RIP Edana & Glen, long live the Rainbow Chorus!

 

It's 5am on Saturday morning, I just woke up, and I'm probably still slightly drunk, and the cats are delighted to see me. My cats love it when I wake up early and allow them into the bedroom for cuddles (I have a strict no-cats policy during deep sleep).

Unfortunately, while the cats are licking my face and demanding cuddles, the Facebook updates on my phone was heartbreaking news, 

Edana’s partner, Heather, and all the family are so sorry to have to tell you of Edana’s untimely death, late on Wednesday night, here in her beloved Liguria. Edana asked us to respect her privacy in dealing with her devastating cancer diagnosis, so we know that this will be a shock to many of you. Edana would have wanted you to remember her as we all do: the passionate, vivacious woman of style, love, joy, song, curiosity and furious politics. For those in Italy, the funeral will be held in Pugliola tomorrow, Saturday 16th July at 11am, at La Chiesa Parrocchiale di Santa Lucia in Pugliola, and afterwards at the Narbostro cemetery. 

Two weeks have now passed, and I still feel a sense of mourning for Edana and another lost connection to Brighton's Rainbow Chorus, an LGBTQIA+  choir still going strongly.

Although I didn't know that Edana well, I felt a strong affinity to her. We had been Facebook friends for over 15 years, and we occasionally chatted, but in 2010 I moved from Brighton to Amsterdam, and I hadn't seen Edana in person for a very long time.

I knew Edana through choir, Brighton Rainbow Chorus, both Edana and I joined when the choir was relatively small (rehearsals with 5-10 people) and overtime it grew until the typical rehearsal was 20-30. 

I was fortunate I first got know Edana as a fun-loving, friendly, vivacious lesbian with a great jazz voice. She had such a beautiful singing voice. It was only quite a lot later that I learnt she was from a "famous family" (two of her brothers are famous movie directors/producers?).

Her sister is also a famous Anglican and OBE, she also gave this great interview to Church Times:

Loretta Minghella became the First Church Estates Commissioner in November 2017, succeeding Sir Andreas Whittam Smith.
Before arriving at Church House, she was chief executive of Christian Aid for seven and a half years, and before that, she headed up the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, a job she says got “very rocky indeed” when the 2008 financial crisis hit.
Our Editor Paul Handley spoke to Loretta Minghella about how her experience prepared her for this latest role, and how the Commissioners are pressuring companies to improve their record on climate change and executive pay, among other things.
https://soundcloud.com/user-632063010/loretta-minghella-first-church-estates-commissioner-ep-51  

I vividly remember listening to this about 5 years ago and being soo impressed with Loretta, plus a brilliant interview with Paul Handley.

I was looking forward to meeting Edana again and telling her about my progress with singing (I've been having lessons for about 5 years now, which has been worth every penny i.e. I love singing. I also wanted to tell Edana about my admiration for her sister.

The last time I saw Edana perform was a memorable occasion in the upper room The Grand Central, Brighton (the closest pub in Brighton Station); not a very grand venue but it was a lot of fun.

It was an off-beat cabaret, foreshadowing the upcoming era of Tory austerity portraited in a perverse SM style. I believe Edwina both wrote and performed all the music, so was not prancing around in SM gear. My only disappointment is that I did get to hear Edwina sing on that occasion.

Over the last two weeks, I've also been thinking about Glenn: a very accomplished musician and quite often the accompanists (piano) for the Rainbow Chorus. Glenn passed away a few of years ago - equally heartbreaking.

I watched Glen perform on many occasions in the UK and in Greece. He was a sensitive accompanist and wonderful pianist with a particular passion for Rachmaninov.

A little over nine years ago, Glen and I met through our mutual friend the composer Matthew Pollard. Matt and I were collaborating on a project that was to become This Concert Will Fall In Love With You — later recorded with additional material as the CD Clameur and Glen was Matt’s first choice to play piano. Matt and Glen had were old friends, performing together in the Tacet Ensemble and The Rainbow Chorus for example.

https://peterkenny.co.uk/tag/glen-capra/

 
RIP Edana and Glenn and long live the Rainbow Chorus!

