The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

A logical followup to semi-autobiographical This Side of Paradise, which followed its character through adolescence, this novel focuses on the adult life of the handsome and clever - but uninspired - Anthony Patch, who lives it up on his grandfather's dollar and struggles to forge his own way in life. After marrying the beautiful Gloria, his life degenerates until he exists in a state of selfish depravity, evidenced by increasing alcoholism and the alienation of everyone near him. Though it never seems his pinnacle of his life is very high, he manages to fall quite far. Centering on this semi-tragic story, Fitzgerald exposes the strange, separate lives of the leisure class - those who never know true work; whose entire existences seem to be one interwoven political game in which people are pieces and one succeeds only by arranging his or her position and fortifying it, and one's status can be determined by timely usage of a few cynical, pretentious phrases. Not quite as original or spirited as This Side of Paradise, nor as polished as The Great Gatsby, this is nonetheless a rich and honest book, full of the author's typical lyricism and bitter social commentary.

Worth Reading
3 out of 5
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Babylon Revisited and Other Stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald

As the title hints, this collection of ten short stories, which were written between 1920 and 1937, has a thick strand of sentimentalism running through tis course. Though all are well written (it's Fitzgerald) few stand out as particularly strong or original, and the ones that do (e.g. 'A Diamond as Big as the Ritz') do so because they are not about a person missing people or places. Fitzgerald's long descriptive sentences and obsession with possibility (both past and future) creates the usual dynamic and believable cast of big money New England educated characters. Most of the stories sit heavily on the "coming of age" theme, which might explain why I liked the book much more when I read it in high school. Babylon Revisited would be better if read over an extended duration of time; power reading it in a few days as we did left the stories repetitive and stripped them of their power as individuals. Not as much fun as Six Tales of the Jazz Age or The Pat Hobby Stories, but an impressive work nonetheless and a must read for Fitzgerald enthusiasts.

WORTH THE READ
3 out of 5
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