I enjoyed The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Babylon Revisited but the others were a bit boring.

meadows2020's review

4.0

like some of the short stories more than others. Camel's Back was probably my favorite.
adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I am physically incapable of rating anything Fitzgerald wrote less four stars, and even selecting four instead of five was hard for me.

The majority of these stories are fabulous. I especially liked May Day, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, O Russet Witch!, and The Lees of Happiness.

There were a couple that I didn’t care for, especially the two that were written as plays, Porcelain and Pink and Mr. Icky. They didn’t fit in with this collection and just felt self-indulgent, but given the author, it makes sense.
lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was afraid of getting disappointed. How could I not after loving The Great Gatsby so much? It felt to good to be true, but to my great fortune it was true! 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is just as brilliant and entertaining as The Great Gatsby! Every short story's language is magnificent and flows so beautifully and every short story provokes the reader with new feelings; it's a roller-coaster!
I do normally not like short stories collections that much (which is why I chose this as my next Fitzgerald-pick; if it was bad, I would just tell myself it was because it was short stories). But now I am no longer afraid to try another one of this genius' works! If I can get excited about short stories, then nothing else can go wrong!
challenging emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

verityw's review

2.0

I didn't really enjoy many of the stories in this and found it hard to get into (hence why it's taken me so long to read). I haven't really got much more to say about it than that - other than that I'm glad I've finished it!

I had been looking to buy this book for years. I always saw it in the bookshop and didn't buy it, but then found it for $7 second hand and caved and I'm rather glad I did. I was surprised how different the stories were from one another which was really good, but also how they could flow together in terms of writing style and character introduction. Fitzgerald uses the early century setting of New York and other places really well that transport you back to when things were so different but the base problems of society still remain. For the most part a lot of the stories didn't have the excitement or attraction as some of the others but for a few they were enthralling and very well developed. I think having some good and some bad doesn't make me dislike the book as a whole but it would have been that much better I think if they had all been as great to read as those I did enjoy.