Discussions at the E’s September selection, Gatsby’s Girl by Caroline Preston, gives the reader an unique view of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is generally studied through his own writings, through his contemporaries or even his tormented but talented wife, Zelda. However Gatsby’s Girl is told through the voice of Ginevra Perry, who is based on Fitzgerald’s first love, Ginevra King. F. Scott Fitzgerald based several characters on King: Daisy Buchanan from the Great Gatsby, Isabelle Borge in This Side of Paradise, Marjorie Harvey in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", Judy Jones in "Winter Dreams" and a series of stories, in the early 1930s, about a spoiled Lake Forest (Illinois) girl named Josephine Perry.
Gatsby's Girl follows the 16-year-old character Ginevra Perry from her first meeting with F. Scott Fitzgerald, through their doomed brief courtship and the end of their lives. Author Caroline Preston excels at presenting a sympathetic view of a less than sympathetic main character.
Discussion questions and an interview with Caroline Preston is found at the Houghton Mifflin website.
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