piperhudsburn 's review for:

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.0

---

“I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.”

Yesterday, instead of working on a presentation for my sorority's alumnae tea on Sunday, I watched Harold Lloyd's 1925 film The Freshman, and while it was good enough to soothe my boredom, I didn't find it funny as it was in the 20's. It didn't need to be, because it was delightfully weird. Out of all the socially awkward, disaster plagued college freshman out there, Lloyd's depiction was memorable parody.

However, This Side of Paradise takes itself too seriously. The main character is both self-insert for a new money Midwestern outsider and a socially anxious kid who can't develop strong relationships. While I loved the Hill shout-out, the story dies out when good ol' Amory starts falling for debutantes, and my favorite character dies in 200 hundred some pages in. There's some discussion on the coasting aristocrat and the struggling bourgeoisie- typical for a novel about Prep School. It's not a bore, but Fitzgerald has written better. I can definitely see why this was so popular though- Americans loved to laugh at themselves, but like with The Freshman, I just wish I was in on the joke.