In the wake of all the opulent parties that the 2013 Great Gatsby film inspired, I think we’ve collectively forgotten how hilarious F. Scott Fitzgerald could be. A rich little schoolboy named Percy invites a different friend over for spring break each year. At the end of his trip, he’s put to death to keep him from revealing that Percy’s family gets its wealth from… you can probably take a guess. Our protagonist, one of Percy’s victims-to-be, tries to evade his fated demise. This one’s a good reminder that you can make an absurd premise work, as long as you commit to the bit.
First published in The Smart Set, June 2022. Collected in Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922
A Personal Anthology 