Talking Location With … Barbara Boyle – PIEDMONT
Novel set on LONG ISLAND
20th December 2024
Gatsby by Jane Crowther, novel set on Long Island.
It is a century since The Great Gatsby was published and now, this author turns her attention to a modern-day re-imagining of the unscrupulous and flawed rich people, who settle for the Summer on the coast of Long Island. East Egg is where the true blue bloods of American society hang out, the meretricious interlopers and hangers-on populate West Egg, on the opposite shore. Feel familiar?
The author has taken the story of Jay Gatsby (as penned in The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald) and given it a good shake down. In this version, Jay is a woman and it is the story of this present day glittering influencer and the communities clustered along the shoreline, told through the eyes of her neighbour, Nic Carraway.
Nic is living in a bit of a hovel, a hut, which has been lent to her for the Summer by friends of friends, whilst she ponders her future. Across the water is her cousin, Danny Buchanan, married to T and of course they are on the right side of the proverbial track, dispensing largesse to their relative.
Nic is aware of Gatsby and is delighted to discover that she is her neighbour. Sounds drift across to her fisherman’s hut from Summer parties, as revellers take full advantage of the influencer’s generosity. Nic obsessively scrolls through Gatsby’s Social Media feeds, recognising vistas evident from her own home. And then, one evening, she is invited to a party at the grand mansion and her life is complete. It soon emerges that Gatsby asks her, in a roundabout way, to help connect her to an old lover, and with impaired judgement (she is, after all, in thrall to this iconic celebrity), Nic facilities a reunion.
So much of the story feels very familiar if you have read the original novel (and if you haven’t, it doesn’t matter). There are all the elements of F Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece – avarice, decadence, wealth, obsession, frivolity and downright venality – to tickle the reader’s fancy, all set against the sweltering Summer heat of Long Island, a tangibly cloying backdrop.
At the outset of reading this novel, I felt like Jane Crowther really is a new voice, with a writing style that is confident, stylish and elegiac, and it is the skill of the author that carries the story along. I came to delight in the rolling and lyrical prose. The story itself has highlights and memorable junctures but at times it slightly stalls, holding progression in neutral gear, then re-engaging and moving on.
A memorable read and I am very interested to see where this author goes next.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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