saralynnburnett 's review for:

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.0

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This novel, though set similarly in time and place and of course style as his other novels felt totally different. It was about the aftermath of the party - it felt like waking up in the morning with a massive hangover, cigarette butts reeking in the other room, and sticky alcohol spilled all over the floor. It was in a word - tragic. I read all but the last 60 pages of this in one sitting on a flight back to Honolulu and the first third I loved, the middle third I was breathless, and the last third I didn't like - I was relieved when the plane landed and I could stop reading it. The story follows Anthony and Gloria as they are falling in love (she calls him an ass, that made me smile), honeymooning, living the high life, waiting for Anthony's extraordinarily rich grandfather to die, and then come 'the incident.' The incident compels the rest of the story and you watch these two characters (hard to love or hate them, neither is very likable), fall out of love for a multitude of reasons and grapple with their new reality.

It's tragic but it's memorable and Fitzgerald's style, as always, is dazzling.