Ugh. ( )

I probably would have liked it better if I'd read The Great Gatsby before, but that's on me.

There are some beautiful turns of phrase in this story, and some heart-wrenching moments of vulnerability that contrasted nicely against a cast of jaded and hedonistic rich brats. Overall, though, I had a hard time getting invested in the story and its characters. I'm glad it was short, because I really enjoyed the good stuff but was getting kinda sick of the rest by the end. ( )

I never read [book:The Great Gatsby|4671] in school; I just read it for the first time last year. I was underwhelmed. It reminded me strongly of [book:Babbitt|169718], which was hands down my most hated high school reading assignment. Anyway, I had passing familiarity but not deep analysis or deep love for the original.

Why rewrite? Artistically, it should be to comment on something specific, or to reveal something new by changing perspective on the same events. Parts of tCatB do the second thing (changing the viewpoint from a queer white man to a queer Vietnamese woman), but there's so much else changed at the same time.... The magic was very atmospheric and gorgeously written, but I don't feel like it contributed to the story, I feel like Vo just wanted to write magic. And I get the sense that, far more than Vo wanted to comment on tGG, she just wanted to write this particular bit of fanfic. (If I say the words self-insert, is that mean? I don't mean to be a jerk, I certainly relate to the impulse to wonder how a character you love would react to you as you actually are.) I guess that's a legitimate artistic purpose too?? But not having any love for tGG, I wondered more than once why I was reading it.

There was one jarring misstep in a novel otherwise trying to be thoughtful about colonialism and whiteness: the decision to deal with an infamous antisemitic stereotype character by not humanizing him but turning him into a literal demon. Oops!! I also wondered what Vo was trying to do by making anyone who could do magic (distantly) mixed or nonwhite - is the implication supposed to be that white magic is demonic capitalism? That would sit better with me if demonic capitalism wasn't also implicitly jewish, unfortunately. I hope I missed something.

To be fair, there are also a lot of elements of the story that do work. The scene between Jordan and Khai discussing her personal history was wrenching. The beautiful writing also pulled me onward, which is no small feat - I'm easily annoyed by poetic striving, so. This one didn't work for me, but I'll definitely be reading more from Nghi Vo. ( )

Author Nghi Vo reimagines F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby from the point of view of supporting character Jordan Baker, who in this version of the story is the adopted Vietnamese daughter of a missionary family. The story still takes place in the early 1920s, and Gatsby's legendary parties are wilder than ever. Vo, however, adds magical realism and queer energy to the proceedings.

For me, the story was hard to follow until the middle, when the narrative's resemblance to its classic predecessor became more apparent. Still, as another reader commented, I don't know how well this novel would work as a stand-alone. Worth picking up. ( )

Jordan Baker was brought to Louisville from Vietnam as a toddler and has been raised by the parents of the young missionary who "rescued" her in early years of 19th century. Now it's the 1920s and she's living in NYC with an activist aunt and spending her time in the social circle of her Louisville friend Daisy Buchanan where she meets Daisy's cousin Nick and plunges into turgid scene that surrounds Jay Gatsby. So yes, it's a retelling of The Great Gatsby with devil's bargains and Vietnamese paper cutting magic. Relating events in something like a sweltering fever dream, Jordan is brittlely contemptuous of the society that is fundamentally contemptuous of everyone not borne of the right race and into the right family. ( )