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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
i don’t know why i read this. it was pretty okay. Zelda deserves her credit tho.
Not Fitzgerald's best by any means, but still Fitzgerald so I can't help but love it. Oh Amory. :(
I loved the main character in this book a lot. He's the kind of man you want to know and many people will have known someone like him in their lives; a rare sort with a distorted and yet ends up being a proper view on his society and relationships with others. Fitzgerald's writing was beautifully done as always, very tasteful I should say.
I’m endeavoring to read through Fitzgerald’s canon this year, naturally starting with this one. The prose is just as beautiful as I expected it to be. I loved the language and the descriptions. As far as being "transported", I definitely got there. The problem for me was I just couldn't care about the people. Most of the characters, Amory especially (of course), were shallow, arrogant, and conceited. I couldn't relate to them at all, and the story was kind of eye-rolling to get through… though I still loved the WAY it was written (if that makes any sense). I’ll keep on with the canon, but I didn't flip out over this one like I had with Gatsby. (But yes, I realize, not every novel can be a Gatsby!)
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-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
This was a little bit choppy and largely autobiographical, from what I understand. The ability was there, waiting to be developed, but his organizational skills weren't so hot.
I loved this passage:
"Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again. The matron doesn't want to repeat her girlhood--she wants to repeat her honeymoon. I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."
We can all relate, and I've never heard it said better by any other writer.
I loved this passage:
"Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again. The matron doesn't want to repeat her girlhood--she wants to repeat her honeymoon. I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."
We can all relate, and I've never heard it said better by any other writer.
"In self-reproach and loneliness and disillusion he came to the entrance of the labyrinth".
Such a magnificent story about a young man fighting his life really ratifies the insertion of a quotation at the beginning of this review. I really appreciated this novel's effortless narrative structure and laser-sharp characterisation. The hero, Amory Blaine, is initially young and ambitious man with a romantic heart and a doting mother. However, in the second part of the novel, perhaps unsubtly following his disillusioning time in World War One, emerges a very different Blaine who is cynical and prone to philosophising. The common thread of the novel is surely Blaine's alienation from high society, turning 'This Side of Paradise' into a story about people and their societies, as much as it is about young love, friendship and politics.
Drawing on the irony of the novel's title, the author seems to shun the notion of love at first sight, making it a melodramatic and incredible affair, literally set out in the form of a play. He seems to make failure and tragedy an inevitable barrier to the success of love: "'I'm so happy that I'm frightened. Wouldn't it be awful if this was the high point?", encapsulating the tainted side of a "sentimental" or "romantic" relationship.
Having one of my favourite final lines in literature, Fitzgerald carries a pretty weighty idea with his closing statement... "'I know myself,' he cried. 'But that is all'".
Such a magnificent story about a young man fighting his life really ratifies the insertion of a quotation at the beginning of this review. I really appreciated this novel's effortless narrative structure and laser-sharp characterisation. The hero, Amory Blaine, is initially young and ambitious man with a romantic heart and a doting mother. However, in the second part of the novel, perhaps unsubtly following his disillusioning time in World War One, emerges a very different Blaine who is cynical and prone to philosophising. The common thread of the novel is surely Blaine's alienation from high society, turning 'This Side of Paradise' into a story about people and their societies, as much as it is about young love, friendship and politics.
Drawing on the irony of the novel's title, the author seems to shun the notion of love at first sight, making it a melodramatic and incredible affair, literally set out in the form of a play. He seems to make failure and tragedy an inevitable barrier to the success of love: "'I'm so happy that I'm frightened. Wouldn't it be awful if this was the high point?", encapsulating the tainted side of a "sentimental" or "romantic" relationship.
Having one of my favourite final lines in literature, Fitzgerald carries a pretty weighty idea with his closing statement... "'I know myself,' he cried. 'But that is all'".
I think I may have liked this better than Gatsby. I'm aware that this opinion is probably less than popular. I feel that his commentary here about the "lost generation" is more poignant, more subtle and, dare I say, more biting.
This book was extremely well written (to me, anyway). It was very interesting. The story itself wasn't my favorite story and there are times when I'm not even sure I liked it. If you liked the Great Gatsby, you should read this. Basically, it's about the development of a young man named Amory Blaine.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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