Reviews with content warning for Rape - Tender is the Night

the only way i can describe this is as a big book about nothing really. i picked this book up thinking a majority of this book would be about a tumultuous affair between a young actress and a married man and was really looking for the drama and internal turmoil á la The Great Gatsby.

unfortunately the affair between Dick and Rosemary probably only takes up about 30% of the novel. They kiss a bit and tease a little and then sleep together once and that’s about it. There’s hardly any internal push and pull from Dick discussed, or any effect on Rosemary’s life. The actual affair also took forever to culminate without the pleasant will they won’t they, it simply happened 150 pages so briefly you could’ve missed it.

By far the most interesting part was the retelling of Nicole’s early mental illness. These couple dozen pages are probably what pushed me to finish this book. Really makes it enjoyable to see Dick selfishly fall from grace by the end.

With so much space to deal with anything else, no wonder Fitzgerald had time to add unnecessary racist and homophobic scenes. What exactly was the purpose of Peterson dying and Rosemary finding it if that had no lasting effect on either Dick’s relationship with Rosemary or with Nicole? And what was the point of the explicit “conversion therapy” style scene describing medical treatments for homosexuality? The most I delve into Fitzgerald the more he disappoints me, even for a man of the early 20th Century.

Just overall one big disappointment. It’s such a shame, because even in this novel of his, Fitzgerald’s writing flows nicely and reads beautifully. He should perhaps stick to books of about 200 pages though.

P.S.: Justice for my girl Nicole.

Content Warnings

bookish_5280's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book started off incredibly. I love the first 100-150 pages or so. And then, a whole bunch of problematic elements appear (

pedophilia, incest, etc) as well as blatant racism. I can appreciate the role of some of these elements in other books (not racism, to be clear), such as pedophilia or incest, and they appear as main themes in books that I love. But my problem with this book, in contrast to ones like Lolita or The Color Purple, is that there is not enough focus on the childhood trauma (I think there is one main chapter that discusses it).

I just thought that it could have been much more emotionally affecting and beautiful on a deeper level. I see the potential appeal, but even with the ending (which I did like), it is still not going to go on my favorites list.

Content Warnings

_morgan's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

lpaxton's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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