The August selection for my Virtual Author Visit book club was The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian, a novel that incorporates F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby. I’ve read several of Bohjalian’s past books and I was excited at the chance to speak with him.

Laurel Estabrook is a social worker at a homeless shelter in Vermont, who was brutally attacked several years ago. Her boss shows her a box of old photographs that were the sole possession of Robert Crocker. But these aren’t just any old photographs. Several are of celebrities from the past, and it’s obvious just from a glance that Crocker had talent. So Laurel sets out to find out who Crocker really was, the mystery behind the photographs, and how they intersect with her own past. Her interest quickly transcends into obsession and the line between what’s real and what’s not grows increasingly unclear.

I was a little skeptical at first, since I’m not a big fan of modern writers manipulating characters and plotlines from classic literature, but Bohjalian’s incorporation of The Great Gatsby is quite unique and effective. Reading this book is like trying to wend your way through a complicated maze, and I was truly shocked by the ending. I immediately wanted to go back and reread it. The Double Bind isn’t what I was expecting – it was much more than that.