Nghi Vo transports the reader to 1920s New York, lulled in by lush, melodic prose and the promise of power, magic found in money and infernal deals – in the fine powder of broken antique charms and drops of Demoniac: demon’s blood, often mixed with high class cocktails. Demoniac shows itself in dilated eyes and a sickly-sweet scent upon the breath, power hierarchy made obvious by a single black nail, but there’s more to the exorbitant atmosphere than floating – from sitting room to sitting room, party to party (however lush and extravagant they may be). Magic lurks in intricately cut paper, mesmerizing and beautiful, charred ashes and burnt embers leaving marks oft unnoticed, but powerful nonetheless, capable of enchanting, entrancing, being.
The stars were fainter here than they were in West Egg, but I tilted my head back and drank to them anyway, letting the demoniac give them voices to tell me their secrets. Stars didn’t talk like people did, and I couldn’t listen with my ears, but when I closed my eyes, they appeared to throw moving pictures across the darkness.
– excerpt from Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful
Enter Jordan Baker: a pro tennis socialite passing on the fringes of society, accepted but questioned – a queer Vietnamese American that acknowledges her status, both as a woman and an immigrant, the orphaned child of the wealthy Louisville Bakers, “rescued” from Tonkin as a child and whisked away to be pretty. The trajectory of the novel is a familiar one, a faithful retelling, re-imagining The Great Gatsby by turning the opulence of the roaring 20s into a magical affair of another sort – one that follows the astute and enchanting Jordan Baker while simultaneously examining racism, classism and sexism, not only as it pertains to the era, but the modern age.
Expertly crafted, Vo’s narrative breathes life into a classic, with rich, gorgeous prose illuminating a new side of the story – one that is focused on the quiet power of women in an age that afforded freedom, if you were rich, pretty, and knew where to look. Jordan is all of these things and none of them at once – an anomaly that passes in her best friend, Daisy Buchanan’s social circles. Bold and confident, Jordan is not afraid to test boundaries, aware that she has been afforded the opportunity to fit in with men and women, flitting from house to house and following her own dreams, away from the very real ghosts that haunt her past, present and future in Louisville.
In Jordan, Vo flits through the years, memories of kissing girls and boys, meeting Gatsby, and moving through Louisville with Daisy at her side juxtaposed against the present, sensual trysts with Nick Carraway, illuminating nights at Jay Gatsby’s mysterious mansion, and Daisy, still by her side, yet infatuated with the very idea of her former lover. What unfolds is a tangled, yet mesmerizing web of ups and downs, Jordan at the center, busying herself, learning to fit in, to be free, but a tinge of unsatisfaction remains. Adventurous and flighty, Jordan is a force to be reckoned with, whisking the reader away, enchanting them with New York’s hidden sights – Lyric, a speakeasy that can only be found if one takes the subway the wrong way, three times; Cendrillon, a luxurious club that bars entry depending on the day, on the clothes you wear, on the flower that adorns your person, that, if found wanting, leaves you with entrance to a shabby theatre instead; and, of course, Gatsby’s ever-changing mansion, new rooms popping up overnight, time a thing of the past.
At Gatsby’s, the clock stood at just five shy of midnight the moment you arrived. Crossing from the main road through the gates of his world, a chill swirled around you, the stars came out, and a moon rose up out of the Sound. It was round as a golden coin, and so close you could bite it. I had never seen a moon like that before. It was no Mercury dime New York moon, but a harvest moon brought all the way from the wheat fields of North Dakota to shine with sweet benevolence down on the chosen and the beautiful.
– excerpt from Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful
Drawing from the source material in a way that feels familiar, Vo reinvents it with simple magic, naturally flowing between the pages, a living, breathing entity that shows itself in imps, ghosts, changelings, intricately cut paper brought to life, breathing history and tradition, and in the obvious – demoniac and the infernal, souls whisked away for a single black fingernail and a connection to hell itself. Laced with longing – to be remembered, to belong, to love – Vo finds her stride in Jordan in a positively striking debut that explores powerful women and naïve men, challenging old worldviews with smart quips and clever commentary, all while building a world from the ground up with gorgeous prose and unforgettable romantic affairs. A must read that is accessible – and perhaps even better – for those unfamiliar (or out of touch with) with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic.
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