Since I just finished reading a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald, I thought it fitting to read one of Scott's novels, so I picked up The Beautiful and Damned for my Nook at the library. I've read a bunch of his short stories and of course Gatsby, and Tender is the Night, and I loved all of them, so I thought I would love this, his second novel, as well.
I did not love this novel. I know, it's shocking, but it's true. In my opinion this novel just doesn't stand the test of time the way the others do. The language is stilted, the characters are unlikeable, and the story just feels very old-fashioned to me. I got about two-thirds of the way through and then my check-out expired and I just didn't renew it. I feel horrible about it, I do, but I just don't care anymore what happens to Anthony and Gloria Patch, I just don't.
I'll try to read his first novel, This Side of Paradise, at some point. But I wonder if maybe I just prefer an older F. Scott Fitzgerald (although he never did get that old). We'll see. But I'm damned disappointed that I just couldn't enjoy this one.
The Beautiful and Damned
Monday, December 9, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Ever since I took an English lit class focusing on Fitzgerald and Hemingway, I have been drawn to almost anything written about them. This is the first time I've ever read anything focusing on Zelda Fitzgerald, and it shows quite a different perspective from what I am used to. Yes, this is a work of fiction, but the author clearly shows with whom her sympathies lie.
It's 1918, when we meet high-school-aged Zelda Sayre at her hometown in Alabama, where there is a street named for her family. She is beautiful and charming and could have her pick of any boy, but she falls head-over-heels for the handsome officer stationed there, Scott Fitzgerald. Her family would like her to marry someone with a profession (writing it not a profession by their standards) but she'll have none of it. So begins the fun, wild, interesting, intriguing, and heart-breaking life of THE premier Jazz Age couple.
My main problem with the novel is that the author, Fowler, places pretty much all of the blame for the couple's problems squarely on Scott's (and to an extent, Hemingway's) shoulders. Yes, Scott is a needy alcoholic artistic genius (bordering on abusive), but I don't believe Zelda is as innocent as she is portrayed. Fowler takes tons of artistic license, including making up correspondence between Zelda and Scott, despite having the actual letters available as reference. Fowler also makes Hemingway out to be just a horrible person, which I think is over-simplifying one of the greatest literary minds of a generation.
Having said all that, this is still a GREAT read. The characters are rich and interesting, the story moves very quickly, and I really like Zelda. She was arguably one of the most interesting women of the 20th century, in fiction or reality.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
It's 1918, when we meet high-school-aged Zelda Sayre at her hometown in Alabama, where there is a street named for her family. She is beautiful and charming and could have her pick of any boy, but she falls head-over-heels for the handsome officer stationed there, Scott Fitzgerald. Her family would like her to marry someone with a profession (writing it not a profession by their standards) but she'll have none of it. So begins the fun, wild, interesting, intriguing, and heart-breaking life of THE premier Jazz Age couple.
My main problem with the novel is that the author, Fowler, places pretty much all of the blame for the couple's problems squarely on Scott's (and to an extent, Hemingway's) shoulders. Yes, Scott is a needy alcoholic artistic genius (bordering on abusive), but I don't believe Zelda is as innocent as she is portrayed. Fowler takes tons of artistic license, including making up correspondence between Zelda and Scott, despite having the actual letters available as reference. Fowler also makes Hemingway out to be just a horrible person, which I think is over-simplifying one of the greatest literary minds of a generation.
Having said all that, this is still a GREAT read. The characters are rich and interesting, the story moves very quickly, and I really like Zelda. She was arguably one of the most interesting women of the 20th century, in fiction or reality.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Monday, November 11, 2013
The Dark Witch
Okay, so all of you who regularly read this blog (all 3 of you!) know that I have a love-hate relationship with Nora Roberts. On the one hand, her books are just so easy to read, and she tells a gripping story. On the other hand I often find her formulaic and a little repetitive. But I have to say, I really enjoyed this first book of her new Irish trilogy, The Dark Witch. It's got Ireland and castles and witches and spells - what's not to like?
American Iona Sheehan has felt different her whole life, and when her grandmother urges her to go find her distant cousins in Ireland, she leaps at the chance. When she meets cousins Branna and Connor, she feels a special kinship right away, and she realizes that coming to Ireland is fulfilling her destiny. Hitting it off with sexy stable owner Boyle is just icing on the cake.
So Iona, Branna and Connor are the three who are destined to vanquish the evil witch Cabhan, thanks to their ancient ancestor Sorcha's curse. They get help from Boyle and friends Meara and Fin - Fin being a descendant of the evil Cabhan, wouldn't you know. This is mystical realism/romance at it's best, and Nora does it better than anyone.
I'm already looking forward to book two, which I'm guessing will focus on Meara and Connor. She'll probably save Branna and Fin for the last book.
