Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fizgerald, a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama, at a country club dance. She is young and reckless, but Zelda believes Scott when he tells her that he will make a career of writing and that fortune and fame await them. Despite her father's disapproval, Zelda marries Scott and they begin their life in New York City. Scott's novel, This Side of Paradise, becomes an instant hit and Zelda and Scott move to Paris where they join the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Things seem so glamorous, between the wild parties, the exciting company, not to mention the drinking, but Zelda soon begins to struggle to find her own identity in a world defined by Scott's success.
Review: This novel is a great introduction to the lives of the famous Fitzgeralds. Fowler most definitely did a lot of research and has accurately portrayed the characters here. The book delves deeply into the collapse of Scott's marriage to Zelda and into the personal problems they each faced. I liked it, but felt it moved too slowly through their time together.
Spoilers: What a sad, sad story. I think that not knowing much about the Fitzgeralds helped me to enjoy the story more because I'm not sure I would have picked up this book if I had known that their lives were both cut so short, and Zelda's in particular in such a horrendous manner. I felt bad for both of them throughout this story, Scott for his alcoholism and Zelda for her physical and mental pains and for the fact that she never found a way to really express herself. I had always imagined them to be such a vivacious young couple, but that part of their lives seemed short compared to the hard times of real anguish. It was an interesting tale of bad things happening to undeserving people.
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