A review by saralynnburnett
Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor
5.0
When I learned that The Great Gatsby was up for public domain at the end of 2020 I got excited for all the Gatsby-esque books that would come out and Cantor's Beautiful Little Fools was a FABULOUS one!
It tells the story from the women’s povs so we have Jordan Baker the golfer, Daisy, Myrtle & her sister Catherine. It stays true to the original but breathes life and backstory into these ladies + laces a mystery throughout as to who killed Jay Gatsby because they all + some men in the story, had reasons to want him dead. A detective is on their trail at the behest of Gatsby’s benefactor Wolfsheim and he’s got some secrets of his own…
There is also an author’s essay at the back of this book which was a must-read. It charted the course of writing during a pandemic and the coincidence of the roaring 1920s having come from the ravages of the Spanish flu and told of all the research that went into this book’s creation. Apparently there’s also a movie version from 2000 where Paul Rudd plays Nick — might have to watch but nothing will come close to the 2013 one IMO…
It tells the story from the women’s povs so we have Jordan Baker the golfer, Daisy, Myrtle & her sister Catherine. It stays true to the original but breathes life and backstory into these ladies + laces a mystery throughout as to who killed Jay Gatsby because they all + some men in the story, had reasons to want him dead. A detective is on their trail at the behest of Gatsby’s benefactor Wolfsheim and he’s got some secrets of his own…
There is also an author’s essay at the back of this book which was a must-read. It charted the course of writing during a pandemic and the coincidence of the roaring 1920s having come from the ravages of the Spanish flu and told of all the research that went into this book’s creation. Apparently there’s also a movie version from 2000 where Paul Rudd plays Nick — might have to watch but nothing will come close to the 2013 one IMO…