The Dark Witch
American Iona Sheehan has felt different her whole life, and when her grandmother urges her to go find her distant cousins in Ireland, she leaps at the chance. When she meets cousins Branna and Connor, she feels a special kinship right away, and she realizes that coming to Ireland is fulfilling her destiny. Hitting it off with sexy stable owner Boyle is just icing on the cake.
So Iona, Branna and Connor are the three who are destined to vanquish the evil witch Cabhan, thanks to their ancient ancestor Sorcha's curse. They get help from Boyle and friends Meara and Fin - Fin being a descendant of the evil Cabhan, wouldn't you know. This is mystical realism/romance at it's best, and Nora does it better than anyone.
I'm already looking forward to book two, which I'm guessing will focus on Meara and Connor. She'll probably save Branna and Fin for the last book.
The Dark Witch
Monday, October 28, 2013
The Boleyn King
In this gripping and imaginative novel, Laurie Andersen imagines what would have happened if Anne Boleyn had given birth to the boy baby she miscarried, thereby changing the history of England as we know it?
We meet the young king - William to his friends - just as he is about to turn 18 and take full control of his realm. His father has been dead for several years and his mother is in failing health, but he has close companions in his older sister Elizabeth, friend Dominic Courtenay, and co-birthday celebrant Minuette, daughter of Queen Anne's favorite lady who was raised practically as a sister, and who now is Elizabeth's chief lady. The four of them are a lively, attractive, and intelligent group, with Minuette surprisingly at the center.
If you are a British history buff there is plenty for you here. There are battles, court intrigues, all the fun Tudor stuff. And the novel is a real page-turner. My only complaint is that it ends so abruptly - nothing was resolved to my satisfaction. Then I find out it's the first in a trilogy, and the second book is due out in about a month. I've already pre-ordered it from Barnes and Noble.
The Boleyn King
We meet the young king - William to his friends - just as he is about to turn 18 and take full control of his realm. His father has been dead for several years and his mother is in failing health, but he has close companions in his older sister Elizabeth, friend Dominic Courtenay, and co-birthday celebrant Minuette, daughter of Queen Anne's favorite lady who was raised practically as a sister, and who now is Elizabeth's chief lady. The four of them are a lively, attractive, and intelligent group, with Minuette surprisingly at the center.
If you are a British history buff there is plenty for you here. There are battles, court intrigues, all the fun Tudor stuff. And the novel is a real page-turner. My only complaint is that it ends so abruptly - nothing was resolved to my satisfaction. Then I find out it's the first in a trilogy, and the second book is due out in about a month. I've already pre-ordered it from Barnes and Noble.
The Boleyn King
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
You know I like my mystical realism and my time-travel novels. This is a fabulous one. I will say that it started a little slowly for me, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down.
Greta Wells is a 30-something woman living in NYC in 1985. Her twin brother has just died of AIDS and her long-time lover has left her for another woman, so she is understandably depressed. When her doctor suggests electric shock therapy, she figures it can't hurt and gives it a try. Little does she know how it will change her lives (yes, I said lives). Because the treatments send Greta back in time, to her previous lives - to 1918, and to 1941. In both lives she finds all of the same people from 1985 - her beloved twin Felix (now carefully hiding his true self); her lover Nathan (who is her husband in these previous lives); and her beloved Aunt Ruth (in whom Greta confides her time-travel). Greta is having the shock treatments in each of these lives, and after each treatment she moves on to the next life, in a normal sort of pattern. But then she figures out that while 1985 Greta is traveling, 1918 and 1941 Greta are traveling too, and all of them are interfering in each other's present day life.
I think it's interesting that the author, Andrew Sean Greer, picked the years he did: 1985, at the height of the AIDS "plague"; 1918, when WWI is just ending, and there is a massive flu epidemic; and 1941, when WWII is just starting for America. These were all kind of turning-points in American culture, and predate the shrinking cultural effects of the Internet and cell phones and Twitter. I also have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well a male author inhabited a female character. I will definitely look for other books by Greer.
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Greta Wells is a 30-something woman living in NYC in 1985. Her twin brother has just died of AIDS and her long-time lover has left her for another woman, so she is understandably depressed. When her doctor suggests electric shock therapy, she figures it can't hurt and gives it a try. Little does she know how it will change her lives (yes, I said lives). Because the treatments send Greta back in time, to her previous lives - to 1918, and to 1941. In both lives she finds all of the same people from 1985 - her beloved twin Felix (now carefully hiding his true self); her lover Nathan (who is her husband in these previous lives); and her beloved Aunt Ruth (in whom Greta confides her time-travel). Greta is having the shock treatments in each of these lives, and after each treatment she moves on to the next life, in a normal sort of pattern. But then she figures out that while 1985 Greta is traveling, 1918 and 1941 Greta are traveling too, and all of them are interfering in each other's present day life.
