Reviews

While interesting, I must say that I wish there was more backstory to this tale. We don't know much about the characters, other than scants hints of what may have or may have not happened. That, and the inconclusive ending made me like this story less than I might have.

katedg's review against another edition

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Amazing... Each story was unique in subject matter, yet, they all maintain Fitzgerald's charming voice. Some stories were much more melancholy than Fitzgerald's usual 1920s atmosphere, but they offered a new (although sad) glimpse into his consciousness, especially "The Long Way Out."

tclinger's review against another edition

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5.0

A good set of Fitzgerald's short stories. I enjoyed a lot of them, my favorites probably being The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Babylon Revisited. The stories are in chronological order from when he wrote them and you can see more and more of his life and troubles being put in them. Babylon Revisited is almost word-for-word about what was happening in his life with his daughter Scottie (but Zelda wasn't dead). The newer stories are definitely better but the latter stories are still great to read.

sorry's review against another edition

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5.0

To believe that this is the same author who wrote the Great Gatspy is just... Wow!
Like I kept checking the cover to make sure that he's the same author and not his secret twin or something

cneywendleton's review against another edition

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1.0

I just do not care for F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I do not like the opening. I feel like we are starting in the middle of a conversation and I cannot make heads or tails of the part we do catch.
Even though we do not hear him order a drink, when he says "No, no more." and the bartender replies, "You were going pretty strong a couple of years ago." Fitzgerald is implying that Charlie was a big drinker back in the day. We also get the impression that this bar used to be the place to be for ex-pats, but it has now "gone back to the French" and is pretty much a dead zone.
The line about people in Prague not knowing him there, is implying that since he was last in Paris he has settled down quite a bit.
A little bit of sarcasm here, I love how we are supposed to differentiate between a room being American or the bar being French. Are the French so different that just by saying a room is French or American the general reader will be able to picture it perfectly? Do the French make different noises in the kitchen than Americans do? I understand languages are different, but that still does not tell me what "French noises from the kitchen," means.
Why do we only get half of the conversation instead of the full thing?
If he is at his brother-in-laws house, why is Marion standoffish? She would be his sister. Why would he not say, he is going to bring "our" sister over from America?

cristinajune's review against another edition

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5.0

WTF! I mean... I was reading Babylon Revisited and it was getting interesting and the BOOM! it ends!

mahimabh's review against another edition

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4.0

Reading Fitzgerald is my favourite thing ever. There's this very naked and very stark beauty to Fitzgerald's writing that I haven't found in any other writer. I hadn't read a lot of his short stories before this, and I'm really glad I picked this up. Loved every story (except The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, which despite hearing good things about it I thought was just okay) in this particular collection, my favourite being The Rich Boy and Babylon Revisited. I'm starting to pick up that a few themes are common to most of Fitzgerald's work which bring to fore the ugly underbelly of the Jazz Age, and most of them also seem to have some semblance of an autobiographical element to them. Reading these stories reminded me a lot of Gatsby (one of my all time favourites) and I'm eager to finally read my next Fitzgerald novel although I'm not sure which one I'll pick up first.

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