Above Average

“Remember that you can’t be one person in one place and a totally different person in another place. Right is right and wrong is wrong, no matter where you are.”
I wonder what he would’ve said if he’d met Jacinta Trimalchio.

When I was in high school The Great Gatsby was one of my favorite “required reading” books, and Leonardo DiCaprio is on my Pajiba10 list, so needless to say I’ve seen Baz Lurman’s theatrical take on the novel a few times as well.

Amazon description: When Naomi Rye arrives in the Hamptons to spend the summer with her socialite mother, she fully expects to be miserable mingling with the sons and daughters of her mother’s mega-rich friends. Yet Naomi finds herself unexpectedly drawn to her mysterious and beautiful next-door neighbor, Jacinta, a Hamptons “It” girl who throws wild, lavish parties that are the talk of the town. But Jacinta is hiding something big, and events unfold with tragic consequences.

I read Great in about 3 1/2 hours last night while babysitting my sleeping nephews, not only was it a quick read (its YA fiction) it moves fast and is hard to put down. There is a lot of gender-swapping (and some sexual preference swapping) but the original roles are clear to anyone who read the original novel. Actually, if you’ve read F Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age novel the story is fairly predictable, which perhaps is another reason it was such a quick read for me. The great thing about this adaptation is that you don’t have to be a fan (or even familiar) of the original work to enjoy Great. Everyone is shallow and there is a total lack of parenting but that is something you typically see in fluffy, romantic YA fiction…

I read Sara Benincasa’s memoir earlier this year, which is more adult skewing, and am pleasantly surprised at her transition into fiction.