The Chosen and the Beautiful

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.

This brilliant, gorgeous book is a retelling of The Great Gatsby from the p-o-v of Jordan Baker, a secondary character in the book. The original Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, so Vo gives us a woman’s take & she makes Jordan Asian, so we get a POC take, as well. And there’s magic.

I wrote my dissertation on the work of Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald & I’ve read & taught Gatsby many times, so this book is like the richest of chocolate cakes for me. If you don’t know Gatsby well, you might want to (re)read it first to fully appreciate Vo’s genius.

I’m not sure how well it works as a stand-alone work, but as a revision of Gatsby, it’s one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever read.

This book made me really feel the need to re-read The Great Gatsby, or, more to the point, made me wish I had paid better attention the three times I've already read it. Fortunately, I remembered enough to be able to glean the relevance of Nghi Vo's reinvention of the original.

Vo's imagination takes us to a 1920s New York where magic is real and Gatsby may or may not have literally sold his soul to the devil in order to win Daisy's heart. Here, the story is told by Jordan Baker, and incorporates flashbacks to Daisy and Jordan's childhood in Louisville, giving more flesh to both characters. Daisy remains largely the same as she was when we all read her in high school, but Jordan is queer and a Vietnamese adoptee, who wants to have her show more own agenda, but hasn't quite figured out what it is yet. Oh, and when she's not playing golf or partying, she's been known to cut out paper shapes and bring them to life.

Perfect for fans who are ready for Gatsby with even more of an edge, what will really stand out to readers is Vo's sumptuous writing. Her descriptions of the mundane border on magical, and her descriptions of the magic are so down-to-earth that the reader, like the characters, has difficulty telling which is which, lending the entire story a glittery shine that lingers even after the last page is turned. show less

As far as Great Gatsby retellings go, I couldn't have asked for better. The magic was fresh, inventive, and felt fully integrated into the story rather than pasted on top of it. This wasn't Gatsby with a fantasy skin stretched over it, it felt like a world inspired by the work and built into something entirely new. The twist involving Nick Carraway was masterful and absolutely heartbreaking. A beautiful retelling that fully justifies its own existence.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful-by-nghi-vo-the-grea...

Folks, it is a real treat. I had no idea. It’s a re-telling of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of Jordan Parker, the #2 female character in the original, just as the original story is told from the point of view of Nick Carraway, who is definitely the #2 male character in the story. But it’s not quite Gatsby as we know it. Jordan and Daisy are still from Lousiville, Kentucky, but Jordan is an adoptee from Vietnam. Everyone (well, every main character) is queer and polyamorous. And magic works; not everyone can do it, but Jordan can, critically altering some of the key moments in the book.

I don’t know Gatsby well, but I found myself compelled show more to have it to hand to read in parallel with The Chosen and the Beautiful to enjoy even more what Vo has done with such a classic text. The overall arc is the same – it’s almost surprising how little the emotional dynamics are affected once you know for sure that everyone is shagging, rather than merely suspecting it – but it’s very pleasing, very moving and very nicely done. show less

When I heard about the premise of this book, I was immensely skeptical. Sure, Vo had written a perfect novella in The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but it's one thing to write a perfect novella and another thing to retell The Great Gatsby as a queer fantasy with a Vietnamese-American protagonist. This is the Great American Novel. Everybody is assigned it at some point. There is an entire academic journal devoted solely to F. Scott Fitzgerald, let alone all the other ways culture has embraced and adapted The Great Gatsby. If Vo thinks she can pull it off, she is welcome to try. Good luck, you're going to need it.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby

Well, gentle reader, Vo does pull it off. This is an incredibly lush, fun, weird, and hot novel about show more desire and its limits. I'll try to limit comparisons, because it is unfair, but the weakest point of Gatsby for me (and many others) is how much of a dud Nick Carraway is. Jordan Baker is very much not a dud, she's a firecracker cutting across New York society with beauty, wealth, and daring. She's very much aware of the knife edge that she dances across, with her "exotic" Asian face, and how she is at best a pet of the people who really matter, but while she is dancing and running she'll have a damn good time.

The basic plot is, well, Gatsby, but this has never been a story about plot. Rather this is one about the kinds of things people want, and the hollowness inside them. All the things that the characters want: glamour, excitement, romance, a drink, love, are what will destroy them. This endless desire, this void at the center of their selves, is surrounded by a shell of rigid high society customs. It's very cool, and very well done.

This is also a fantasy, though magic is more metaphorical than strictly necessary. Hell is real, and Gatsby may have sold his soul to get his mansion and his wealth. There are little charms and enchantments, though ultimately none of it matters more than illusion. It could be costumes and acrobats for all the impact it has. Jordan has a more significant magic, the ability to bring paper cuttings to life, which comes up in three pivotal scenes, though the nature and costs of this talent, which appear to be a Vietnamese specialty, are left undefined.

Ultimately, this book is super-stylish, character-driven, and well-researched. It's not Gatsby, not The Great American Novel in all its subtleties, but it's a lot more fun and stands on its own, which is perhaps a grander accomplishment. show less

Gatsby retelling with Jordan Baker POV. Jordan is a Vietnamese adoptee of the wealthy Baker family, and that (more than her queerness) gives her a particular view on Daisy and Tom’s privileges. There’s also magic and demons—demons supply demoniac, which gives visions, and make deals with people like Gatsby to bring a little more Hell to Earth. Magic seems more varied but Jordan practices a variant associated with Vietnam that she doesn’t entirely understand; when she encounters other Vietnamese practitioners she feels both seen and isolated, in a reversal-but-replication of her status among white rich people. I thought it was a good reading of Gatsby but would’ve liked more paper magic.