Book Notes: "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's pretty clear why FSF is one of the literary greats. However, I find it difficult not to experience his work without feeling the darkness of the Robert Redford movie-version of The Great Gatsby. Tender is the Night keeps the excesses of the Jazz Age alive but with a sense of the impending doom. The ordinariness that culminates in the conclusion made me feel sad for the extraordinariness of the story in Book I, and worry about where my own future will lead. I also find it difficult to read FSF without thinking about Hemingway, even though FSF established himself sometime before the latter. Nonetheless, FSF's characters are more highly developed than Hemingway's, and in many ways FSF's work is much more academic while being somewhat less self-indulgent. At the same time, self-indulgence is not lacking in Tender is the Night. Rather, I think that FSF forces the reader to appear self-indulgent, rather than Hemingway's self-indulgence experienced through the low-visibility narrator who masks the author's modus operandi. Regardless, there is nothing better than alternating between Fitzgerald and Hemingway while getting caught up in the "Lost Generation" set amidst the "Jazz Age". I can't help thinking, too, how much FSF and Hemingway influenced Woody Allen's work, although that is another story. Tender is the Night was a difficult read and well worth the effort, though I doubt I could have understood it had I had less experience with living. Self-indulgent, to be sure, but the experience alone was the highlight of the novel. By way of confirmation, now I must return to Veblen to see how much his Theory of the Leisure Class impacted upon Fitzgerald.



View all my reviews

Book Notes: "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" by Larry W. Phillips

Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Phillips puts together a collection of quotes from Hemingway's work and also from a number of letters and interviews. I am not sure Hemingway would have been happy about this book, although Mr Hemingway's fourth wife Mary Welsh Hemingway gave the editor (Phillips) permission to use the various quotes from Hemingway's major works. Phillips' major contribution is putting together Hemingway's thoughts on writing in one convenient place. Other than that, it smacks of someone getting to publish a book simply because the subject is famous. It is a very quick read and I enjoyed reading it, but I was a little disappointed that it is just a series of quotes organised thematically. Worth a read, worth keeping to refer back to, but reading about Hemingway just isn't the same as reading Hemingway.



View all my reviews

Book Notes: "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As Hemingway's first novel, it is certainly beyond my comprehension how he could ever understand so much at the age of 27. I am reluctant to disclose too much for fear of spoilers, but the conclusion to the story is very real. The bullfighting is described in ways that make me want to see one, yet simultaneously I am appalled at the thought. Hemingway seems to have felt the same way. He also describes concussion in a way that can only be described by someone who has suffered several concussions. There are no lies in this work. I am becoming accustomed to the meandering first three-quarters of the typical Hemingway plot. It isn't hard work but it isn't gripping either. He seems to lull you into a comfortable sense of normalcy which doesn't end but the last quarter builds and builds to a climax in the last sentence that unfolds the final emotion. With the conclusion to "A Farewell to Arms" I burst into tears. With this novel I exclaimed, "That fucking sucks!" Hemingway's work is seriously brilliant while incredibly timeless. I am not sure whether it is simply cultural alignment or not, but the connection between the pedestrian and the nostalgic intertwined with the exotic European setting connects one's past to Hemingway's past to the power of two. He takes you to the place he has been and then where he is in the story. I am convinced this is the result of his technique of writing as the protagonist in the first person while excising, completely, the presence of the narrator. Brilliant stuff!



View all my reviews