Gatsby's Girl Book

How I Came To Read This Book: I Read 'The Great Gatsby' last year and my friend knew I really liked it. Hence this book ended up in my Xmas gift last year.

The Plot: This book is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Ginevra King, the supposed muse for many of F. Scott Fitzgerald's women, including Daisy Buchanan in 'Gatsby'. In the book we follow the fictionalized Ginevra Perry through her whirlwind written romance with Fitzgerald, through to the conventional path she chooses as Fitzgerald's literary star rises and the moments they shared are played out again and again in his work. What's surprising is the encounters Ginevra has with Scott are actually real. The book is obviously dramatized regarding the portions of Ginevra's non-Fitzgerald life, including scandalous relationships, strained family bonds, and the emergence of a desperate woman from a promising beginning.

The Good & The Bad: I really have nothing bad to say about this book, other than sometimes it felt like Ginevra was a little too much of a modern Millie to be a realistic 1910/20/30 protagonist. Beyond that, I found the writing to be nearly effortless, a good blend of literary fiction and mass market appeal. Although Ginevra's life is largely made up, the fact this person actually existed and was clearly prevalent in so much of Fitzgerald's work was quite fascinating. Despite the somewhat stodgy context of the story's plot lines, Preston manages to give Ginevra's take and involvement with the major events of the period - the world wars, the stock market crash, and the depression - make sense with who her character is, without feeling contrived or done a million times. Ginevra herself is a realistic character that grows over the pages - from a flighty, vain teenager to a hollowed-out, wistful matron. In some ways it would have been interesting to get more in-depth with her darkest, least romantic days, but given that she was a romantic heroine in Fitzgerald's life, and the book spans only the time period when their lives were intertwined, I suppose it makes sense that it focuses on the most salacious elements of her existence - imagined or otherwise.

The Bottom Line: An incredibly readable book that pulls you along, with a very helpful and interesting afterword regarding the historical accuracies of certain plot points.

Anything Memorable?: Not in particular, although if you've read Gatsby, or several of the other texts mentioned in this book, you'll certainly enjoy seeing Ginevra come to life on the page.

50-Book Challenge: Book #50 in 2010 (!)