Hello. Just a quick post as we are still visiting family in Southern California and there’s no time to be on the computer or blog … in this land of milk and honey. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday break and are continuing their festivities with a very happy New Year’s.
Last week I finished F.Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel “Tender Is the Night,” which I was reading with Ti over at Book Chatter. Thanks Ti, I’m glad to make it through this famous book, which was Fitzgerald’s last completed novel and apparently his most autobiographical. Interestingly, Fitzgerald considered the novel to be his greatest work. As he wrote to a friend: “If you liked The Great Gatsby, for God’s sake read this. Gatsby was a tour de force but this is a confession of faith.”
For those unfamiliar with it, “Tender Is the Night” tells the story of a glamorous American couple living at a villa in the French Riviera in the late 1920s — Dick and Nicole Diver whose marriage over time hits the rocks. Dick is this brilliant guy, a promising psychiatrist who makes the fatal choice of marrying one of his patients; Nicole is beautiful and wealthy but also mentally unstable. She’s left a treatment facility but still has episodes, and Dick is floundering with work and feels trapped by Nicole’s wealth into a lifestyle that is not his own. Into this comes the hot young actress Rosemary Hoyt who is enamored by Dick and whom he can’t resist. Oh sorry day! What once seemed so idyllic and glamorous — Dick and Nicole’s life together (along with their two kids) — turns out to be a recipe for demise.
I wanted to like “Tender Is the Night” as much as Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” but alas, I struggled through parts of it and found it uneven and episodic. There were sections that I thought were brilliantly written and other parts that I found quite tedious. I had trouble getting into and sticking with the story, which starts with an array of expatriates staying and partying at a hotel along the beach.
It’s slow-going at first, but luckily “Tender Is the Night” picked up for me half way through and towards the end as I wanted to find out how Dick and Nicole’s lives would play out — if they would they stay together, or if they would go their separate ways — and what would become of the fling with Rosemary. I needed to see if the characters would find happiness so I stuck with it and plunged further on toward its final dark horizon.
It wasn’t exactly easy reading, but I found the novel quite interesting in how it apparently mirrored Fitzgerald’s own life at the time — with his mentally ill wife Zelda, his troubles with alcohol, and the real-life affair he carried on with a teenage actress. The social milieu the novel describes of the times is also rather fascinating. It includes little details about expats and different nationalities, about rich and poor, blacks, gays, women and children — and marriage. You definitely get a glimpse into Fitzgerald’s 1920’s world and what was going through his mind during the last stages of his life — and I, for one, couldn’t pass that up. He’s too intriguing and talented a figure in literary history to miss reading, even if it’s not my favorite work of his — the story of the Divers is illuminating.
Meanwhile, I listened to Garth Stein’s 2014 novel “A Sudden Light” on audiobook this past week and quite enjoyed it. A multi-generational tale set in the Pacific Northwest, it’s about a 14-year-old-boy (Trevor) who comes to unravel the mysteries of his father’s rich timber baron family when he visits their decaying old mansion — Riddell House — for the first time in the summer of 1990. Trevor accompanies his father who’s supposed to resolve a family dispute over what to do with the large Northwest estate.
Part coming of age tale, part historical logging expose, and part mansion-ghost story, this family drama held my interest till the very end. It has a few twists along the way and an ending that crashes with a crescendo. I guess I liked it just as well as Stein’s prior novel “The Art of Racing in the Rain” and found it more intricate and slightly more interesting than the first in its larger scope. Like “Racing in the Rain,” the narration is easy and lured me in. Kudos to Seth Numrich for a terrific job in his narration of the audiobook.
“A Sudden Light” is one of those novels you can’t say too much about because it will give it away. Suffice it to say, I liked hanging out with the book’s protagonist, Trevor, who’s a bit of a truth and mystery seeker and is as determined as the boy detective in the series Encyclopedia Brown. By the end, he gets to the heart of the mysteries of his timber baron family and what’s behind the selling of the mansion — and it’s not exactly pretty. Stein is an entertaining author, and I look forward to seeing what he writes next.
What about you — have you read “A Sudden Light” or “Tender Is the Night” and if so, what did you think?
Happy New Year in advance!
Tender is the Night: I read it several years ago and could not get past the stupidity of a psychiatrist marrying his patient, knowing full well how messed up she was. And how that was so patriarchal of him, to think if he just had her she would be OK. But last year I read Stewart O’Nan’s fictional account of Fitzgerald’s last years, called West of Sunset, and I felt a little better about good old Scott. Now I want to read Zelda by Nancy Mitford (it is a biography) and get Zelda’s side of the story. I feel a bit embarrassed to be so fascinated by them; it’s like stories about Princess Diana and the royal family. But Fitzgerald at one time was the highest paid author in the US, so that is how I justify my obsession-:)
Hey Judy, Happy New Year too! Love your comments! I learn so much. Interesting observation about Dick’s patriarchal macho-ism in the book. It seems like the sexism in the 1920s must have been rampant. I’m sure the biography of Zelda would be really interesting. I’m totally into them as well. They seemed so promising and yet doomed. I still might read more of his books.
Though not as compelling as The Great Gatsby, I really liked Tender is the Night.
There are many reasons that I liked it. I remember feeing that, though he brought most of it on himself, I find that the state that Dick finds himself to be in at novel’s end to be very poignant.
Interesting Brian. Yeah perhaps Dick was trying to be noble by taking on Nicole in marriage — or he really loved her as well, but then ultimately the marriage’s failing ends up his downfall. Yes I found the ending to be quite sad as well. It’s a bit of a killer really — you don’t really find out much about Dick’s demise other than he’s in small town NY moving around at the end — and not really in contact with family.
Fitzgerald was not a strong man. Not in my opinion. He liked fine things, rubbed elbows with the wealthy and was such a tragic figure with his alcoholism and weakness for beautiful women. But it’s endlessly appealing to read about him, isn’t it? I find him so fascinating.
I am so glad you read this with me. I’ve had it on my to read shelf for no less than 5 years and after West of Sunset, I knew I had to read it soon. I do want to read Zelda some time. It was pitched for my book club but not chosen. Maybe I should pitch it again.
Yeah Ti — I’m captivated by Fitzgerald; his tragic life, his words. I don’t know too much about Zelda. Was she worth all the suffering? I guess I forgot you read West of Sunset. I need to go back to see what you thought of that. Is it good? Do you find out more stuff from it? Thanks for your input in all things Fitz!
I read Tender is the Night in high school (ages and ages ago!) and remember liking it a lot more than Gatsby. Not sure how much of it I really got at 16 or 17 though. I’ve been contemplating a rereading high school project and this is at the top of the list, along with Steinbeck’s The Winter of our Discontent.
Hi JoAnn: I admire you if you read Tender Is the Night as a teenager. Seems a bit denser or more unfocused than Gatsby. But it’d be interesting to hear what you think of it now. Hmm. Maybe the same.
I haven’t read Tender is the Night – I’m woefully behind on reading classics. I haven’t read Sudden Light either but I was wondering if it was as good as The Art of Racing in the Rain. Sounds like it’s worth checking out. Happy New Year!
Hi Rachel, yeah if you liked Stein’s first novel perhaps you’ll like this one as well. Some on Goodreads didn’t think it matched “Racing in the Rain” but I thought it was just different (more epic like) and I liked it just as well. It’s worth checking out.