Jake, Reinvented

October 6, 2003
Dedicated to "Jay and Daisy," Korman's (Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America
) smart novel imagines The Great Gatsby
with a cast of characters from Fitzgerald High. The Jay Gatsby figure is nerd turned bon vivant Jake Garrett; Daisy Buchanan has become Didi, the impossibly beautiful girl who is dating Todd Buckley (i.e., Tom Buchanan) despite his infidelities. Jake's weekly parties escalate in size and intensity, all part of his plan to get closer to Didi, whom he tutored in math several years before at a different school and has idealized ever since. In the midst of the banality and posturing of one keg party after another, two mature characters emerge: narrator Rick Paradis, who seems to not fit in with the crowd from the beginning, and the remarkable Dipsy, who starts off as comic relief but turns out to be perhaps the wisest person in the book: he alone understands that high school is, after all, just a few years, and that there is much more of life to come. Korman's prose hits its mark: a hung-over bunch of football players becomes "statuary in shoulder pads," the noise at a party rises "up to the point of pain" and the mournful hero is "unmade, not by fire, but by cold, smooth indifference." Unfortunately, a final chapter tacks on a happy ending and somewhat dulls the story's impact. Ages 12-up.

February 15, 2004
Gr 9 Up-When Rick comes home from summer camp, he discovers that there is a new "it" guy in his high school-one who dresses straight out of J. Crew; is a great football player; and throws the party, complete with multiple kegs, on Friday nights. When Rick finally meets Jake, he discovers that he likes this hip fellow. He is stunned to find out that Jake once tutored Didi, the girlfriend of the quarterback and the most beautiful girl around, in math. When they start spending time together, the entire student body awaits the fallout. It turns out that Jake has given himself a whole new image and persona in his new school to win the approval of the school's most popular and completely superficial crowd simply to attract the attention of someone he loves. Korman's reworking of The Great Gatsby places the action in a modern framework, which makes it more recognizable for today's readers and may lead them to the classic. Teens will find deeper issues to consider about popularity, being true to one's self, and taking responsibility for one's actions as they relate to the setting and characters.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Canada

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2004
Gr 9 Up-When Rick comes home from summer camp, he discovers that there is a new "it" guy in his high school-one who dresses straight out of J. Crew; is a great football player; and throws the party, complete with multiple kegs, on Friday nights. When Rick finally meets Jake, he discovers that he likes this hip fellow. He is stunned to find out that Jake once tutored Didi, the girlfriend of the quarterback and the most beautiful girl around, in math. When they start spending time together, the entire student body awaits the fallout. It turns out that Jake has given himself a whole new image and persona in his new school to win the approval of the school's most popular and completely superficial crowd simply to attract the attention of someone he loves. Korman's reworking of The Great Gatsby places the action in a modern framework, which makes it more recognizable for today's readers and may lead them to the classic. Teens will find deeper issues to consider about popularity, being true to one's self, and taking responsibility for one's actions as they relate to the setting and characters.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Canada

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2003
Gr. 9-12. High society meets high school in this retelling of " The Great Gatsby, "set at the class-conscious F. Scott Fitzgerald High. The stories correspond in many particulars: new kid Jake Garrett, "cool, mysterious, " different,"" has won over the "it" crowd with raucous parties at his subdivision McMansion. Popular opinion turns against Jake when alpha male Todd Buckley suspects the newcomer, rightly, of pursuing his best girl, Didi, and turns up an ugly secret: Jake was once (gasp!) a big nerd. So begins Garrett's plunge to ignominy. The Nick Carraway character, Rick, offers a wry, comic voice, but constricting Fitzgerald's plot to the narrow world of high school, and scaling back the major crises (there's no death, murder, or suicide), leaves behind a drama that has more in common with a John Waters movie than a great American novel. Yet even as young adults feel insulted by the novel's portrayal of teenagers as nerd haters, beer guzzlers, and herd followers, they're also likely to read it with a wink and a smirk as they catch the sundry " Gatsby "allusions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)