The end of BJ but maybe not the bonkers brexiteers

This is from an email thread with my aunt from Jan 2021 (about 18 months ago), I was lamenting the corruption in the current government:

...this government is suffering from too many nasty scandals: the FT had good coverage Robert Jenrick / Richard Desmond scandal, which is a real stinker. However the Track and Trace scandal is even bigger and more serious, there were headlines of "consultants" charging up to 700 GBP/day for a system running off an Excel spreadsheet!? This came to light because they lost data for a huge number of registered covid cases from their spreadsheet-based application, the media focused on that they were running on a serious out-of-date version of Excel. 

I don't follow UK politics that closely now: I'm an ex-pat of 12+ years (and about to move from The Netherlands to Spain).

Plus, the UK news is also so depressing; I still fail to see any upside of Brexit; after 6 years, it seems to be a lose-lose-lose situation?

I was visiting my parents in Oct 2021 and caught this shocking story on the BBC1 panorama program

Pandora Papers: Questions over Tory donations by ex-Russian minister's wife
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-58711151

Major Tory donor advised on Uzbekistan deal later found to be $220m bribe
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/04/major-tory-donor-advised-on-uzbekistan-deal-later-found-to-be-bribe-mohamed-amersi

Apparently, senior Tories (including one ex-Prime Minister) have been knowingly courting money from highly dubious sources, something the opposition has been trying to highlight for some time 

The public has a right to know which government ministers are meeting with donors who have access to the corridors of power, including what appears to be exclusive access to the prime minister and the chancellor. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/01/labour-calls-on-tories-to-reveal-which-ministers-met-elite-donors-club

Even the more traditional right FT has headlines like "Kremlin ties to 'Londongrad' need to be cut":

Even US officials are reportedly dismayed about the potential of “Londongrad” to derail western efforts. The current Conservative government has come under scrutiny for ties to donors such as the wife of Putin’s former deputy finance minister…
https://www.ft.com/content/33b71405-4885-4bce-8215-9b6e05543919

In the end, it was a sex-pest scandal which brought down BJ, who allegedly has his own problematic history? However, what did for BJ, was that:

(a) he knowingly appointed Mr Pincher (aka "Pincher by name, Pincher by nature" - BJ's sick humour and an epically bad joke with hindsight?) 

(b) the BJ told another bare-faced lie about not knowing of Mr Pincher's historical behavioural problems after he was caught red-handed again! The BJ lies backfired again: the cabinet initially rallied around their leader and went out to defend BJ, only to find they had been badly misled by BJ.

This was the final straw and then over about 48 hours, there was an extreme number of cabinet resignations i.e. as predicted last month, the Tory backbenchers had sent a clear signal they wanted BJ out, and it was up to the cabinet now…

However, a Dutch friend asked me 

I suppose you are celebrating now Johnson is out. I hope England has learnt its lesson regarding populist politicians, at least for a few generations. I hope England and UK will get some sense back in power. 

and my less than 100% optimistic response

I hope so too. But honestly I suspect the next PM will be another crazy Brexiteer. Could hardly be more odious than BJ but might be more effective and harder right wing politics, think Thatcher. But hopefully the Conservative party will see some sense?

 

I don't really believe in great men theories and the great men of history; apparently, Boris Johnson is a fan of this worldview (apparently his fascination with the "great men of history theory" was formed by his classics studies at Oxford?). As I can tell, it takes powerful teams of people working very well together to build something great, but unfortunately, only a handful of fools to tear all this good work down?

