valirusta

A meandering mess of a book, peppered with brilliant passages of such color that capture the days of an era gone by. Fitzgerald denotes his own journey in the shadow of his deteriorating marriage through a protagonist - Dick Diver - struggling to maintain his identity while his deranged wife quietly creates hers. The novel is divided into 3 books, beginning with a rather dull representation of the lives of several Americans in the South of France, their indulgences and their follies. Fitzgerald may have been influenced by Hemingway but he doesn't deliver in depicting the magic of Americans abroad. However, the book takes a turn for the better when we are given the history of Dick Diver - though I fear it was too late for me to be truly on board. This novel is a clunky read but when it takes flight, mainly because of its literary imminence and psychological destruction of its characters, it soars.

2023-06-20 06:32