FitzFirst@Four, with Laura Iandola

FitzFirst@Four is a monthly discussion group, focused on the short stories of F Scott Fitzgerald. It meets at 4:00pm on the first Sunday of every month at Common Good Books. Events are free and open to the public.

This month’s guest is Laura Iandola. We’ll be discussing the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” which can be found in The Saint Paul Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald, available now at Common Good Books.

A Minneapolis resident, Laura Iandola is currently a doctoral candidate at Northern Illinois University, and has regularly used Fitzgerald’s works in teaching classes on history and gender studies. Bernice Bobs Her Hair, was first published in 1920, and is one of Fitzgerald’s most well-regarded works. The action follows Bernice, during her month-long visit to the home of her cousin Marjorie. Popular and well-respected in her own home town of Eau Claire, Bernice has high hopes of making a strong impression on her visit. But, through some inadvertent eavesdropping, Bernice soon discovers what Marjorie really thinks: “no girl can bolster up a lame-duck visitor… I’ve even tried to drop her hints about clothes and things, and she’s given me the funniest looks…” In order to prove her cousin wrong, Bernice contemplates taking the “radical” step of bobbing her hair.