At the same time there is part of her that feels differently - take for instance the reflection that “in truth I felt less special in Chinatown, and that made me dislike it.” Jordan herself is a pretty interesting character to spend time with - and note that I say “interesting” and not “enjoyable.” As she is in the original story, she is cynical and patronizing and largely indifferent to the world, but in this case I think the justification is that the veneer protects her from being hurt as a racialized outsider who is constantly othered and reminded of her difference.
With that in mind it makes a great deal of sense to tell the story from the perspective of a queer immigrant woman of color, but I can’t help but feel that the mere existence of a Jordan with this identity doesn’t go nearly far enough in making that point if it is indeed the point the book is trying to make. When I read retellings my question is always “Why did the author choose to tell the story this way?” In this case I think the goal was to write a retelling of a book about the falsity of the American Dream while expanding on the original book’s understanding of what is false and wrong about the U.S. As for The Chosen and the Beautiful, it is indeed very beautiful.but I can’t help but feel that it could have been so much more. I recognize why it’s an American classic objectively, and I don’t especially love it or hate it beyond that.
I happen to be entirely neutral about The Great Gatsby, for what it’s worth. She just has to learn how.Ī significant number of reviews for this book seem to be largely about how much the reviewer hated The Great Gatsby in high school, which is pretty funny. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.īut the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society-she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. For him, it was all a wrack and a ruin, and he had no idea why the rest of us weren’t screaming.” “When I looked at famous Jay Gatsby, soul gone and some terrible engine he called love driving him now, I could see that for him, the world was always ending.
0 kommentar(er)
