Beautiful Little Fools: A Novel

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In Beautiful Little Fools, Jillian Cantor does what F. Scott Fitzgerald could not: gives life to the women of The Great Gatsby. Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson are all one-dimensional creatures in their original setting, which serves the novel but can often leave female readers feeling cold and distant. In works lauded as great art, it can be exhausting to see women always the less interesting, the less human, the lesser.

Luckily, Cantor has crafted a novel that places the women at the center of the story. It is still, at times, a painful book to read––the early twentieth century was not kind to women of any sort––but it is also a beautiful one. It is also a labor of love, not only for the original, but for the women who never had a chance to tell their own stories, too. I went into this book not knowing exactly what to expect, and I’m happy to say it has exceeded what vague expectations I did have. I would highly recommend this book to any woman who has ever enjoyed The Great Gatsby, especially those who, at some point, found themselves disillusioned by it.


Reviewed By:

Author Jillian Cantor
Star Count /5
Format Trade
Page Count 368 pages
Publisher Harper Perennial
Publish Date 01-Feb-2022
ISBN 9780063051263
Bookshop.org Buy this Book
Issue April 2022
Category Historical Fiction
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