Read: July 14, 2014
Summary: The novel begins shortly before Zelda Sayre, a beautiful Southern belle from a prominent family, meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918. Zelda is seventeen years old and Scott is stationed in Alabama as an army lieutenant. Shortly after meeting, Zelda starts falling for Scott despite warnings regarding his unsuitability as he isn’t wealthy, prominent or even a Southerner. With persistence and the sale of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Scott finally wins Zelda and she agrees to marry him. The novel continues with the glamorous celebrity lifestyle that Scott and Zelda lead at the dawn of the Jazz Age. They play and encounter many other celebrities of their time through different cities across the globe including New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera.
My Thoughts: Generally, I did like this novel. I do love the time period and having read The Paris Wife, it was easy to compare the writing styles of these novels as the perspectives were the same – a wife’s viewpoint living with a famous author. I found this novel dragged out at times and the ending was quite rushed. I would have preferred an even paced novel, the ending, Zelda’s mental issues, seemed like an after thought. If I hadn’t researched Zelda’s story online, I would’ve thought she led a reasonably normal life and her mental issues happened at the end of her life.
