remarkable page.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e(starred)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Sarah Churchwell] evokes the Jazz Age in all its ephemeral glamour and recklessness in her latest book….She excels at providing rich period details….the book highlights how accurately Fitzgerald intuited what was to come: the damage being done to American society by focusing on wealth; the way mass media would give rise to a celebrity culture.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Churchwell brings… a lively curiosity, a gift for making connections, and an infectious passion for Fitzgerald and his greatest novel…. A suggestive, almost musical evocation of the spirit of the time.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe London Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The first readers of \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby \u003c\/i\u003ethought it was all about themselves, a book of the moment. Today, we tend to admire its enduring mythology of aspiration and undoing. Churchwell brilliantly brings these two perspectives together as she holds in counterpoint the sprawling stuff of Fitzgerald’s daily life and the gleamingly taut prose poem that emerged from it… Fitzgerald offered the year 1922 as the chief exhibit when he tried to explain the meaning of the jazz age. It is an exhibit worth looking at very carefully. \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e does so with a mixture of patience and panache and it would take a long time to get bored of that particular cocktail.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The wonder of \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e ... is that it rewinds the years and allows the reader to appreciate again just how well Fitzgerald reflected his times.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A literary spree, bursting with recherché detail, high spirits and the desperate frisson of the jazz age.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A treasury of new material. Churchwell adds considerably to our understanding of the early 1920s, and how life for Fitzgerald played into the development of his art.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Not a second is wasted in this 350 or so page-turner. \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e was fascinating. . . .It’s utterly smashing.”—\u003cb\u003eCorduroy Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e, like all great cultural highpoints, evolved, and Churchwell manages to infuse them all, boring and not, with an energy and drama that turns the book into a page-turner. . . . We feel so close to the action that we almost forget we are reading a history and not a daily diary account of the goings-on. Churchwell takes what could have been a treasure for literary theorists and turns it into a potboiler that could make great beach reading (or ski resort fireplace reading, I guess, given the season). \u003ci\u003eCareless People\u003c\/i\u003e is a highly recommended read for all. A thriller that combines history and fantasy is a rare and beautiful thing, and this book is just that.”—\u003cb\u003eBook Reporter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eSarah Churchwell\u003c\/b\u003e is the Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of East Anglia. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eMust Read: Rediscovering the Bestselle\u003c\/i\u003er, and her literary journalism has been published widely. An American currently living in London, she is a regular broadcaster and contributor to the BBC.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302408442085,"sku":"NP9780143126256","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143126256.jpg?v=1767723405","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/careless-people-isbn-9780143126256","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}