It takes more than a little verve to write a story based on the iconic characters created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in perhaps the 20th century’s most famous American novel, but Claire Anderson-Wheeler has done just that with “The Gatsby Gambit.” And, say, old sport, it’s delightful.
Fans of “The Great Gatsby” — Penguin Classics is publishing a 100th anniversary edition in conjunction with Anderson-Wheeler’s new work — will delight in seeing their old friends again. Jay Gatsby is here, of course, but also Nick Carraway, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. They are joined by Anderson-Wheeler’s invention, Jay’s sister Greta, back from finishing school and spending the summer at the mansion in West Egg. She’s the real star of the story, which after re-introducing readers to Fitzgerald’s cast, quickly takes a tragic turn.
Saying more about the tragedy would spoil the reading experience, but suffice it to say that it fits perfectly with the story Anderson-Wheeler wants to tell — about a young woman with extraordinary means who is awakening to the inequities of the 1920s America she inhabits.
She moves easily between the wealthy partygoers at her brother’s famous lawn parties and the servants who meet their every need, which puts her in perfect position to become a youthful version of Miss Marple, following every lead to solve the book’s central mystery.
Anderson-Wheeler writes in a voice that is fun to read, even as she stays true to the character traits Fitzgerald created a century ago. Here’s a moment in Greta’s head: “It was fortuitous, Greta reflected, that the future of women’s liberation did not depend solely on Daisy Buchanan.” Or Jordan, as she pushed “the duck confit morosely around her plate: Murder investigations aren’t half so much fun as I thought they’d be.”
Fitzgerald scholars may find it all frivolous — nothing but fan fiction that effectively negates the plot of the original — but readers who either don’t care about that or who just want to spend more time with these characters will be rewarded.
In the end, it’s an homage, right down to the green handkerchief Nick waves as his train departs for Manhattan at novel’s end: “(Greta) realized then what it reminded her of: the Buchanans’ green beacon across the sound… It had always looked so magical, so beautiful, the otherworldly flicker of some ever-receding dream.”
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