Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A Bookish Pair...

From F. Scott Fitzgerald's first love to his last...these two books just seem to go together. Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler are both worth checking out.


Before he fell in love with Zelda, F. Scott Fitzgerald fell in love with Ginevra; he was attending Princeton, she was a high school girl at Westover. Their courtship was brief and consisted of a few visits, a few kisses, and a lot of passionate letters. When Ginevra broke up with him, Scott told her, "No one will ever love you as much as I do."  Was he right? Caroline Preston has written a fictionalized account of Ginevra's life, from 1916 when she first met F. Scott Fitzgerald, through the Roaring Twenties, to Scott's death in 1940. It's an interesting and well-written novel, and a fun mix of reality and fiction.




Can you think of any literary couple more fascinating than Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald? Therese Anne Fowler's excellent fictional novel captures the era of the flappers and Scott's and Zelda's tempestuous and passionate love affair. Money poured through their fingers as fast as champagne from a bottle; they lived always in the moment...soul mates to the bitter end. Fowler took a lot of her material from their letters to each other, which added a nice authenticity to her narrative. If you've never read anything about Zelda or Scott Fitzgerald, this book is a great introduction to their roller-coaster lives.



Happy Reading!

2 comments:

  1. I have Z on my TBR pile - thanks for the tantalising review that makes me want to start it ow!

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    1. It's a really well-written book. I hope you enjoy it!

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