The Summer We Read Gatsby

By Danielle Ganek
Viking, $25.95, 290 pages

Half-sisters Cassie and Pecksland Moriarty reunite at Fools House, a run-down cottage in the Hamptons, bequeathed to them by their Aunt Lydia. Peck, an aspiring actress from NYC, and Cassie, a magazine writer living in Switzerland, can’t come to terms with giving up their aunt’s artistic legacy, which includes a “fool” or artist-in-residence. The two polar opposites struggle with honoring Lydia’s request to sell the property and keeping the familiarity and safety of the one place where they shared a common bond, including the summer they read Gatsby.

“I was twenty-one that summer I read Gatsby for the first time. It was 2001, and I’d arrived to spend what would then be my third summer at Aunt Lydia’s house with the older half sister who intimidated me.”

Through Cassie’s eyes, readers meander through the back roads of the Hamptons, discovering how the rich and famous play during the summer. Between choosing the right outfit to stand out as a fashionina (a term coined by Peck) and attending elegant parties, the two girls search for what could be an unsigned Jackson Pollack painting that vanished from above the mantel and a possible first edition of Gatsby that’s disappeared from the house. But the story isn’t about finding missing swag. It’s about finding something of innate value, and the discoveries they make that summer are priceless.

Author Danielle Ganek introduces a steady stream of vibrant characters, creating an extended family for the half-sisters. A charming read, but I kept hoping for a stronger connection to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story.

Reviewed by LuAnn Schindler