The Chosen and the Beautiful

The Chosen and the Beautiful (2021) by American author Nghi Vo is a retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic novel The Great Gatsby (1926) from the perspective of Jordan Baker, the love interest of the original narrator, Nick Carraway. Vo refashions the story by making Jordan attracted to both men and women and ethnically Vietnamese. She also tilts this work of classic literature toward fantasy, by giving several of the characters supernatural powers and adding the contribution of inebriating charms that influence their behavior.

The Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles considers that “Vo’s audacious amendments shift the register of The Great Gatsby, creating a story that galvanizes Fitzgerald’s classic and leaves a new one vibrating alongside” (Charles, Ron. “Nghi Vo’s Demonic Adaptation of ‘The Great Gatsby’ Might Be—Gasp—Jazzier than the Original.” The Washington Post, 2021). He adds that “by inflating the story’s most fantastical implications, ‘The Chosen and the Beautiful’ offers a timely consideration of class exploitation, sexual aggression and racial privilege” (Charles). Thus, Vo’s novel reflects the pressing issues of the early 1920s, which were on the brink of the enactment of the 1924 Immigration Act that severely limited the number of immigrants of Asian ethnicity into America. The novel also speaks to the present day, a century later, where racism is still a fact of American life.

The Chosen and the Beautiful is the first of Vo’s two novels. She has also published numerous short stories and three novellas, including The Empress of Salt and Fortune (2020), which won the Crawford and Hugo Awards.

This guide uses the 2021 Tor, Macmillan Publishing Group’s hardback edition of The Chosen and the Beautiful.

Plot Summary

The Chosen and the Beautiful takes place across two timelines. The first timeline is set in 1922, in New York and Long Island, and is that of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It begins with the introduction of Daisy’s cousin Nick Carraway into Jordan Baker’s life, and swiftly after that, the revamped version of Daisy’s former lover Jay Gatsby. Gatsby throws lavish parties in a house that has sprung up overnight and contrives to get Nick and Jordan to arrange a private meeting between him and Daisy. Meanwhile, Nick and Jordan explore the underbelly of a Prohibition-era New York, which relies upon the stimulant of magical charms and an intoxicating liquor called demoniac. Although Jordan and Nick are attracted to each other and engage in sexual acts, they also experiment with other people. Gatsby attracts them both, especially Nick, and there are strong implications that Nick and Gatsby become sexually involved. Gatsby, it becomes clear, has gone from rags to riches by trading in illegal substances and using magical arts. When she is not chasing hedonism, Jordan, who lives with patronizing feminist Aunt Justine, plays professional golf and tries to negotiate her non-white appearance in an America that is becoming increasingly racist and threatens to pass the Manchester Act, which will limit the numbers of Asian immigrants and potentially repatriate them.

When Daisy and Gatsby reconnect, they hatch a plan of escaping and taking a world-trip together, in defiance of Daisy’s philandering husband Tom. Still, when a demoniac-fueled return-trip from the city sees Daisy fatally running over Tom’s mistress Myrtle Wilson, Gatsby’s use of magic is not enough to clear the incident. Tom blames Gatsby for the crime, and Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, then goes to Gatsby’s mansion and kills him. Tom and Daisy reunite and hatch a plan to move to Barcelona until the scandal dies down. Nick, who was Gatsby’s lover, is devastated. Jordan makes a definitive break with both Nick and Daisy and, in the wake of the Manchester Act passing, accompanies a troupe of Vietnamese paper-cutting artists on a boat trip to Shanghai and Vietnam, where she will learn about her ancestors.

The above story is interspersed with an earlier one of Daisy and Jordan’s friendship. While Daisy was the privileged daughter of the Louisville Fays, Jordan was allegedly adopted from Vietnam by Eliza Baker, a Southern woman who could not resist bringing her back from a missionary trip. She thus grows up with the apparent privilege of being a Louisville Baker but is stigmatized for her Asian appearance. She meets Daisy in 1910 and astounds her with her paper-cutting magic, when she cuts out a lion that comes to life and manages to set the book on fire. Daisy and Jordan remain close throughout childhood, with Daisy introducing Jordan into her set. Nevertheless, Jordan realizes that her ethnicity is a barrier to dynastic marriage and prefers sexual experimentation with both sexes to making a sturdy match. She watches Daisy fall in love overnight with young soldier Jay Gatsby in 1917 and procures her an illegal abortion in 1919, three months prior to her marriage with Tom Buchanan. On the night before the marriage, Daisy summons Jordan to help her because she received a letter from Gatsby declaring that he is alive and still loves her. Daisy considers canceling the marriage and goes back and forth in indecision. She asks Jordan to cut out a paper doll of her, who can appear in her place. When Daisy goes through with the marriage and buries the paper doll, Jordan feels used and upset. Daisy’s husband, Tom, is a Chicagoan with nativist views about race theory and eugenics. The couple’s life is characterized by Tom’s philandering and a restless capacity to move when they get into trouble. Following the death of everyone in the Baker household, Jordan also moves to New York with her adopted aunt, Justine, where the main timeline of the story takes place.