Self-Made Boys A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore

Content Tags: Violence, LGBTQIA+, Alcohol, Racism

From the Storygraph description: "Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartache in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series."

And from the Author's Note: "I wanted to create a Gatsby that included my queer, transgender, and Latine communities."

All classics need to be rewritten as queer and more diverse. This book was brilliant and I loved every minute of it. McLemore crafted such beautiful scenes and amazing characters (that vastly differed from what I know of the original) that I wanted to know more about. And her descriptions painted a very detailed picture and were, at times, incredibly humorous to me. Such as: "If an Irish castle had an affair with a cathedral, that might be the house that came of it."

I may have at some point read The Great Gatsby in my life, but I remember nothing of it if that's true. So, I don't know how similarly the plots align. But I imagine there is a fair amount of difference. Not only was this story more about queer lives and relationships, it is also (from the author's note again) a more realistic representation of what "The American Dream" actually is (or was in the 1920s). Beautiful.

A couple of questions to wrap this up:

Did you race to the end, or was it more of a slow burn?

I unintentionally raced to the end. I read the book in four days, which is pretty fast for me. I had expected a classic remix to drag more or take longer to read, but McLemore's writing was so enticing to me that I wanted to keep reading to find out what they would throw at me next. 

What did you think of the writing? Are there any standout sentences?

Kind of piggy-backing off the last question, the writing was excellent. A couple more of my favorite lines, in addition to the one included above:

"Her father - my uncle - was a balding man as sweet and unthreatening as condensed milk."

"The one I knew as Princeton. (I knew this but not his name because he mentioned Princeton more than his name.)"

"Doors open that you didn't even know could be doors because they always looked like walls."