Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor, Simon & Schuster

Reading room Great read | CLASSIC REIMAGINED

- Jillian Cantor, Simon & Schuster

When it was first published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was a commercial flop, but in the ensuing decades this heady Jazz Age love story exposing the empty heart of the American Dream in a flurry of passion and murder found its voice. Today it’s considered a classic and what with the films, stage plays – even a dance interpretation – you may think there’s little more left to say, but hold on to your cloche hats and pearls and buckle up for the roller-coaster Beautiful Little Fools. Its billing as a “feminist reimagining” of the Gatsby narrative undersells the tension, vigour and drama of Jillian Cantor’s version. This is passion at full pelt with the inner stories of the women as its heartbeat.

“Every time I reread The Great Gatsby, I would find myself thinking about the women in the story, sure there was a lot more going on with them beneath the surface,” explains Jillian. “Daisy says in the original novel that the best thing they can be as women are ‘beautiful little fools,’ but I felt certain that neither Daisy nor Jordan were truly fools.”