The Chosen and the Beautiful
by Nghi Vo
I never read [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490528560l/4671.SY75.jpg|245494] in school; I just read it for the first time last year. I was underwhelmed. It reminded me strongly of [b:Babbitt|169718|Babbitt|Sinclair Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348449518l/169718.SY75.jpg|2772467], which was hands down my most hated high school reading assignment. Anyway, I had passing familiarity but not deep analysis or deep love for the original.
Why rewrite? Artistically, it should be to comment on something specific, or to reveal something new by changing perspective on the same events. Parts of tCatB do the second thing (changing the viewpoint from a queer white man to a queer Vietnamese woman), but there's so much else changed at the same time.... The magic was very atmospheric and gorgeously written, but I don't feel like it contributed to the story, I feel like Vo just wanted to write magic. And I get the sense that, far more than Vo wanted to comment on tGG, she just wanted to write this particular bit of fanfic. (If I say the words self-insert, is that mean? I don't mean to be a jerk, I certainly relate to the impulse to wonder how a character you love would react to you as you actually are.) I guess that's a legitimate artistic purpose too?? But not having any love for tGG, I wondered more than once why I was reading it.
There was one jarring misstep in a novel otherwise trying to be thoughtful about colonialism and whiteness: the decision to deal with an infamous antisemitic stereotype character by not humanizing him but turning him into a literal demon. Oops!! I also wondered what Vo was trying to do by making anyone who could do magic (distantly) mixed or nonwhite - is the implication supposed to be that white magic is demonic capitalism? That would sit better with me if demonic capitalism wasn't also implicitly jewish, unfortunately. I hope I missed something.
To be fair, there are also a lot of elements of the story that do work. The scene between Jordan and Khai discussing her personal history was wrenching. The beautiful writing also pulled me onward, which is no small feat - I'm easily annoyed by poetic striving, so. This one didn't work for me, but I'll definitely be reading more from Nghi Vo.