 | Great Gatsby : a graphic novel adaptation Author: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | |
| Price: $12.29 | ||
Summary:
At the height of the Jazz Age in the 1920s, the young millionaire Jay Gatsby hosts extravagant parties at his Long Island mansion, but his true persona is an enigma to even his next-door neighbor Nick Carraway. In graphic novel format.
| Illustrator: | Woodman-Maynard, K. |
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 10/01/2020 Gr 9 Up—Timed to coincide with the public domain debut of The Great Gatsby, this atmospheric adaptation translates the high school staple to graphic novel format. Nick Carraway takes up residence next to mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby on Long Island. At a lavish party at Gatsby's estate, Nick learns that during the Great War Gatsby fell in love with Nick's cousin Daisy Fay, who now lives across the bay. While Gatsby was deployed, Daisy married the well-heeled Tom Buchanan; upon returning, Gatsby made his fortune as a bootlegger to rekindle Daisy's affections. Their affair ends when Tom exposes his nouveau riche rival's misdeeds at a hotel. Driving home, Daisy inadvertently kills Tom's mistress with Gatsby's car, and Tom's mistress's husband soon shoots Gatsby. Nick leaves New York following Gatsby's sparsely attended funeral. Rather than rendering "an exact literal interpretation of the novel," Woodman-Maynard aspires to "capture the mood" of the work. Though her medium can't help but slough off some narrative nuances, differences are largely unobjectionable. Pacing, for instance, ticks a tad faster, chronology shifts slightly, and a suicide and anti-Semitic overtones are omitted. Synesthetes will delight as the Roaring Twenties come alive in mellifluous watercolors informed by both period ephemera and pure imagination. As visual metaphors wash over the page, fascinating experiments with figure and ground toggle between surrealism and pitiless reality. Snippets of text blend paraphrase and direct quotation, and key lines—the sort found in study guides—appear verbatim. VERDICT Like other graphic novelizations of canonical works, this adaptation explicitly intended to serve an auxiliary role stands as its own immersive accomplishment.—Steven Thompson, Bound Brook Memorial P.L., NJ - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 02/01/2021 Adapting The Great Gatsby into a graphic novel is no easy feat because the metaphor and imagery are so well-known. Instead of a strict recreation of every word, Woodman-Maynard uses muted single-color panels and pages to communicate the different moods of the story, from excessive parties to melancholy remembrances. When Nick Carraway moves to West Egg, he quickly gets pulled into the world of his nouveau riche neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Over in East Egg, Nick spends time with his cousin Daisy and her hulking husband, Tom Buchanan. Nick then finds out that Gatsby’s plan is to recreate his past with Daisy, and he gets caught in the middle of their reconciliation. Woodman-Maynard chooses to turn many metaphors into literal drawings, adding to the heightened euphoria of Gatsby’s parties. Although most readers will know the story, Woodman-Maynard’s artwork brings a new perspective to the character’s histories and actions—Daisy especially benefits from this. This adaptation deftly pays homage to Fitzgerald’s iconic phrases through the artwork and pushes readers to question Nick’s status as narrator. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.
