Fitzgerald Didn't Satisfy This Author, So She Wrote Her Own 'Gatsby'-Inspired Novel
F. Scott Fitzgerald's beloved American novel The Great Gatsby is about the messiness of chasing the American dream. But author Stephanie Powell Watts says something about the book left her unsatisfied.
"I loved it when I was a kid and read it for the first time. ... But subsequent readings, I felt like I'm seeing other things. I'm seeing all of these black characters — never thought about them before. I'm seeing the women and the tiny, tiny roles that they have in the book, and I want them to speak. I want to hear what they have to say."
According to Watts, the only way to do that isn't exactly a retelling of ; instead, Watts uses some of the same themes to tell a story about black characters in a declining furniture town in present-day North Carolina. Her stand-in for Jay Gatsby is JJ Ferguson, a man who returns home wealthy after 17 years away.
