Mystique: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Whereas extroverts have an abundance of presence, introverts - like Jay Gatsby - can show up as absence. The Great Gatsby is the Introvert Book Club selection for August 2022.

If you read The Great Gatsby in high school or college – or saw one of its film adaptations (starring Robert Redford in 1974 or Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013, among other versions) – what stuck in your mind might have been its over-the-top glamour.  Glittering Roaring Twenties parties in a mansion on Long Island, full of high-society repartee, with bootlegged booze practically on tap – certainly that’s memorable.  What interests me here, though, is that in the novel the host of all that raucous glitz barely shows up to interact with his guests.  For that reason Jay Gatsby exemplifies a key way that some introverts radiate charisma: by being remote and magnetic.