The Chosen and the Beautiful
By
Nghi Vo
2021 • 260 pages
Ratings20
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings20
Average rating3.6
Nghi Vo’s stunning and subversive retelling of The Great Gatsby subtly infuses the world with magic. Jordan Baker is a queer, adopted Vietnamese American raised in America’s wealthiest social circles. She can make cut paper come to life — though it's a skill she has little opportunity to hone as it comes from her Vietnamese ancestry, and she knows no other person of her heritage. She befriends Daisy as a child, and Daisy becomes the epitome of white wealth and privilege. Immersed in Jazz Age culture, Vo expertly draws out the white patriarchal racism and sexism of The Great Gatsby.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book is full of 1920s sparkle and longing—I love this classic story more from a queer Asian American point of view. Jordan Baker is everything—a dreamer, supportive, strong, adaptable, sensual. Watching the story play out from Louisville to West Egg with Baker at the center helped me come to some new realizations about Gatsby, Tom, Nick, and Daisy. With gin babies, speakeasies, and demoniac dancing around the periphery, this story stayed true to the class struggle, racism, and grime at the edges of 1920s glitz and glamour. Love this book! And I'll read The Great Gatsby again with new eyes because of it.
I want to come back to this but I'd had it out from the library for too long and it just wasn't grabbing me
I was very excited for this one because I loved Vo's writing in her Singing Hills series and I knew this would be awesome too. Turns out this wasn't exactly what I expected. The story sticks too close to The Great Gatsby which was not one of my favorites in the first place, so I felt like the author's gorgeous writing couldn't make up for some of the boring parts. The magical elements were also too few and I guess I just wasn't that much into more of a historical fiction story. But I can't deny that both the writing and the audiobook narration are very good and definitely what enabled me to finish it.
