“No, no, my precious. I always let them go. I just wanted to watch their light, for a little while. They made me happy. I didn’t ever harm them.”
She’d frowned, unconvinced, and my god, for a second, I saw Rose in her eyes.
Be good, Daise.
Now, our train rolls through the familiar green of Clarksville and Jeffersonville, across the porous blue of the Ohio River, where Rose and I swam and chased those fireflies as girls along the banks. Maybe Pammy was right, that it wasn’t very kind to trap them that way. Maybe their beauty is simply in the way they brighten the night, yellow and green and sparkling, free and unfettered.
As we near the station in Louisville, I can feel the heat already penetrating my skin, that gloriously, awful August heat. It was much too cold in Minnesota. Maybe that was my problem this past year. The heat made me do such terrible things before, but it kept me alive and feeling my whole entire life, too.
The train slows, and I clutch my handbag tightly to keep it on my lap. I think about my sweltering wedding day, the way the extravagant pink pearls had been so hot, so heavy around my neck. But now a small flutter of joy erupts in my chest, feeling their weight shift inside my handbag. Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
Pammy had fallen asleep somewhere outside of Kentucky, and only as the train comes to a complete and final stop does her head bounce up from my shoulder. She rubs her eyes and stands and looks out the window. Somewhere out there are the streets that led me to Jay, and then to Tom. But it is easy enough to push those memories away. I also treaded those same streets with Rose, with Jordie. Somewhere out there are the footprints of my beautiful, carefree girlhood.
“Where are we, Mama?” Pammy asks, gazing out the window, her eyes wide with wonder.
I think about it for a moment, and then I hold her tight to me, kiss the top of her head, and answer: “Home.”
Acknowledgments
A HUGE THANK-YOU FIRST AND foremost to my wonderful editor, Sarah Stein, and the entire team at Harper Perennial, who, when I came to them with this idea, immediately shared my excitement and enthusiasm for the women of Gatsby, and who have helped shape this book and make it shine. I couldn’t ask for a better team to usher this book into the world! Special thanks also to Hayley Salmon, Lisa Erickson, Jackie Kim, Heather Drucker, Kristin Cipolla, Stacey Fischkelta, Laurie McGee, Doug Jones, and Amy Baker.
Thank you to my amazing agent, Jessica Regel at Helm Literary, who is always unwavering in both her editorial and her emotional support, as well as her enthusiasm for my work, but especially for this book, which came to be in the midst of a pandemic. Thank you also to Lucy Stille and Jenny Meyer and the team at the Jenny Meyer Literary Agency for championing this book.
Thank you to my writing friends who first encouraged me to tell this story and then read early drafts and gave feedback: Eileen Connell, Maureen Leurck, T. Greenwood, and Brenda Janowitz; thank you all also for the text/email/phone emotional support on a daily basis. And thank you to Andrea Katz, an amazing friend and champion of all my books!
Thank you to my husband and sons, who were trapped in the house with me for months while I wrote this book, and who also listened to me talk endlessly about Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker every night at dinner and helped brainstorm plot points.
Thank you to all the wonderful booksellers, librarians, and readers who have continued to support my books and spread the word over the years.
And last but not least, thank you to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who created these women, this world, and The Great Gatsby itself, which has long inspired me as a writer.
Reading Group Guide
Is Beautiful Little Fools a reimagining of The Great Gatsby, or a murder mystery in its own right, or both? Whose story is this: Daisy’s, Jordan’s, Catherine’s, or the great Jay Gatsby’s?
Discuss the role point of view plays in the novel. How do Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine each narrate their story differently? What insights does each woman give to the plot and the reader? The original Gatsby is told through only Nick Carraway’s point of view. What is his role in this novel?
Daisy begins with this thought: “Sometimes I think if I’d met Jay Gatsby later, say, after Daddy and Rose’s accident, I wouldn’t have even noticed him at all. I think how everything, how the whole entire course of my life, and his, might have turned out differently.” Do you agree or disagree? How does timing play a role in Jay and Daisy’s relationship, in Daisy’s life, and ultimately in Jay’s death?
Sister relationships play a big role in the novel. Compare and contrast Daisy and Rose’s relationship with Catherine and Myrtle’s. How does Rose influence Daisy’s decisions? How does Myrtle influence Catherine’s? How does the death of a sister impact both women in different and similar ways?