Chosen and the Beautiful

Today's read: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Genre: literary fiction, retelling, LGBTQ+ friendly

Essentially, at its most basic concept, this novel is Fanfic of Th Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is Gatsby told by Jordan Baker. However, in this version, Jordan is Vietnamese (brought over by her missionary adoptive mother). The other difference is magic. This world, thick with the decadence and figurative magic of the wealthy of the 1920s, also layers in an undercurrent of the demonic, about as illegal as alcohol. This is an era when you could, quite literally sell your soul. And maybe Gatsby did.

This is a world of contrasts, just as in Fitzgerald's work. But in Vo's creation, we are perhaps even more aware of the precipice on which our characters stand. Not only is death and dissolution coming for Gatsby, but it is coming for them all. The tensions of being queer and foreign are added to the story as, in the background, the legislature is voting to push out the foreigners (and the demonic) and their degrading influence, just as alcohol and queerness ate also being criminalized.

This book is beautiful, decadent, and tragic. Everything and more than you could want from the Jazz Age.

"She said things, they lit up gold in the air, and then they fell to nothing like so much cigarette ash."

"At Gatsby's, the clock stood at just 5 shy of midnight the moment you arrived. Crossing from the main road through the gates of his world, chill swirled around you, the stars came out and the moon rose up out of the Sound. It was as round as a golden coin, and so close you could bite it. I had never seen a moon like that before period. It was no Mercury dime New York moon, but a harvest moon brought all the way from the wheatfields of North Dakota to shine with sweet benevolence down on the chosen and the beautifu Everything was dripping with money and magic to the point where no one questioned the light that flooded the house..."

F. Scott Fitzgerald whomst!!! Nghi Vo owns this story now. The Chosen and the Beautiful is a masterpiece of a retelling/reworking. Slinky and sensual, surprising and sharp, Jordan Baker (a character who, in the original falls into the background) takes hold of the narrative and challenges Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, and Tom in turn while expanding the experience of New York in the 20s.

The aspect of this novel I was most concerned about—the addition of magic—turned out to be marvelous. The magic spins its own dreamy, heady quality over this book without taking away the characters agency or affecting the central plot in any distasteful way. It's a subtle thing, but delightful. I particularly enjoyed the way that Jordan's magic began to connect her to her heritage and sketch out a future for her beyond the confines of the novel.

I read Gatsby for the first time this year because I'd had it lying around from some library sale or another and I wanted to read the source material before reading this book. Having loved some of her other works, I was sure I'd love this too, and I wasn't wrong. I thought I'd find the magic to be jarring compared to the original (I'm a pretty literal reader and don't read fan fic), but I really enjoyed it.

This book has left me feeling conflicted and weird. The moment I started it, it felt like reading The Great Gatsby but overtly queer and with magic and demonic powers. It also almost feels like a waking dream, the way the writing flows and the way Jordan is as a narrator. This is probably a great example of unreliable and unlikeable narrator. I don’t even really know what to say about this book, other than it was compulsively readable even as it has left me feeling out of sorts. Like, I think I enjoyed The Chosen and the Beautiful, but also I can’t tell if I did enjoy it. I’d definitely still recommend this book, but it’s a weird one and I can’t quite tell if it’s a good weird or not.

So, I don't know how to classify this. It's a retelling of The Great Gatsby. But with sorcery - mostly demonic. And a female narrator, Vietnamese but raised in early 20th century America, who is a sort of love interest for Nick Carraway. And a whole lot of bisexuality and LGBTQ+ themes not prominent in the original. So it's the Great Gatsby, but really, REALLY not. It was amazingly well written, but I have it 4/5 because I really wasn't sure what too with this story . . .

... from the point of view of Jordan Baker -- with a twist! We always felt that both Jordan and Nick Caraway were somehow outsiders, correct? What if part of the reason for Jordan's feeling of alienation was that she WAS alien -- in the sense of being an adopted Asian child? However, there are more layers and facets to this very magical novel just as there was to the age it is set in.

Nghi Vo is the author of the wonderful Singing Hills novellas about the cleric Chih, fantasy tales that take place in an entirely imagined world. This novel is also fantasy, but takes place in a glittering reimagining of early twentieth-century America, a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" that contains magic and ghosts.

It is a sharp, beautifully-written story, clever and cutting, tragic and appalling. I admired it greatly, but I didn't enjoy it. The narrator, Jordan, was fascinating, but the very cleverness of the narration kept me at a distance from her. I never slipped into the story. Nick was often sweet, but I disliked Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby (I may have been intended to dislike them, but, without having warmed up to the narrator more, it left me with little emotional attachment.)

On the plus side, the prose is poetic and strong. I loved the paper-cutting, which I found very powerful from its introduction in chapter two's flash-back all the way through to its role near the end. I liked the queerness and the portrayal of Vietnamese Americans. The scenes turning on abortion are striking and memorable. The plot is flamboyantly masterful, cutting "The Great Gatsby" into a new beast, commenting on a world two steps from our own, its privilege and its rotten heart.

But I am an unsophisticated reader. I want to love the main character. I want to be immersed in the tale.

For me, impressive but not enjoyable. Call it three and a half out of five demoniac stars.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

Do you like when new novels, films, or TV shows spun out of classic texts make continual references to the past material? If so, then you will probably love The Chosen and the Beautiful. In the first chapter of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick makes an observation that Daisy and Jordan appeared as though they had blown in like balloons (I'm paraphrasing since I don't have the quote in front of me). Well, within the first paragraph, Vo writes that the wind "blew Daisy and me around her East Egg mansion like puffs of dandelion seeds... like a pair of young women who had no cares to weigh them down." Something definitely blows-- that we can all agree on. The books reads like a bad reboot movie that constantly winks and nods at the audience as if to say, "Remember when your favorite character said that famous line from the original Ghostbusters!?? While it's back! Wink! Wink!

This novel does nothing to add to the world of the Great Gatsby. Instead, it revisits famous moments with the depth of bad fan fiction. Your eyes will not roll back in haughty rivalry, they will simply roll back-- again and again-- in annoyance.