Honestly, I suspect that BJ will be mostly remembered for a mixture of toxic masculinity and corruption...

toxic masculinity 

The concept of toxic masculinity is used in academic and media discussions of masculinity to refer to certain cultural norms that are associated with harm to society and men themselves. Traditional stereotypes of men as socially dominant, along with related traits such as misogyny and homophobia,   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity 

corruption | kəˈrʌpʃ(ə)n | noun [mass noun] 1 dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery: the journalist who wants to expose corruption in high places. 
the action or effect of making someone or something morally depraved: the corruption of youth was a powerful motif | the word 'addict' conjures up evil and corruption. 

Homage to Nora - Concluding Joyce's Triumphant Tale of Heroes with Penelope aka Molly Bloom

Molly Bloom, is the main female voice in Joyce's Ulysses, finishing off the epic tale in her own more intimate style.

Joyce's Ulysses has three main protagonists, we start with the brilliant but moody Stephen Delgas, then we enter Bloom's world which is more stable & mature.

Fortunately, our anti-hero Bloom is no prig, he is worldly wise and can still enjoy earthly pleasures, he even embraces the infantile: one of the surprises of Ulysses is how much you learn about his bowel movements throughout Bloom's day!

But the last words go to Molly (Mrs Bloom), there is something wonderfully touching about her long and sometimes rambling monologue. She goes from melancholy to romance, to excitement, to disobedience, to finally reconciliation and love.  

Many essays and even whole books have been written about how Joyce based his fictional heroine on his mistress Nora Barnacle (much later became Nora Joyce), who Joyce absolutely worshipped. 

Nora Barnacle (21 March 1884 – 10 April 1951) was the muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce.

"Well, Jim, I haven't read any of your books but I'll have to someday because they must be good considering how well they sell."

Dictionary of Quotations, p. 452, To her husband James Joyce, Recalled on her death, 12 April 1951

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nora_Barnacle

Joyce was madly in love with Nora, and his ideas were extremely progressive in 1922 and some still are radical in 2022.

Although Joyce was recognised as a literary genius in his own lifetime and he never got delusions of grandeur and never attempted to become a saint. I think he understood human frailty & imperfectability at a very deep level, and that is why I expect he wasn't deluded by his literary genius status?

Getting back to Joyce's muse, one of Nora Barnacle's currently more popular and funny quotes

 "What do you think ... of a book with a big, fat, horrible married woman as the heroine?"

I feel I've heard this multiple times in 2022, and it shows plenty of wit if a bit harsh.

The main goodreads quote for Nora is also very funny

“I go to bed and then that man sits in the next room and continues laughing about his own writing. And then I knock at the door, and I say, now Jim, stop writing or stop laughing.” 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6884195.Nora_Barnacle

  

So the closing words Ulysses goto Molly, based on Penelope, and I believe this more carnal and femine section is what excited Marilyn Monroe, who can still be seen reading Ulysses, the internet is awash with images like this 

Penelope (/pəˈnɛləpiː/ pə-NEL-ə-pee; Greek: Πηνελόπεια, Pēnelópeia, or Greek: Πηνελόπη, Pēnelópē) is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence.

What did Shaw think of Ulysses, behind the mock horror he loved it!

George Bernard Shaw (Nobel prize 1925 and author of Pygmalion, which was adapted into the iconic musical My Fair Lady) wrote in an early review to Sylvia Beach (the publisher & owner of the Paris-based Shakespeare & Company) these very funny lines:

‘It is a revolting record of a disgusting phase of civilisation; but it is a truthful one; and I should like to put a cordon-round Dublin; round up every male person in it between the ages of 15 and 30; force them to read it; and ask them whether on reflection they could see anything amusing in all that fouled mouthed, foul minded derision and obscenity. 

Clearly, there is more than a hint of mock horror, Shaw does seem to be both shocked and intrigued. He will of appreciated that his more mainstream audience would have expected him to disapprove of this banned work. 

But also Shaw clearly sees the literary merit:

To you, possibly, it may appeal as art: you are probably (you see I don’t know you) a young barbarian – beglamoured by the-excitements and enthusiasms that art stirs up in passionate material; but to me it is all hideously real: I have walked those streets and know those shops and have heard-and taken part in those conversations...’

