A review by pbraue13
Zelda by Nancy Milford

4.0

I have always been fascinated by the Fitzgerald's namely Scott (for he was allowed to be the most prolific), but this book really made me appreciate the person Zelda was and really understand what a toxic/codependent relationship they had. It seems that Zelda either has the glamorous image of the "first flapper" or the crazy bitch who drove Fitzgerald into an early grave. This book shows that both were either embellishments or inaccurate lies as both Fitzgerald's fed into the myth of them in the 1920s, but Scott unintentionally stoked the fire of the opinion of Zelda as a disturbed talentless writer (which she was not as this book proves including unpublished excerpts of her work and her letters/personal notes). She was a woman who deserved better and this book left me pondering so many "what if" scenarios where the end of these people's lives could have been different. It's a give and take. 4.5/5 stars on this one. The half taken away is for where the book slowed down, but I kept reading (even if the analysis of certain passages seemed unneeded).