Local Heavens

Fajardo’s impressive debut reimagines The Great Gatsby as a cyberpunk thriller. In 2075, Minnesota-raised Filipino Nick Caraway, a war veteran and “diver,” someone trained to enter cyberspace to shore up security and patch breeches, takes a corporate espionage contract in New York. There, he meets up with his cousin, Daisy, once a star of immersive “Happy Sleep” films designed to lull audiences into dreamland, and her bigoted, abusive husband Tom Buchanan. They introduce him to heavily body modified athlete Jordan Baker, whom he crosses paths with again at a party hosted by his mysterious billionaire neighbor Jay Gatsby. Nick and Jordan later use a dangerous, improvised setup to delve into records of Gatsby’s past, where they discover he was a poor paramour of Daisy’s before her family forced her to marry into the wealthy Buchanan clan to save their flailing pharmaceutical company. As Nick gets drawn tighter into Gatsby orbit and fields mixed signals of desire from both Jordan and Gatsby, he contrives to reacquaint the star-crossed lovers. Their connection, however, has deadly consequences. While purists will balk, Fajardo expertly transfers the themes of exploitative capitalism, mysterious and possibly illegal wealth, and complicated desires haunted by loss and queerness to a dystopian setting. The result is an evocative and powerful reworking of an American classic. (Oct.)