Like many others, I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby in high school. I liked the book for its insights into the elite world of the Roaring Twenties as well as for its style, but as a somewhat cynical teenager, I was most intrigued with the way that the book critiqued the notion that anyone from any circumstances can make a success of themself in America. The failure of the American Dream – or at least the admission that the American Dream comes with several caveats – is a subject that is tackled anew by Ernesto Quiñonez in his 2000 novel Bodega Dreams. Inspired by Pedro Pietri’s poem Puerto Rican Obituary and using The Great Gatsby as a template, Quiñonez tells the story of Willie Bodega’s rise to wealth and power in Spanish Harlem.
Although these three works – Gatsby, Obituary, and Bodega – have many thematic and plot elements in common, I find that the Puerto Rican works have affected me much more than Gatsby ever did in high school. As a wealthy, white, Midwesterner, it seems like I would find more to relate to in Fitzgerald’s work than in Quiñonez’s, but it is hard to relate to characters who exist in a setting that is 90 years past. As for being able to relate to Puerto Ricans from New York City (“Nuyoricans”), well, that’s what makes the Bodega Dreams so powerful: I don’t really have much in common with the characters, but I am all the more affected by the story because of it. Bodega Dreams depicts a situation that is not all that far removed from what I know is possible in today’s America, replacing bootlegging with drug dealing and urban opulence with urban poverty. With the epigraphs from Puerto Rican Obituary reinforcing the message that people too often come short of their attempts at creating a comfortable living for themselves, Bodega Dreams succeeds in depicting a part of American life that is often forgotten.
Ah, Tillie. Great points all around.
ReplyDeleteI read The Great Gatsby of my own free will in high school. It was on some list that one of my English teachers had of "100 books you should read before graduating or dying or something." Anyway, I read it then. And I really struggled through it. I also read Bodega Dreams in high school and I had the exact opposite response--I LOVED IT. It really caught my attention and I ended up reading tons of Latino lit as a result. At the time, I didn't even realize that the two books were at all related. Blows my mind to realize it now.
Tillie, thanks for your reflections that address these three works. I also read the Great Gatsby in high school and found it very hard to relate to. I remember watching the movie after reading the text and still feeling as though the majority of the events had no relationship to my own life.
ReplyDeleteLavonne read Bodega Dreams in high school and I think if I had read it alongside of The Great Gatsby I also would have greatly preferred the former. Though I too am unable to relate to wealthy upper class Americans and Puerto Ricans in Spanish Harlem, I found it more challenging to learn from Quinonez's story. Perhaps this is because the plight of the wealthy can seem petty and frivolous, but the hard work of Puerto Ricans wanting something more is down-to-earth and understandable.
I think more of this society could relate more to Bodega Dreams that the Great Gatsby. In high school we were assigned to read the Great Gatsby none of us read it. Why would we? First, we never read anything they gave us. Second, it's about the wealthy which we all thought was annoying and boring. Finally, it wasn't important to us. I think people would prefer a novel that shows hardworking people trying to survive in a city. Not all of us are wealthy and can throw extravagant parties. That is something like a movie where we could only dream of having a mansion to live in. Reading Bodega dreams is more real to read because it shows struggles of people who are hard working. This is all my opinion. I would rather have read Bodega Dreams in high school than the Great Gatsby. I feel people would learn a great deal from this novel.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting responses here and in your blog, suggesting that Bodega Dreams is more engaging than The Great Gatsby! Quinonez did a great job of layering both Anglo and Puerto Rican literary references in this book, and his use of a "noir" style mystery really keeps the plot moving. Frankly, to a contemporary GC reader, the emphasis on wealth in Gatsby is fairly repellant--I think we find it more interesting to engage another culture in our reading than to examine some of the more elitist aspects of money-driven white American culture in Gatsby, even though Fitzgerald's writing is beautiful and accomplished.
ReplyDelete