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/letter-from-george-bernard-shaw-responding-to-james-joyces-ulysses

Apparently Shaw much later (1939 and well after the British and US bans had been lifted) publicly conceded that Joyce was a literary genius: "Ulysses as a masterpiece". The British Library also mentions that Joyce loved the original notariety

Shaw’s response highly amused Joyce, and he had this copy made to share with Weaver. Shaw’s original copy of the prospectus is also held by the British Library.

So what did Shaw first think of Ulysses, behind the mock horror of the banned book, it seems to me that he was also entranced and in awe of Ulysses. 

To be honest, while we are probably a lot harder to shock in 2022 than 1922, but there are parts of the book I am still a bit icky to read? Not the sexual content and sexual fantasy, which are both fascinating and highly entertaining, but mostly Joyce's characters' private lives are quite sensitively and compelling told. 

My problem with Joyce is the reoccurring references to his various bowel problems... I struggle a bit with musical farting, Joyce does seem to be appealing to the frat-boy market? 

Still in the name of openness, that is okay, just not to my taste... his S&M fantasy seems pretty hardcore too, plus that is pure fantasy, unfortunately, I fear Joyce (and many Dubliners) really did have a lot of bowel problems in 1922?

NB I love the light in this Yousuf Karsh portrait of George Bernard Shaw

Karsh captures Shaw as a great thinker and granddaddy of the  Fabian Society (a more liberal, social democratic form of socialism).

I was once lucky enough, in the summer of 1989, to attend a lecture in Ottawa by this legendary Canadian portrait photographer. I was taken away by the exhibition while backpacking across North America and decided to stay a few extra days in Ottawa (a fine city, although the hostel I was staying in was a converted prison and the noise at night was terrible... another story), too catch Karsh's public lecture.

Joyce's great European novel and that queer fellow in Barcelona

I've been dipping in and out of Joyce's Ulysses for the last six months.

While the original text is sometimes a bit hard to follow,  with Joyce's "mischievous and obscurantist style", it is also incredibly rich and really grows on you.

Also, there are now a wealth of resources to mark it more accessible, from reading guides, an unabridged radio play version (free thanks to RTE) and university lecture courses (which you can now follow online)... 

Once you get into Ulysses it is a very rich world, and one of the commentators was discussing that every time they read (three times over 25 years?) it means something different to them. This got me thinking: what stands out to me?

A few months ago, I wrote a short piece about the connection to Amsterdam and in particular to Spinoza, whom Bloom, with his Irish-Jewish background is a fan of Spinoza. I can see this and feel this connection to Amsterdam and Spinoza, as I've been living in Amsterdam for the last 12 years, my grandparents on my mother's side were Hungarian Jews, who after World War II ended up as refugees in Amsterdam. I'm also a fan of Spinoza and his focus on the cultural element of religion and his campaigning for greater toleration of different cultural and religious practices.

Interesting it turns out that Molly Bloom also has a vague Irish-Jewish background, being born in Gibtrala to a Jewish mother, Lunita Laredo who is mentioned briefly by name in Molly's soliloquy  

$ cat -n Ulysses-Jame-Joyce-1922.txt | grep -B2 -A2 Lunita
 32041 wouldnt go mad about either or suppose I divorced him Mrs Boylan my
 32042 mother whoever she was might have given me a nicer name the Lord knows
 32043 after the lovely one she had Lunita Laredo the fun we had running along
 32044 Williss road to Europa point twisting in and out all round the other
 32045 side of Jersey they were shaking and dancing about in my blouse like

this is very much towards the end of the book (line 32043 out of 32856), just before Molly's climactic ending and Bloom's homecoming,  and I believe emotional reconciliation with Molly ...

