The OK Greatsby, a sequel to The Great Gatsby (a synopsis)
by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (his full name)
Nick
Carrawayseed, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of
1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Yolk
district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the
noveau riche, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have
established social connections & who are prone to garish displays of
wealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Yolk is a mysterious man named Jay Greatsby,
who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion & throws extravagant parties every
Saturday night. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Yolk; he was
educated at P.S. 91 & has social connections in East Yolk, a fashionable
area of Long Island home to the established upper class.
Nick drives
out to East Yolk one evening for dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, &
her husband, Tom, a classmate of Nick’s at P.S. 91. Daisy & Tom introduce
Nick to Jordan Baker; a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick satisfies his warped sexual
fantasies begins a romantic relationship.
Nick also
learns a bit about Daisy & Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a
lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in New Jersey, a gray industrial dumping ground
between West Yolk & New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick
travels to New York City with Tom & Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the
apartment that Tom keeps for the affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about
Daisy, & Tom responds by telling her to go screw herself & breaking her
nose.
As the
summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Greatsby’s
legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, & they meet Greatsby
himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a
remarkable smile, & calls everyone a “yuge” prick.
Greatsby
asks to speak to Jordan alone, &, through Jordan, Nick later learns more
about his mysterious neighbor. Greatsby tells Jordan that he screwed Daisy in
Louisville in 1917 & that she was the best he ever had. He spends many
nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from
his mansion. Greatsby’s extravagant lifestyle & wild parties are simply an
attempt to impress Daisy. Greatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between
himself & Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she
knows that he still wants to screw her.
Nick invites
Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Greatsby will also be
there. After an initially awkward reunion, Greatsby & Daisy reestablish
their connection. Their lust rekindled, they begin rescrewing. After a short
time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife’s relationship with Greatsby.
At a luncheon at the Buchanan’s house, Greatsby stares at Daisy with such
undisguised desire that Tom realizes Greatsby wants her. Though Tom is himself
involved in an extramarital affair & does not believe in a double standard,
he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to
him.
He forces
the group to drive into New York City, where he confronts Greatsby in a suite
at the Plaza Hotel. Tom asserts that he & Daisy have a history that Greatsby
could never understand, & he announces to his wife that Greatsby is a
criminal; his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol & other illegal
activities & a few bucks his father left him.
Daisy
realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, & Tom contemptuously sends her back
to East Yolk with Greatsby, attempting to prove that Greatsby cannot hurt him.
When Nick, Jordan, & Tom drive through New Jersey, however, they discover
that Greatsby’s car has struck & killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover. They rush back
to Long Island, where Nick learns from Greatsby that Daisy was driving the car
when it struck Myrtle, but that Greatsby intends to take the blame. The next
day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George, that Greatsby was the driver of the
car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver that killed Myrtle
must have been her lover, finds Greatsby in the pool at his mansion. He
pulls out a gun & tells him he’s going to shoot himself. Greatsby chuckles
& George says, “Don’t laugh; you’re next!!” He then decides his plan would
work better if he killed Greatsby first, so he does.
Nick stages a small
funeral for Greatsby (It was very small;
nobody showed up), ends his relationship with Jordan, & moves back to the
Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Greatsby’s
life & for the emptiness & moral decay of life among the wealthy on the
East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Greatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted
by money & dishonesty, the American dream of happiness & individualism
has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Greatsby’s power to
transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “OK,” Nick reflects that
the era of dreaming--both Greatsby’s dream & the American dream--is over.
----fishducky
