Those who came to The Forge early last night were fortunate enough to be treated by a representative of Grand Rapid's Perrin Brewery. Several of us sampled a pint of their Blackberry IPA or Perrin Black Ale. This writer had a Blackberry IPA and while it was a bit too fruity for my simple tastes the price was right. Haywood was the rep and a nice guy.
We repaired to the back bar for the discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night. Ed promises to send notes about his choice, so I'll let him speak for himself. The general discussion was on track for most of the meet. While several themes were bantered about, the "money doesn't buy happiness" thread occupied much time.
We further observed that Fitzgerald gave us some real gems. In appealing to the more prurient nature consider this example, "She crossed and recrossed her knees frequently in the manner of tall restless virgins." Who amongst us struggles with that image? How about, "The orange light through the drawn blind, the sarcophagus of her figure on the bed, the spot of face, the voice searching the vacuity of her illness and finding only remote abstractions." Can you see Fitzgerald pondering Zelda's schizophrenic behaviors while in treatment and manifesting that helpless feeling he must have had at not being able to care for her?
These and other examples of Fitzgerald's work show him to be one of the best at his craft.
This writer is drawn to the the era that occupies most of Fitzgerald's stories. Between the two great wars, ex-pats in Europe, especially Paris, produced remarkable works. The characters there had to have been powerful cohorts. From Wikipedia The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron. This generation included artists and writers who came of age during the war such as F. Scott Fitzgerald,[1] T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Djuna Barnes, Glenway Wescott, Waldo Peirce, Isadora Duncan, Abraham Walkowitz, Ezra Pound, Alan Seeger, Henry Miller, Aldous Huxley, Malcolm Cowley, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Erich Maria Remarque and the composers Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, George Gershwin, and Aaron Copland.
Has there been another such era?
I'll ponder a bit and maybe add some more.
Thank you guys for continuing to share some terrific titles as well as your book commentaries. Your lengthy booklist continues to be an inspiration to us with only 89 titles under our belt. Coincidentally, the Man Book Club is reading The Sympathizer for October and bypassed The Water Knife in favor of The North Water. We'll see if our reaction is more "sympathetic."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/07/28/living-well-is-the-best-revenge
ReplyDeletehttps://www.brainpickings.org/2016/07/21/hemingway-f-scott-fitzgerald-letter-advice/
The Great Apes met on Monday September 26 to discuss Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald’s last and most autobiographical novel. The book spanned nine years in comple#on, many dra$s, andmuch in world events and Fitzgerald’s personal events with Zelda, his concurrent lucra#ve short story wri#ng, and alcohol. The central story of Dick Diver’s decline from promise, the early days of seeking medical sense in madness, and the power and distor#on of wealth illustrated in a clutch of self-exiled American idle rich expatriates drew mixed reviews from the group. Some found introspec#ve interest in Diver’s confusion with desire to save, love, do good, be responsible vs. the power of lust/sex, money, cool heroism, and ul#mately drink. I guess some of us have more sympathy or more iden#ty with that than others. Others found Fitzgerald’s long and obscure sentences (see above) wearing, the lack of #me linearity and the walk-on characters distrac#ng, and even worse, the central characters lacking in character, appeal, and something worthwhile to do. So this book, o$en considered one of Fitzgerald’s two best, fared only fair in the Ape’s reviews
ReplyDelete