 32851 red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well
 32852 as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again
 32853 yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and
 32854 first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could
 32855 feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and
 32856 yes I said yes I will Yes.
 32857
 32858 Trieste-Zurich-Paris
 32859

One of the recurring themes in Ulysses which stands out to me in 2022 (my first reading) is that it is a very European novel

  1021 —After all, I should think you are able to free yourself. You are your
  1022 own master, it seems to me.
  1023
  1024 —I am a servant of two masters, Stephen said, an English and an
  1025 Italian.
  1026
  1027 —Italian? Haines said.
  1028
  1029 A crazy queen, old and jealous. Kneel down before me.
  1030
  1031 —And a third, Stephen said, there is who wants me for odd jobs.
  1032
  1033 —Italian? Haines said again. What do you mean?
  1034
  1035 —The imperial British state, Stephen answered, his colour rising, and
  1036 the holy Roman catholic and apostolic church.

There aren't too many British-English characters, Haines is a racist fool:

  1065  —Of course I’m a Britisher, Haines’s voice said, and I feel as one. I
  1066  don’t want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews either.
  1067  That’s our national problem, I’m afraid, just now.

While Deasy is Irish, apparently he can describe as a "West Briton"

The more hardcore Irish nationalists of the era saw West Brits like Mr. Deasy as traitors and heretics. https://www.bloomsandbarnacles.com/blog/2018/12/24/deasy-of-west-britain

and he is another racist fool, with probably the worst joke in the whole of Ulysses

  1845 —I just wanted to say, he said. Ireland, they say, has the honour of
  1846 being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know
  1847 that? No. And do you know why?
  1848
  1849 He frowned sternly on the bright air.
  1850
  1851 —Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.
  1852
  1853 —Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.
  1854
  1855 A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a
  1856 rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing,

one of my favourite of Bloom's lines is "There was a fellow I knew once in Barcelona, queer fellow"

  2155 irlandais, nous, Irlande, vous savez ah, oui!_ She thought you wanted a
  2157 Postprandial. There was a fellow I knew once in Barcelona, queer
  2158 fellow, used to call it his postprandial. Well: _slainte!_ Around the
  2159 slabbed tables the tangle of wined breaths and grumbling gorges. His
  2160 breath hangs over our saucestained plates, the green fairy’s fang

  2156 cheese _hollandais_. Your postprandial, do you know that word?

obviously, Joyce meant queer as in the eccentric and not in the full LGBTQ sense, but I still like the double-entendre here and it intrigues me what happened to this query man in Barcelona:
* just why and in what way(s) was he a bit (or very) queer?
* also as far as a I can tell, our queer friend in Barcelona doesn't pop up anywhere else in Ulysses?  

Still from the extracts above, it seems to me that Joyce was absolutely in favour of greater European integration and toleration (religious toleration and seeing religion as a cultural tradition are major themes in Bloom's intellectual idol Spinoza, a 17th century Amsterdam Jewish philosopher).

This from another key moment in Ulysses, Bloom's argument with the citizen

 16781  Alf and Joe at him to whisht and he on his high horse about the jews
 16782  and the loafers calling for a speech and Jack Power trying to get him
 16783  to sit down on the car and hold his bloody jaw and a loafer with a
 16784  patch over his eye starts singing _If the man in the moon was a jew,
 16785  jew, jew_ and a slut shouts out of her:
 16786
 16787  —Eh, mister! Your fly is open, mister!
 16788
 16789  And says he:
 16790
 16791  —Mendelssohn was a jew and Karl Marx and Mercadante and Spinoza. And
 16792  the Saviour was a jew and his father was a jew. Your God.
 16793
 16794  —He had no father, says Martin. That’ll do now. Drive ahead.
 16795
 16796  —Whose God? says the citizen.

The Citizen, is an Irish nationalist and another racist ...

