The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

coat and hair dusted with snow.
    â€œSorry,” Ava said.
    Luke smiled and tapped the empty seat beside him. Ava scurried over to it and sat.
    By the time Ava got her coat off and opened her Moleskine notebook—hoping the others saw it—Penny was standing.
    â€œWe all know the wonderful Twain quote, ‘A classic is a book everyone’s heard of but no one reads,’” she said. “But in the case of The Great Gatsby , I would offer the Italo Calvino quote, ‘A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.’ For I have read The Great Gatsby numerous times, and always discover new things in each reading.”
    â€œI couldn’t agree more,” Cate said. “I was delighted when Luke chose it, and I wonder if he might tell us why this is the book that matters most to him?”
    Luke not only got up, but he walked with his long-legged stride to the front of the circle, where Cate stood. He adjusted his hat, then began to speak.
    â€œI remember the first time I read The Great Gatsby ,” he said. “Eleventh-grade English. I was that kid who spent all his time in the art room, an okay student, but mostly unremarkable. I wassecretly in love with Molly Jenkins, who was not only totally hot, but she practically ran the school. Editor of the newspaper and the yearbook, you know the type. I even contributed drawings to the newspaper just so I could see her more. I spent an awful lot of energy trying to figure out a way to ask her out. But she had this boyfriend, and this aura, you know? Then I read The Great Gatsby and I felt like the book was talking to me. The unattainable woman. The green light. The first time we see that light, it’s described as ‘minute and far away,’ which makes it appear impossible to reach. But then Nick says at the end, ‘It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.’ And that gave me this crazy hope, this decision to run faster and stretch out my arms farther. It gave me this belief or this confidence that anything is possible.”
    Luke looked at each of them in turn.
    â€œIt changed my life,” he said quietly.
    Everyone, including Ava, burst into applause.
    It took a few minutes to get back to discussing the book, but then Honor brought up the same quote Ava had decided to mention— that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool —which led to a lively discussion of women in the 1920s and now.
    John brought up the theme of the American dream in The Great Gatsby .
    â€œAll those shirts,” John said, holding the book close to his chest like a precious thing.
    Jennifer nodded. “Such excess.”
    â€œI wonder if Gatsby would have even loved Daisy if she wasn’t so rich,” Kiki said. “Remember when he says, ‘Her voice is full ofmoney’?”
    â€œFitzgerald once said that you don’t write because you want to say something,” Penny said. “You write because you have something to say.”
    Ava smiled, warming to Penny’s propensity for quoting writers.
    â€œSo what do you think he had to say that made him write The Great Gatsby ?” Cate asked.
    â€œThat the American dream is illusory,” Jennifer offered.
    â€œAt the end,” Honor said, “everybody’s life goes on as if there never was a Jay Gatsby.”
    â€œA Jay Gatsby reaching for that green light,” Luke added.
    â€œIt’s a masterpiece,” Ruth said. “That’s good enough for me.”
    This time, Ava stayed for the wine and snacks and conversation that followed.
    â€œHow come the wine is in teacups?” Ava asked Cate.
    â€œThe book takes place during Prohibition,” Cate said with a smile. “It was Emma’s idea.”
    â€œYou know,” Ava said softly, “I had forgotten how a book can affect you.”
    The cover of