Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston is a fictional portrayal of F. Scott Fitzgerald's muse, Ginevra. Ginevra is a sixteen year-old spoiled debutante who meets a nineteen year-old Fitzgerald at a party thrown by mutual friends. After this one meeting, the two correspond frequently, sending multiple page letters to each other.
Ginevra convinces herself that she is in love with Fitzgerald because she is in love with the idea of being in love. By the time Fitzgerald comes to visit her in the summer, Ginevra is ready to move on to the next romantic figure. She unceremoniously dumps Fitzgerald with "supreme boredom and indifference."
The next half of the book traces Ginevra's loveless marriage to the man for whom she dumped Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, the author's career has taken off. He suddenly is well-known and widely published. Ginevra secretly reads all of his stories looking for portrayals of herself in the female characters like Daisy Buchanan, Isabelle Borge and Josephine Perry.
This book is a good complement (or alternative) to The Great Gatsby. It captured the spirit of the times and gives you insight into why Fitzgerald's characters were written the way they were.
1 comment:
As a fan of The Great Gatsby, I'm excited to read more this book.
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