The Citizen is a character encountered by Leopold Bloom in Barney Kiernan's pub in the Cyclops episode of Ulysses (episode 12). He is to be found in said pub with his everpresent dog, Garryowen, whom he speaks to in Irish. When Leopold Bloom enters the pub, he is berated by the Citizen, who is a fierce Fenian and anti-Semite. The episode ends with Bloom reminding the Citizen that his Saviour was a Jew. As Bloom leaves the pub, the Citizen, in anger, throws a biscuit tin at Bloom's head, but misses. The chapter is marked by extended tangents made outside the voice of the unnamed narrator: hyperboles of legal jargon, Biblical passages, Irish mythology, etc. It is thought that the character of the Citizen may be based on Michael Cusack [Mícheál Ó Cíosóg], the founder of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association).

https://www.goodreads.com/characters/47073-the-citizen

So there seem to be a lot of anti-Semites in Joyce's Dublin, probably the one thing which would unite the odious Deasy, Hanes and Citizen? 

But the last word goes, to his wife Molly, who knows and loves her husband so deeply, including all Bloom's foibles and fancies 

 32318  Im let wait O Jesus wait yes that thing has come on me yes now wouldnt
 32319  that afflict you of course all the poking and rooting and ploughing he
 32320  had up in me now what am I to do Friday Saturday Sunday wouldnt that
 32321  pester the soul out of a body unless he likes it some men do God knows
 32322  theres always something wrong with us 5 days every 3 or 4 weeks usual
 32323  monthly auction isnt it simply sickening that night it came on me like
 32324  that the one and only time we were in a box that Michael Gunn gave him
 32325  to see Mrs Kendal and her husband at the Gaiety something he did about
 32326  insurance for him in Drimmies I was fit to be tied though I wouldnt
 32327  give in with that gentleman of fashion staring down at me with his
 32328  glasses and him the other side of me talking about Spinoza and his soul
 32329  thats dead I suppose millions of years ago I smiled the best I could
 32330  all in a swamp leaning forward as if I was interested having to sit it
 32331  out then to the last tag I wont forget that wife of Scarli in a hurry
 32332  supposed to be a fast play about adultery that idiot in the gallery
 32333  hissing the woman adulteress he shouted I suppose he went and had a

Amersfoort is een mooie en historische stad

Amersfoort is ongeveer een half uur met de trein van Amsterdam.

 

Amersfoort is een mooie en historische stad, met diverse bekende musea

 

Amersfoort heeft ook veel mooie straten and winkels en musea.

Tijdens de lockdown ben ik online lid geworden van de Amersfoortse boekenclub. 

Het eerste boek dat we lazen (in het Engels) was "The Life of Pi" van Yann Martel.

Nu is het leuk om de Amersfoort Boekenclub persoonlijk te ontmoeten.

 

 

De  Amersfoort Boekenclub praat natuurlijk over boeken, maar ze hebben ook feestjes, verkleedfeestjes met make-up

5 stars for Nghi Vo's - The Chosen and the Beautiful

This month was the 100th anniversary (Mar 4th 2022) of the publishing "The Beautiful and Damned", Fitzgerald's jazz age novel with many similar themes to "The Great Gatsby" (which I was also be reading for the Amsterdam English Classics in March). 

While the title of Nghi Vo's "The Chosen and the Beautiful" is a wordplay on Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned", her principal character Jordan Baker is queer and Vietnamese! Jordan Baker was an enigmatic but minor character in Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".

In terms of GoodReads ratings, This is my first 5-star review for a while, I'm trying to save 5-stars for all-time favourite books and not just my current favourite / new book. However, this is a book I've immediately fallen in love with and touched me deeply. 

Curiously I see that a few years ago I rated the original The Great Gatsby at 4 stars, which now seems wrong. The Great Gatsby is a book that has really grown on me, it is a short and easy read, packed with symbolism and can be relatively easily seen as harsh criticism of the "American dream". It is outstanding fiction about the roaring 20s, prohibition, and more tragically it interleaves F Scott Fitzgerald's and his "it girl" wife Zelda Fitzgerald ("the first American flapper") battles with alcoholism, depression and mental health. This book is more up than down, but there is no doubt by the end that the down is coming, which is explored in his later novels.

