When Mickey Rathbun investigated a rumor that her grandfather had been a model for Fitzgerald’s iconic character Jay Gatsby, she discovered closer connections than she had ever imagined. In The Real Gatsby, Rathbun reckons with her grandfather’s legacy and the mirage of the American Dream.
Praise for The Real Gatsby
“Poignant, haunting, unflinchingly candid, Mickey Rathbun’s uncovering of her grandfather’s secrets puts something fascinating and original into the nation’s literary bloodstream: a brand-new Gatsby. Moore is the most plausible model we’ve yet encountered for the hero of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.”
— David Michaelis
author of Eleanor
“With The Real Gatsby, Rathbun has found the elusive joining point of history and family. That her grandfather may have been the inspiration for Fitzgerald's character is the spool around which this saga is spun. Rathbun presents a large-living man in a reckless era—her narrative has a colorful depth that hardly needs Gatsby at all.”
— Sven Birkerts
author of The Gutenberg Elegies
“Almost everyone has a mysterious or troubling forebear but not everyone can make a compelling case that their grandfather was Fitzgerald’s model for the title character in The Great Gatsby.”
— Madeleine Blais
author of Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble
The Real Gatsby in the News
This piece appeared in Airmail on March 9, 2024
This piece appeared in the October 2023 issue of Our State magazine