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adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
CWs: alcoholism and intoxication; infidelity; parental death; murder; racism and outdated racial epithets; references to suicide and abortion; some descriptions of vomit; graphic injury; and some scenes containing graphic sex
The Chosen and the Beautiful is a stunning Gatsby retelling that adds so much richness and depth that is absent from the original text. While The Great Gatsby is a fascinating, dramatic story about glamour and debauchery it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the characters' motivation and circumstance. In this retelling, Nghi Vo seeks to answer those question by introducing magic and queerness to the story in a way that brings the events of Gatsby into new light, and the complexity presented by those new elements is shown to be every bit as necessary to the story as they are refreshing.
I love how magic is used in this story. It's very much woven into the fabric of this world and time period to the point of being commonplace. In the original story, we're told that Gatsby throws these hugely extravagant parties in the hopes of drawing Daisy's attention and luring her in, and while that is still true in The Chosen and the Beautiful, there's an added layer with the notion that perhaps Gatsby sold his soul to a demon and provides opportunity for gluttony and licentiousness in service of the underworld. It also provides another answer for how he came into his fortune and how he can afford to throw these lavish parties night after night.
Magic is also connected to our main character, Jordan, who has the ability to create living creatures out of paper, which is connected to her Vietnamese heritage. It's really interesting to see her discover that power throughout the story, but also seeing how she is expected to use that power in service of the white people around her.
So the use of magic is commonplace to the point of it almost being inconsequential, and it's also seen as an "indulgence" that serves the purpose of entertainment. In that way, magic becomes yet another form of currency and status in this society, which is further reflected in how the story explores money and wealth as its own form of magic. Money is connected to privilege, and when you have enough money you can open any door, conjure anything at your fingertips, and make anything you want become real. What is that, if not a kind of magic? By association, Jordan is folded into the protective circle of privilege afforded to her rich friends, and that privilege is magic enough to make her culture and her ethnicity "disappear" enough to make her "tolerable."
The addition of queerness in this retelling is also equally important, especially in how it reveals more about Gatsby's interest in Nick. He's drawn to Nick not simply because they lead vastly different lives or because of Nick's blood relation to Daisy (though that does play a role), but also in part because they desire each other. By reimagining Jordan as a queer woman as well, The Chosen and the Beautiful takes what's merely implied in the original text and makes it explicit. And because Gatsby's parties are a space where all are welcomed and where anything can happen and be forgotten by morning, that would naturally create a site to explore queerness without fear of stigmatization or rejection. The story does what The Great Gatsby fails to do by acknowledging the historical existence of people who A) were not white and B) were not straight.
I also think it's so smart how the narrator who is providing an entryway to this story is yet another character who might otherwise be considered "a side character" at best, in the same way that Nick, in the original story, primarily plays the role of a witness. But unlike the original, there is historical precedent for why Jordan would be considered secondary, and it's because she's a Vietnamese immigrant. Because of her cultural background, she is considered to be "apart from" the Gatsby's and Daisy's of the world, even though they tend to run in the same circles. She is invited to witness and play accomplice in the on-goings of their lives, but she is not invited to center herself or take up space. Her friends allow her to be around because they consider her cultural experience to be dismissible and inherently secondary to their own lives.
And I think that ties into the greater questions presented in the story: What does it mean to be wanted? What does it mean to belong somewhere? How much are we entitled to, if anything? In that sense, there are so many powerful parallels between Jordan and Gatsby. They both surround themselves by hundreds of people without truly being known by anyone; neither are not free to pursue that which they really want, either because of opportunity or circumstance; and they both trend towards the destructive as they merely go through the motions of life. If something is available to you does that mean it belongs to you? That's a question both Gatsby and Jordan are struggling to answer in this story.
Overall, I found this to be an evocative and powerful retelling that made me look at the original in a completely new light. Through the addition of magic, queerness, and a POC narrator I was also able not only to engage with the story in a different way, but imagine myself in it for the first time. While the plot remains largely grounded in the original events, the story reads completely differently and stands on its own.
The one thing that felt questionable to me was a line towards the end that mentions how Gatsby is half-Choctaw, and it's so quick that it almost feels like a throw-away sentence. That Native heritage is significant, and I wish it was actually meaningfully explored in the story instead of punctuating it as an afterthought, and I don't think it affords the proper respect to that cultural heritage. That said, even though the it does feel a bit too slow-paced at times, it's still a beautiful and thoughtful story that gradually reveals more and more of itself the longer you sit with it, and that lingering longevity makes it wholly worthwhile.