Since first reading The Great Gatsby, about 5 years ago, it's grown on me, there is so much in this short book that is just below the surface and also resonates with real-world events going on now, approx 100 years later. This book has come back to mind so often over the last few years, sometimes triggered by the events in the "big world out-there" of macroeconomics with politics, organized crime and mafia operations. But also the more personable, micro world of cool parties, having fun, pulling back from the edge of reason, the nature of love, mental health challenges. As I said, this is a book that has worked its way into my psyche and resonated deeply with me.  

I could go on about how much I like The Great Gatsby but I'll leave that for another book review ;) 

So getting back to Nghi Vo's "The Chosen and the Beautiful", the title is a wordplay on Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and the Damned" which just had its 100th birthday (published March 4th 1922), but potentially confusingly this book, is much more closely related to The Great Gatsby.

Actually, this book is a pretty faithful re-telling of The Great Gatsby, but from a very fresh perspective of Jordan Baker, a minor but colourful character in the original.  In the original Ms Baker is a glamorous, if slightly hard-edged potential love interest for the narrator Nick (Carraway). Nick is probably the most sensible person in the whole story, the voice of reason, who guides us through this beguiling and corrupting world. Nick never seems that interested in Ms Baker, or any other woman, instead, Nick is more enchanted by the American dream, he is quietly getting on with his life and is somewhat bewitched by the weird and wonderful going on in the house-next-door: Gatsby's palatial mansion, with wild parties, wacky musician, plus the beautiful and the quixotic people. 

So now the story is re-told from Jordan Baker's harsher perspective, and in Nghi Vo's new version Jordan Baker character is far more fleshed out, plus now she is both queer and Vietnamese!

I'm not normally a fan-fiction reader, it is a very tricky thing to do i.e. retell a much-beloved story, capture the essence of the original, add some new and not to sully the original? This sounds almost impossible to do, many have tried and failed, but in this case, Nghi Vo somehow pulls it off.

Nghi Vo has a remarkable prose style, both rich and floral. Fitzgerald is famous for his tight prose, especially in The Great Gatsby, parts of which he apparently re-work and re-work and then re-worked again. Fortunately, some of my favourite lines and dialogue from the original have been woven into this retelling. For me, this is not plagiarism, but homage.

Next, what does Nghi Vo bring to the original and I do I think F Scott Fitzgerald would have approved? Assuming he is somehow looking down on the earth from the pearly gates and has adjusted for where we are culturally at in the 2020s vs his world of the 1920s. Obviously, this is highly speculative but the question for me is: whether this story seems to fit and resonate well with the original. 

• The very first thing Nghi Vo bring is some magic realism at several key moments including the wonderfully playful and charming opening chapter, with Daisy and Jordan getting up to some fun hijinks. It gets a bit deeper later, and Nghi Vo uses magic realism sparing and with great effect. There is also an interesting wordplay between Oculist and Occultist, I don't have the time to explain hn  ow magic realism lead me into this quirky wordplay but it made me smile while reading "The Chosen and the Beautiful"
  .   
• The second thing Nghi Vo bring is an insight into the racism of 1920s America towards the Asian community. In the original Tom Buchanan is a bigotted fool, and his wife gently mocks this brutish man but this is only a few lines. Re-telling the story from an Asian American perspective, allows us to really explore the stigma, the feelings, the day to day grind, the frequent minor irritations and occasionally the major confrontations. It is very compelling storytelling, as it is mostly a moment's tension here or there, with a steady build-up, making it highly believable and relatable.  
  
  
• The third thing Nghi Vo bring is openly gay, lesbian and bisexual characters. The original is all about decadence and cool parties but it is very hetero normative. Again the storytelling has a gradual build-up with an illusion here, a mysterious underground party there and climaxing in some spectacular declarations of true love. Like the original this is fundamentally a love story, but with a new twist at the end. 

I can imagine with the help of a bit of time travel, F Scott Fitzgerald would have really enjoyed this 2020s hommage to his 1920s iconic works. Also for myself, it was wonderful to revisit the original story but with a fresh pair of eyes.