A review by cneywendleton
Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1.0
I just do not care for F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I do not like the opening. I feel like we are starting in the middle of a conversation and I cannot make heads or tails of the part we do catch.
Even though we do not hear him order a drink, when he says "No, no more." and the bartender replies, "You were going pretty strong a couple of years ago." Fitzgerald is implying that Charlie was a big drinker back in the day. We also get the impression that this bar used to be the place to be for ex-pats, but it has now "gone back to the French" and is pretty much a dead zone.
The line about people in Prague not knowing him there, is implying that since he was last in Paris he has settled down quite a bit.
A little bit of sarcasm here, I love how we are supposed to differentiate between a room being American or the bar being French. Are the French so different that just by saying a room is French or American the general reader will be able to picture it perfectly? Do the French make different noises in the kitchen than Americans do? I understand languages are different, but that still does not tell me what "French noises from the kitchen," means.
Why do we only get half of the conversation instead of the full thing?
If he is at his brother-in-laws house, why is Marion standoffish? She would be his sister. Why would he not say, he is going to bring "our" sister over from America?
I do not like the opening. I feel like we are starting in the middle of a conversation and I cannot make heads or tails of the part we do catch.
Even though we do not hear him order a drink, when he says "No, no more." and the bartender replies, "You were going pretty strong a couple of years ago." Fitzgerald is implying that Charlie was a big drinker back in the day. We also get the impression that this bar used to be the place to be for ex-pats, but it has now "gone back to the French" and is pretty much a dead zone.
The line about people in Prague not knowing him there, is implying that since he was last in Paris he has settled down quite a bit.
A little bit of sarcasm here, I love how we are supposed to differentiate between a room being American or the bar being French. Are the French so different that just by saying a room is French or American the general reader will be able to picture it perfectly? Do the French make different noises in the kitchen than Americans do? I understand languages are different, but that still does not tell me what "French noises from the kitchen," means.
Why do we only get half of the conversation instead of the full thing?
If he is at his brother-in-laws house, why is Marion standoffish? She would be his sister. Why would he not say, he is going to bring "our" sister over from America?