The Chosen and the Beautiful is a stunning Gatsby retelling that adds so much richness and depth that is absent from the original text. While The Great Gatsby is a fascinating, dramatic story about glamour and debauchery it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the characters' motivation and circumstance. In this retelling, Nghi Vo seeks to answer those question by introducing magic and queerness to the story in a way that brings the events of Gatsby into new light, and the complexity presented by those new elements is shown to be every bit as necessary to the story as they are refreshing.
I love how magic is used in this story. It's very much woven into the fabric of this world and time period to the point of being commonplace. In the original story, we're told that Gatsby throws these hugely extravagant parties in the hopes of drawing Daisy's attention and luring her in, and while that is still true in The Chosen and the Beautiful, there's an added layer with the notion that perhaps Gatsby sold his soul to a demon and provides opportunity for gluttony and licentiousness in service of the underworld. It also provides another answer for how he came into his fortune and how he can afford to throw these lavish parties night after night.
Magic is also connected to our main character, Jordan, who has the ability to create living creatures out of paper, which is connected to her Vietnamese heritage. It's really interesting to see her discover that power throughout the story, but also seeing how she is expected to use that power in service of the white people around her.
So the use of magic is commonplace to the point of it almost being inconsequential, and it's also seen as an "indulgence" that serves the purpose of entertainment. In that way, magic becomes yet another form of currency and status in this society, which is further reflected in how the story explores money and wealth as its own form of magic. Money is connected to privilege, and when you have enough money you can open any door, conjure anything at your fingertips, and make anything you want become real. What is that, if not a kind of magic? By association, Jordan is folded into the protective circle of privilege afforded to her rich friends, and that privilege is magic enough to make her culture and her ethnicity "disappear" enough to make her "tolerable."
The addition of queerness in this retelling is also equally important, especially in how it reveals more about Gatsby's interest in Nick. He's drawn to Nick not simply because they lead vastly different lives or because of Nick's blood relation to Daisy (though that does play a role), but also in part because they desire each other. By reimagining Jordan as a queer woman as well, The Chosen and the Beautiful takes what's merely implied in the original text and makes it explicit. And because Gatsby's parties are a space where all are welcomed and where anything can happen and be forgotten by morning, that would naturally create a site to explore queerness without fear of stigmatization or rejection. The story does what The Great Gatsby fails to do by acknowledging the historical existence of people who A) were not white and B) were not straight.
I also think it's so smart how the narrator who is providing an entryway to this story is yet another character who might otherwise be considered "a side character" at best, in the same way that Nick, in the original story, primarily plays the role of a witness. But unlike the original, there is historical precedent for why Jordan would be considered secondary, and it's because she's a Vietnamese immigrant. Because of her cultural background, she is considered to be "apart from" the Gatsby's and Daisy's of the world, even though they tend to run in the same circles. She is invited to witness and play accomplice in the on-goings of their lives, but she is not invited to center herself or take up space. Her friends allow her to be around because they consider her cultural experience to be dismissible and inherently secondary to their own lives.
And I think that ties into the greater questions presented in the story: What does it mean to be wanted? What does it mean to belong somewhere? How much are we entitled to, if anything? In that sense, there are so many powerful parallels between Jordan and Gatsby. They both surround themselves by hundreds of people without truly being known by anyone; neither are not free to pursue that which they really want, either because of opportunity or circumstance; and they both trend towards the destructive as they merely go through the motions of life. If something is available to you does that mean it belongs to you? That's a question both Gatsby and Jordan are struggling to answer in this story.
Overall, I found this to be an evocative and powerful retelling that made me look at the original in a completely new light. Through the addition of magic, queerness, and a POC narrator I was also able not only to engage with the story in a different way, but imagine myself in it for the first time. While the plot remains largely grounded in the original events, the story reads completely differently and stands on its own.
The one thing that felt questionable to me was a line towards the end that mentions how Gatsby is half-Choctaw, and it's so quick that it almost feels like a throw-away sentence. That Native heritage is significant, and I wish it was actually meaningfully explored in the story instead of punctuating it as an afterthought, and I don't think it affords the proper respect to that cultural heritage. That said, even though the it does feel a bit too slow-paced at times, it's still a beautiful and thoughtful story that gradually reveals more and more of itself the longer you sit with it, and that lingering longevity makes it wholly worthwhile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder
Minor: Death, Suicide, Abortion, and Death of parent
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