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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
Unfortunately, this book was extremely disappointing. I liked the premise a lot and parts of it were very entertaining, but the flaws were glaring. I know this book is 100 years old, but it was so racist (the audiobook was especially bad). I cannot believe, given this is autobiographical, that the F Scott/Zelda marriage lasted a day.
Giving this 2.5 stars because his prose is always fantastic and I can see the progression of his writing now that I've read his first 3 books. Gatsby perfects (and cleans up) all the concepts Fitzgerald built on in This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. I love deeply terrible people who make horrendous financial choices.
Giving this 2.5 stars because his prose is always fantastic and I can see the progression of his writing now that I've read his first 3 books. Gatsby perfects (and cleans up) all the concepts Fitzgerald built on in This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. I love deeply terrible people who make horrendous financial choices.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
slow-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
Overwritten, but the prose is dazzling in parts. Emotionally gripping when the story hits its emotional strides.
I tried reading this at several points in my life up until now. Glad it didn't really hook me until I was ready.
I tried reading this at several points in my life up until now. Glad it didn't really hook me until I was ready.
A bit depressing, but wonderfully written! I love F. Scott for his almost poetic prose, which describes life exactly as it is. (This book deserves four and a half stars really.)
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Maybe 2.5. I didn't love this one. It felt messy and poorly structured in comparison with The Great Gatsby, and the characters really didn't grab me.
Fitzgerald is unparalleled in painting portraits of American life in the early 1900s, as long as you subscribe to the idea of realistic cinematic life. The highs are gay and sparkling, champagne fueled and jubilantly boisterous, but the lows are nefariously bleak. The contrast between the two illustrates a very monochromatic story and I am burnt out on Fitzgerald after reading both the ‘Beautiful and Damned’ and the ‘Great Gatsby.’ While his novels are always dependable proverbials of a great vocabulary, his sentence structures are exhausting.
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It seems I read a lot of books about alcoholic men who go mad. Ah, well, this book was certainly a rollercoaster of unexpected and depressing twists, and I loved it.