You Love a Retelling

I've got three modern takes on classics

Hi friends,

I hope you had a great weekend. My first zinnias and sunflowers — the latter of which I started from seed (!) bloomed last week — and I’m still riding that high. I want to wish a happy early Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and especially my dad.

Quick note: there was an issue with the initial Bingo file. I’ve fixed it now, but if you already started to fill it in (kudos to you!), you might want to do it again.

This week, I’m highlighting three retellings of classics. Each of them put a new spin on an established tale. They can all be read without reading the original text, but that can add to the experience if you want to go all out.

And, now, what to read if …

You Know What Single Man with a Good Fortune Wants

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am a sucker for a Pride and Prejudice retelling. I’ve lost track of how many I’ve highlighted here, but it’s at least four (and it appears I’ve made the truth universally acknowledged joke before). All that is to say, I’ve read a lot of adaptations of the Austen classic, so I can confidently say Nikki Payne’s Pride and Protest is one of the best out there.

In this version of the tale, Liza B.— the only DJ who gives a jam — is leading an effort to block the construction of even more soulless luxury condos in her D.C. neighborhood. Her protest, though, goes off the rails when she mistakes the CEO of the property development company, Dorsey Fitzgerald, as a waiter. The beleaguered executive, the adopted Filipino son of white parents, is convinced Liza’s protests are performative. But as their arguments over politics and real estate sizzle with tension, their hatred for each other transforms into a different kind of passion.

How good is this Pride and Protest? D.C. selected it as its “Great Read” for the National Book Festival this year, an honor that’s rarely (if ever?) bestowed on a romance. I also know multiple people who have become converts to the genre after reading it.

You’re Looking for Something Juicy

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

I did not know Lies and Weddings, the latest from the author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, was a retelling of Anthony Trollope’s Dr. Thorne until after I started. I also haven’t read Dr. Thorne, but am fortunate enough to have a friend, Aya Martin Seaver, who writes a Trollope newsletter.

She explains, “There’s a reason Julian Fellowes adapted this novel in 2016; it’s a classic Victorian story of marriage, romance and complicated property inheritance. Trollope begins with the mystery of Mary Thorne, a ward of Dr. Thorne’s: is she a lady or an illegitimate daughter of a country doctor? The stakes escalate when her childhood best friend Frank falls in love with her. Can they marry for love or must Frank restore his family’s wealth by marrying the face-cream heiress, Martha Dunstable? There’s a rich load of side characters, a confusing will and a secret baby.”

Kwan’s retelling, set in modern day, features Rufus Leung Gresham, the future Earl of Greshambury, whose mother, a former Hong Kong supermodel, is scheming to find him a rich wife to solve the family’s money problems. She figures her daughter’s multi-million-dollar wedding is the perfect place to find her son a bride. The only problem is that Rufus has no interest in going forward with the plan because he’s in love with Eden Tong, the literal girl-next-door who lives on the Gresham estate with her middle-class father.

While I’m not sure I loved Lies and Weddings quite as much as the Crazy Rich Asians books, it’s still frothy, fun and the perfect summer read. Set in luxe cities and hotels from Marrakesh to Hawaii, and featuring a hot mic scandal, a contested will and multiple Lamborghinis, I devoured this novel in a single weekend.

You Think Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

Or, in the case of The Death I Gave Him, Em X. Liu’s queer futuristic Hamlet retelling, there’s something rotten in Elsinore labs. When Hayden Lichfield finds his father’s slain body in their lab, he knows the murderer must have been after the Sisyphus Formula, their groundbreaking research to reverse death. In an attempt to lure out the killer, Hayden steals the research and, in the process, finds a video from his dead father predicting his murder and asking his son to avenge him.

Locked in the lab with four potential suspects:

•  His uncle Charles

• Felicia, his ex-girlfriend who is now a research assistant for Charles

• Felicia’s father, the lab’s security guard

• A lab tech

Hayden joins forces with his AI assistant Horatio to find the killer and murder them.

The locked-room setting adds a layer of tension to the story, as Hayden descends into madness over the course of the night, while the research premise allows Liu to comment on scientific hubris. The Death I Gave Him is weird and likely not everyone’s cup of tea, but months after finishing it, I’m still thinking about it.

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Have a favorite retelling? Let me know! I’ve got three more here.

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