A review by readhikerepeat
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4.0
I recently read Villa America by Liza Klaussmann, which was about Sara and Gerald Murphy. The Murphy’s were two ex-pats who more or less started the 1920’s lifestyle of parties and glamour on the French Riviera and, coincidentally, served as the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. Having never read this classic, I was inspired to read it because I had the Murphy’s on my mind and I had a lot of fun making parallels to Klaussmann’s novel.
Tender is the Night is about Dick and Nicole Diver, the well-to-do American couple living in Paris who throw fabulous parties. They live lives of decadence that others merely dream of and are the envy of all of their friends, including young Rosemary, the Hollywood starlet that Dick falls in love with, thus kicking off a story so tragic that it’s difficult to read and yet impossible to put down.
The book started out great, but around page 100 it started to slow down a bit. Just as I was getting to the point where I was struggling to pick it up, there was a revelation that captivated my attention and I raced through the rest of the book. It remained dreary, which was to be expected given the subject matter, but I found myself with an incredible amount of sympathy for Dick, which surprised me because I expected to have more sympathy for Nicole. I’m still sorting out my theories about certain motivations and actions of the characters (why did they get married? What does it mean to be in love? How sick is sick?), but the fact that I’m still thinking about these things is proof that there is a reason this book is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.
For the full review, visit The Book Wheel.
Tender is the Night is about Dick and Nicole Diver, the well-to-do American couple living in Paris who throw fabulous parties. They live lives of decadence that others merely dream of and are the envy of all of their friends, including young Rosemary, the Hollywood starlet that Dick falls in love with, thus kicking off a story so tragic that it’s difficult to read and yet impossible to put down.
The book started out great, but around page 100 it started to slow down a bit. Just as I was getting to the point where I was struggling to pick it up, there was a revelation that captivated my attention and I raced through the rest of the book. It remained dreary, which was to be expected given the subject matter, but I found myself with an incredible amount of sympathy for Dick, which surprised me because I expected to have more sympathy for Nicole. I’m still sorting out my theories about certain motivations and actions of the characters (why did they get married? What does it mean to be in love? How sick is sick?), but the fact that I’m still thinking about these things is proof that there is a reason this book is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.
For the full review, visit The Book Wheel.