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briangodsey's review against another edition
4.0
Having read them in reverse order, I enjoyed Fitzgerald's first novel, [b:The Beautiful and Damned|4708|The Beautiful and Damned|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347567298s/4708.jpg|2432116], more than this one. Maybe I shouldn't have read them so close together, but in some sense they are similar stories: an aristocratic American kid grows up thinking the world is his proverbial oyster, but finds out that even his deep version of superficialty can't prevent him from being ruined by love, as impractical and corrosive as these specific cases are. This book provides, the younger, tamer version of the story, whereas The Beautiful and Damned leans towards Dorian Gray-level ideological corruption.
Overall, this is a good book. I'm sure I'll get to re-read Gatsby soon, but I'll probably wait a few months in order to let these two other Fitzgeralds fade a bit in my memory.
Overall, this is a good book. I'm sure I'll get to re-read Gatsby soon, but I'll probably wait a few months in order to let these two other Fitzgeralds fade a bit in my memory.
stmartin's review against another edition
2.0
An intellectual romp that tracks a young Princeton student while he contemplates life in his early years.
bgraham5's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written (obv), with some really astute observations on life and culture and growing up. That said, Amory Blaine is a hard protagonist to feel for; as if Jay Gatsby had no mysterious backstory but rather was born into his infamous wealth and property... and also without all the drama and murder.
kaleidoscopeeyes8's review against another edition
2.0
It was super hard to get into it, and definitely got a lot better once I switched from reading it to listening to it. I'm assuming that's because something in his lyrical style got lost in the way I was reading it to myself. That being said, I'm really glad to be done reading it!
dna_heligrace's review against another edition
3.0
TSOP did not quite live up to the hype I'd attributed to it in my head. I was very excited to read it after reading Great Gatsby last summer, even though I'd heard it wasn't quite as good. I have to say that whoever told me that was quite right. Amory Blaine was too pretentious for my taste, and though he had kind of a sweet love thing going on it wasn't what I expected.
TSOP isn't a bad book, at all. It's nice enough, just not my personal taste.
TSOP isn't a bad book, at all. It's nice enough, just not my personal taste.
veronique_vk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
3 stars because the writing is good, just a little too complicated for me personally.
Maybe it's because English is my 3rd language, maybe I'm simply just not intelligent enough but I just didn't really get this book. I honestly just picked it up in the bookstore because I loved the cover hahaha
Maybe it's because English is my 3rd language, maybe I'm simply just not intelligent enough but I just didn't really get this book. I honestly just picked it up in the bookstore because I loved the cover hahaha
fromotterspace's review against another edition
2.0
This book felt like his practice novel for Gatsby. Individual parts were well written but together it was pretentious and disconnected. I also didn't have any connection to the main character so I didn't really care what happened.
mmorabu's review against another edition
4.0
Quite good, related to it much more than I expected to. Very quotable and mentions "this generation" a lot but that makes sense because it was the roaring 20s. The parallels to current times are very interesting though.
nikkisumrow's review against another edition
1.0
This pains me because I love Fitzgerald, but I simply could not get into this book. I tried and got about halfway through but just didn't care about any of it. So disappointing.
akovach's review against another edition
2.0
This was an ok listen (audiobook). The book was divided into three parts and the basic themes were
1) Amory's childhood + college years
2) Falling in love and being a jerk to his girlfriend and then being melodramatic when she breaks up with him thinking he'll never find love again.
3) Meeting other women and kindof learning how not to be a jerk. Book ending in a conversation with an older man about socialism and government.
For the sake of comparison, I'm glad I read but Fitzgerald continues his theme of pretentious men in their 20s thinking they're God's gift to the world. *eye roll* But I also must say, he does have some moments of timelessness where the feelings he expresses (especially about NY) is true today. “NY; a bad town unless you’re on top of it.” I did enjoy the handful of references to MN as well.
1) Amory's childhood + college years
2) Falling in love and being a jerk to his girlfriend and then being melodramatic when she breaks up with him thinking he'll never find love again.
3) Meeting other women and kindof learning how not to be a jerk. Book ending in a conversation with an older man about socialism and government.
For the sake of comparison, I'm glad I read but Fitzgerald continues his theme of pretentious men in their 20s thinking they're God's gift to the world. *eye roll* But I also must say, he does have some moments of timelessness where the feelings he expresses (especially about NY) is true today. “NY; a bad town unless you’re on top of it.” I did enjoy the handful of references to MN as well.