Saturday, June 14, 2025
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, the North Merrick Public Library transformed into a roaring 1920s speakeasy on April 24 for a Great Gatsby-themed murder mystery party.
Patrons dressed to impress in Gatsby-era attire — flapper dresses, feathered headbands, pinstripe suits and fedoras — as they stepped into the Cat’s Meow, the hottest gin joint in town. Politicians, socialites, actors, musicians and even criminal bosses filled the lively speakeasy, but the jazz and glitter soon gave way to suspense when a shocking crime took center stage. Guests worked in teams to uncover clues, solve puzzles and unravel secrets to discover which larger-than-life character was guilty of cold-blooded murder.
The event was held in honor of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published on April 10, 1925. Set during the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious man obsessed with rekindling a past romance with Daisy Buchanan. Through lush prose and sharp social commentary, Fitzgerald explores themes of love, wealth, illusion, and the decline of the American Dream.
Though not a success in Fitzgerald’s lifetime, The Great Gatsby is now widely considered one of the greatest American novels ever written, regularly studied in classrooms and celebrated in pop culture. Its 100th anniversary is being marked by literary institutions, libraries and readers across the country.
A century after Gatsby’s green light first glowed across the bay, the North Merrick Public Library proved that the spirit of the Jazz Age — with all its glamour, mystery and intrigue — still captivates readers. For one thrilling night, fiction and reality collided in the stacks, reminding patrons that great stories never go out of style.
