Tender is the Night :: F Scott Fitzgerald

Title: Tender is the Night [book club selection, VM]

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read: CDG > JFK, NYC

Format: trade paperback

I've had Tender is the Night on my bookshelf since 1999 when I was supposed to read it for my 20th Century American Novel class. I was inspired to actually go ahead and read it after re-reading The Great Gatsby last year. Clearly, I was slow to respond to that inspiration. In any event, when it came time for me to choose the next Anything Goes Book Club selection I decided thought it might be a good option. My fellow readers agreed.

One of the reasons I was so interested in reading Fitzgerald again was how swept away I was with the writing in Gatsby. I was really looking forward to that same caliber of lyrical prose and while Tender is the Night was beautiful in its own right, it didn't quite compare. The strength of this novel lies in Fitzgerald's wrenching development of his and Zelda's semi-autobiographical stand-ins, Dick and Nicole Diver. It is this couple's relationship that is the centerpiece of the novel. In it, their life is chronicled from their glorious (glorified?) early days through the challenges and changes that test not just their marriage, but them as individuals.

I'm not sure if it was one of the ladies at the club meeting or if it was in the introduction, but someone notes that the novel starts out one way (through the eyes of a young Hollywood ingenue who is smiiten with and eventually tempts Dick Diver) and ends in another (as a study of Nicole and Dick's chiasmatic relationship). I believe the introduction also explains that the novel was much, much longer and was considerably edited. I think my biggest complaints about the work can be explained by these facts/observations. First, the story does read as unintentionally uneven because of the change in perspective. But, death of the author be damned. Fitzgerald was clearly inspired by his own experience; so much so that the work he started out writing morphed in the process. Knowing this makes the book feel more personal and more beautiful, in its own way. Secondly, the novel seems a little out of balance in some ways. That is, some portions seem intensely detailed - to the point of tedium - and others seem wildly under-described. It's very possible that this is a casualty of massive editing, but I have to imagine that something could have been done to prevent such distinct pockets of dense description alongside single sentences that change the trajectory of the novel.

All in all, a beautiful novel. Even if I don't believe it to be Fitzgerald's greatest work (as some critics claim).

4 out of 5 stars