In Fitzgerald’s original, she sits mostly on the sidelines but is welcomed onto the main stage enough times to plant seeds of intrigue that Vo adopts and nurtures into her own captivating and magic-wielding version of her. Jordan Baker is a smart choice for the heroine of Vo’s novel.
Vo, of course, takes things a step further - her novel convinces me that there were relationships not explored in the original that I perhaps should have cared more about, especially those that include Jordan Baker. These aspects of a new world remain a backdrop to the relationships that I once cared deeply about in “The Great Gatsby,” such as Nick and Gatsby’s relationship and most certainly Daisy and Gatsby’s as well. Vo’s 1920s New York is one where cocktails can be made from demon’s blood and individuals can sell their souls for treasure worth the greatest price. A scintillating reimagining of “The Great Gatsby” with sharp, discerning Vietnamese American Jordan Baker as the female lead, Nghi Vo’s debut novel “The Chosen and the Beautiful” invites modern readers into a version of Fitzgerald’s New York that is at once comfortably familiar and dangerously alluring.
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