Sunday 1 April 2012

50. F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night

A classic this week by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Tender is the Night is about psychiatrist Dick Diver, who falls in love with one of his patients Nicole Warren. After she is released from the clinic he decides to marry this rich young woman and they move to the French Riviera. There Dick meets the enchanting young actress Rosemary Hoyt. His life is never the same after that. Nicole spirals up and down from insanity to sanity and at the same time Rosemary, after a short affair with Dick, leaves them. All these events result in Dick slowly being driven to insanity himself,  but this is mostly brought on by the rich American culture in Switzerland, which he can't escape. 

It's a more complicated book than this of course, but as a short description it'll do. This is the last novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and it strongly depicts his own dive into drink and despair, but it also shows us the insanity that haunted his own wife Zelda. As classics go, this is not my favourite. I'm not a fan of the 20's Jazz culture, but then neither is Fitzgerald so at least we have some things in common. I'm more of a British Literature kind of gal, but it doesn't hurt to try reading a classic book from the US every now and again. 

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