Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast: Great by Sara Benincasa

                I love modern adaptations of classics. I am not ashamed to admit that watching She's the Man during the Twelfth Night unit in tenth grade English was the single most engaging activity of my high school career. This is why I loved Mental Floss's 11 Modern Retellings of Classic Novels. I just finished the first book on the list, Great by Sara Benincasa.

 

                Based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Nathan Caraway is now Naomi Rye, the down-to-earth Chicagoan who is launched into the extravagant world of the East Hamptons when she spends the summer at her mom's beach house. There she is  quickly befriended by her next door neighbor, Jacinta Trimalchio, the mysteriously wealth fashion blogger obsessed with Naomi's model friend, Delilah Fairweather. Before Naomi realizes it, she is caught up in a scheme that could shatter everyone's glittery life as they know it.

                Unlike She's the Man, Great follows the events of its inspiration almost exactly. Jacinta's convertible is white, not yellow, but whatchayagonnado. Benincasa  takes the frivolities of Fitzgerald's world online as Jacinta Facebook stalks Delilah and the Hampton it-crowd raves just as much about J's blog as they do her parties. And the green light on the dock? That's the glow from Jacinta's laptop charger.

                All in all, Great is a fresh and entertaining take on the 1920's classic. Benincasa uses the novel's 263 pages to dive further into the story than Fitzgerald, developing Naomi as a narrator and showing how little American society has changed in 90 years. I was also fascinated about the way she develops Jeff (i.e. Jordan) in a way that shows how Naomi could be attracted to him, while slowly revealing the flaws in his character.

                While the novel gets just as dark as The Great Gatsby, Benincasa's humor and satire keep Great an engaging summer read.

Up next: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein