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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
F. Scott Fitzgerald remains one of my favorite writers :")
I have mixed feeling about this collection. It was pretty much a half and half of stories I loved and stories I hated. I also found it really rough that almost every story ended with me feeling frustration about the amount of sexism and/or racism in it. I know that I have to take into account the year the stories were written, but I still couldn't help feeling really deflated after most of them. The story "The Lees of Happiness" was definitely my favourite though, I thought it was so visual and beautifully written.
What an incredible and amazing writer. I lack words to describe how much I loved this compilation of short stories. Fitzgerald is a master of story telling, he has some of the most wonderful plots I have ever read. And the humour... I found amazing quotes in here.
My favourites were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Four Fists.
My favourites were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Four Fists.
I have been determined to find a Story of FSF that I love. 3 novels in and they were good, not great and then I read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and enjoyed it the most so thought that short stories was the way to go. However having read this collection I was disappointed, again I liked them, but I just don't get what makes them special to others. All of the books have the exact same themes except Benjamin Button of wasted privilege and all that glitters is symbolic & brittle. But none of the stories have interesting characters or engaging dialogue and the repetitiveness of the stories themes, even if the setting changes slightly reduces the glam and atmosphere of the Jazz age in each book. At this point I don't think I would be able to remember which character was in which book it all blends so easily into one.
I am tempted to stop with the rest of the collection, but I only have 2 more novels and one more short story collection to complete. With reviews of This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned being more favourable and the plot looks different and maybe more exciting?
I was also disappointed in the special 2020 editions I got as once I read Tales of the Jazz age and then flicked through the contents of Flappers and Philosophers found that a lot of the stories were duplicates. What is the point of that?
I am tempted to stop with the rest of the collection, but I only have 2 more novels and one more short story collection to complete. With reviews of This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned being more favourable and the plot looks different and maybe more exciting?
I was also disappointed in the special 2020 editions I got as once I read Tales of the Jazz age and then flicked through the contents of Flappers and Philosophers found that a lot of the stories were duplicates. What is the point of that?
This was a good short story collection although I found myself disliking more stories than I liked which is a common theme for me and short story collections.
I absolutely love The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and it is by far the best story in the collection. I actually liked May Day and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz the least, which alongside with Benjamin Button, are considered to he the 3 best stories in the collection but I would have to disagree.
Overall a solid 3/5 stars.
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I absolutely love The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and it is by far the best story in the collection. I actually liked May Day and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz the least, which alongside with Benjamin Button, are considered to he the 3 best stories in the collection but I would have to disagree.
Overall a solid 3/5 stars.
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The first story was great, a very unique and biazzare story... the rest however were (dare I say)... boring. They all seemed to follow a similar plot and became very repetitive.
General feelings: a good sampling of Fitzgerald's writing style
I am not a huge fan of Fitzgerald, but I was interested in the inspiration for the movie, and giving him another shot after The Great Gatsby (which is not a fave of mine). The movie is definitely very different than what was laid out here. I appreciated the kinds of character explorations Fitzgerald was going for, but I take issue with the way he portrays women. They seem to be set pieces or background images to him and that is not something I am interested in reading very often.
I honestly do not remember much about the other stories in this collection other than this treatment of women and that he was attempting to make a commentary on human interaction and experience.
If you are looking for a examples to see if Fitzgerald is for you, this is a great, low commitment place to start!
I am not a huge fan of Fitzgerald, but I was interested in the inspiration for the movie, and giving him another shot after The Great Gatsby (which is not a fave of mine). The movie is definitely very different than what was laid out here. I appreciated the kinds of character explorations Fitzgerald was going for, but I take issue with the way he portrays women. They seem to be set pieces or background images to him and that is not something I am interested in reading very often.
I honestly do not remember much about the other stories in this collection other than this treatment of women and that he was attempting to make a commentary on human interaction and experience.
If you are looking for a examples to see if Fitzgerald is for you, this is a great, low commitment place to start!
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked this quite a bit. Some of the stories were much better than others. My two favourites being The Four Fists and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
The others were a little difficult to get into at by the time they held my interest they were over.
It was in enjoyable however and I look forward to reading the rest of Fitzgerald's novels.
I will say that I think his stories are definitely influenced by his personal life. Those that are familiar with his life story will probably make the same conclusions.
The others were a little difficult to get into at by the time they held my interest they were over.
It was in enjoyable however and I look forward to reading the rest of Fitzgerald's novels.
I will say that I think his stories are definitely influenced by his personal life. Those that are familiar with his life story will probably make the same conclusions.
slow-paced