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The Pursued and the Pursuing book cover
The Pursued and the Pursuing
2021
First Published
3.78
Average Rating
170
Number of Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby ends after Jay Gatsby is shot and killed for a hit and run that he did not commit, as well as for his attempts to recapture the past. However, while the bullet’s aim is still true, The Pursued and the Pursuing explores what might have been had it left Gatsby with another chance at happiness. Find it he does, although not in the arms of Daisy Buchanan. As Gatsby travels the world with Nick Carraway, his friend and narrator, he sheds wealth, performance, and glamor in favor of honesty, intimacy, and love. When Daisy writes to Nick a decade after Gatsby’s brush with death, her frenzied reentrance into their lives threatens to stir up old grudges and longings, but the biggest surprise she brings is her daughter. At thirteen, Pam Buchanan is a queer, bookish girl who feels out of place as her parents try to steer her toward their standards of normalcy. Fortunately, Nick and Gatsby are more than familiar with the perils of being molded by others’ expectations. A tale of chosen family, queer love, and a glitzy party or two, The Pursued and the Pursuing reimagines Fitzgerald’s beloved characters and celebrates those with courage to live in the present. "Intimate, tender, and fully realized in its historical details, The Pursued and the Pursuing is a lush, lived-in novel with an eerily Fitzgeraldian ring to its prose." —Lara Elena Donnelly, author of The Amberlough Dossier "This wild, wonderful queering of The Great Gatsby leaves no stone unturned, upping the ante for retellings, and reveals what sometimes glitters really is gold." —Christopher Barzak, author of One for Sorrow

Avg Rating
3.78
Number of Ratings
151
5 STARS
30%
4 STARS
34%
3 STARS
24%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
5%
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Author

A. J. Odasso
A. J. Odasso
Author · 6 books
AJ Odasso’s poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies since 2005. Their first full poetry collection, Things Being What They Are, an earlier version of The Sting of It, was shortlisted for the 2017 Sexton Prize. The Sting of It was published by Tolsun Books and won Best LGBT in the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. Their first novel, The Pursued and the Pursuing, will be published in September 2021 by DartFrog Blue, the traditional publishing imprint of DartFrog Books. AJ holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Boston University. They teach at University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College, and they have enjoyed participating in ABQ-local literary events at their synagogue and beyond. They have served as Senior Poetry Editor at Strange Horizons magazine since 2012.
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