I think it's interesting that the author, Andrew Sean Greer, picked the years he did: 1985, at the height of the AIDS "plague"; 1918, when WWI is just ending, and there is a massive flu epidemic; and 1941, when WWII is just starting for America. These were all kind of turning-points in American culture, and predate the shrinking cultural effects of the Internet and cell phones and Twitter. I also have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well a male author inhabited a female character. I will definitely look for other books by Greer.
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Last Original Wife
I think Dorothea Benton Frank is one of today's best southern writers. She really captures the spirit of the South, and I always want to visit Charleston after I read one of her novels! Her latest is no exception.
Leslie Carter is the "last original wife" of the title - all of her husband's friends have married younger women, and she's stuck trying to make conversation with "the Barbies" every weekend at their posh Atlanta club. When Leslie and her husband Wes take a trip to Scotland with Harold and trophy-wife Courteney, Les has an accident and winds up in the hospital - and Wes goes off to play golf and leaves Courteney there to keep her company. Well, that's pretty much the last straw for Les. Once home she flies to her brother, Harlan, in Charleston. There she finds love, acceptance, and her old high school boyfriend... and the courage to stand up for the life she is entitled to.
DBF writes great characters, top among them Leslie, Harlan, and Leslie's best friend Danette. She's also a natural with southern dialect and expressions. But on top of that, her descriptions of Charleston are like the best tour book I ever read. I'm not kidding, we went to Charleston and Savannah one year over the holidays because of the way she described Charleston at Christmas in one of her books. I swear. And this is just a fun novel, and a really easy read. I just ate it up, y'all.
The Last Original Wife
Leslie Carter is the "last original wife" of the title - all of her husband's friends have married younger women, and she's stuck trying to make conversation with "the Barbies" every weekend at their posh Atlanta club. When Leslie and her husband Wes take a trip to Scotland with Harold and trophy-wife Courteney, Les has an accident and winds up in the hospital - and Wes goes off to play golf and leaves Courteney there to keep her company. Well, that's pretty much the last straw for Les. Once home she flies to her brother, Harlan, in Charleston. There she finds love, acceptance, and her old high school boyfriend... and the courage to stand up for the life she is entitled to.
DBF writes great characters, top among them Leslie, Harlan, and Leslie's best friend Danette. She's also a natural with southern dialect and expressions. But on top of that, her descriptions of Charleston are like the best tour book I ever read. I'm not kidding, we went to Charleston and Savannah one year over the holidays because of the way she described Charleston at Christmas in one of her books. I swear. And this is just a fun novel, and a really easy read. I just ate it up, y'all.
The Last Original Wife
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Inferno
This is Dan Brown's fourth Robert Langdon novel. I liked it. I didn't read the last one, The Lost Symbol, but I liked Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. This one is right up there as far as drawing you into the story and keeping you involved right until the end.
Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy, suffering a gunshot wound and unable to remember how he got there. When someone enters with the apparent intention of shooting him, Dr. Sienna Brooks helps him escape, and the adventure begins. It seems that some crazy person has planted a virus somewhere in Florence, and Robert must use his knowledge of Dante's Inferno to figure out the where/why/when. Sienna is helping him, and luckily she's brilliant and beautiful.
Brown is certainly not what my writing professor would call a "good" writer, and this is certainly not great literature. But Brown's talent is in creating a story and a situation that immediately draws you in and doesn't let you go - I HAD to know what was going to happen next. And the fact that the reader gets a guided tour of Florence is pretty exciting too. The typical Brown switch-backs and flip-flops kept me guessing, but I thought the ending was just a little flat.
I would definitely recommend this book, but I have never and will never see a movie based on one of the Langdon books. The reason: the horrible miscasting of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. I mean, really, how could anyone who has read one of these novels ever have pictured Hanks in the role?
Inferno
Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy, suffering a gunshot wound and unable to remember how he got there. When someone enters with the apparent intention of shooting him, Dr. Sienna Brooks helps him escape, and the adventure begins. It seems that some crazy person has planted a virus somewhere in Florence, and Robert must use his knowledge of Dante's Inferno to figure out the where/why/when. Sienna is helping him, and luckily she's brilliant and beautiful.
Brown is certainly not what my writing professor would call a "good" writer, and this is certainly not great literature. But Brown's talent is in creating a story and a situation that immediately draws you in and doesn't let you go - I HAD to know what was going to happen next. And the fact that the reader gets a guided tour of Florence is pretty exciting too. The typical Brown switch-backs and flip-flops kept me guessing, but I thought the ending was just a little flat.
I would definitely recommend this book, but I have never and will never see a movie based on one of the Langdon books. The reason: the horrible miscasting of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. I mean, really, how could anyone who has read one of these novels ever have pictured Hanks in the role?
Inferno
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