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emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After reading Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", I was geared up to take on another book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the blender of life...start with murder, madness and mayhem, toss in a pinch of incest and homosexuality, a few cups of alcohol and select puree. Fitzgerald mentions the first murder as if in passing but doesn't expand on it. The second murder victim gets moved and left in the hallway like he doesn't matter and perhaps he didn't. Rich, socially high, these people seemed aloof, shallow and lacking morals. They were not accountable for their own bad decisions. I could see bits and pieces of the real Fitzgerald's coming in and out of the pages. The 1920's are one of my favorite periods in history but this group I would not want to spend even a minute in their company. I can't say it's not a good book because it is, it's just not the sort of story I can relate to.
emotional
medium-paced
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fitzgerald's last published novel before his death, mirroring his own downfall and the downfall of his relationship with Zelda. Brutal.
The title, which personally has always been poetic and evocative, I learned was taken from Keats' "Ode To A Nightingale". Apropos to Dick's developing Florence Nightingale Syndrome when he falls in love with his patient and future wife, Nicole. Dick's ultimate demise is a mixture of egotism, escapism and alcoholism (and several other -ism's I don't recall currently).
True to form, Fitzgerald's self awareness and denigration is the underlying current of his prose as the strong become weak and the weak become strong. One could say this work was Fitzgerald's most feminist work (contextually at least). Perhaps a form of penance for his own affairs and the abandonment of Zelda as she herself slipped into mental illness.
Nicole Diver is the character that arcs from a dependent on Dick's care of her as a patient, to requiting the control men around her attempt to instill upon her and, in the end, gains her independence for self and being.
The title, which personally has always been poetic and evocative, I learned was taken from Keats' "Ode To A Nightingale". Apropos to Dick's developing Florence Nightingale Syndrome when he falls in love with his patient and future wife, Nicole. Dick's ultimate demise is a mixture of egotism, escapism and alcoholism (and several other -ism's I don't recall currently).
True to form, Fitzgerald's self awareness and denigration is the underlying current of his prose as the strong become weak and the weak become strong. One could say this work was Fitzgerald's most feminist work (contextually at least). Perhaps a form of penance for his own affairs and the abandonment of Zelda as she herself slipped into mental illness.
Nicole Diver is the character that arcs from a dependent on Dick's care of her as a patient, to requiting the control men around her attempt to instill upon her and, in the end, gains her independence for self and being.
"You know, you're a little complicated after all."
Nicole is quick to disclaim any complexity: "No, I'm not really - I'm just a - I'm just a whole lot of different simple people."
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
She hated the beach, resented the places where she had played planet to Dick's sun.
The first time I read this book, I was 13 or 14. It was one of the books that stayed with me and became formative for my tastes, mindset, opinions and preferences. It never made its way to my list of absolute faves (the pace being a bit off, some writing being not strictly to my taste, etc.), but it is still so important to me.
Now, ten years later, reading it in English for the first time, I am still impressed by it. The first time I read it, I was focused on Rosemary. Then, I reread it for the first time, paying more attention to Dick.
But this reread was truly about Nicole.
Sometimes, we age with books - sometimes, the books help us age.
emotional