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This Side of Paradise (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

This Side of Paradise (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

List Price: $17.95
Your Price: $12.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dated yet still current!
Review: I missed this one back in college, where I became enamoured of much more sophisticated writers (Joyce and Hemingway, though some here may question this characterization of Hemingway at least). Indeed, I had liked THE GREAT GATSBY back then but was not overly fond of the Fitzgerald opus of short stories so, on balance, I never felt motivated to read any further into his works. And yet I recently found a copy of this one so, having a little time on my hands, set out to read it. At first it was slow going and very dated in its feel. Hard to relate to the early twentieth century upper class snobbery which seems to suffuse the book and, indeed, Fitzgerald's very sensibility. Hard, too, to relate to a bunch of sophomoric college boys roaming the streets, arm in arm, singing silly little college songs and angling to outshine one another by securing a better reputation among their peers and better connections with the "in groups." And yet, perhaps it was just a simpler time for, in truth, people are not entirely unlike that today though they are, I think, less transparent about it and more sophisticated in their areas of concern. Nevertheless, once past the first superficial ramblings of this book, I began to get sucked into the mind and world of Amory Blaine (presumably the alter ego of Fitzgerald himself). Although he remained a rather superficial and tiresome personality to the end, he was also an interesting soul and one whose travails, such as they were, could and did draw a reader in. I found Blaine's coming of age tale oddly enlightening, if only because I began to see the world as it was, roughly a hundred years ago, in a sharper, almost first-hand perspective. Blaine grows a bit though he never outgrows his essential self-absorption. But the loss of family and friends and lovers take their toll on his psyche and the Blaine we have at the end of the tale is a wiser and bigger boy than the one at the beginning. I think, in general, our serious writers in the twentieth century forgot about telling stories or creating worlds in favor of word-play and self-revelation and that this has done literature no service. Fitzgerald certainly was among those who took writing in that direction. But he sure could write and the fact that the very thin and sophomoric tale of Blaine's coming of age could hold me at the dawn of the twenty-first century is testimony to that. There are better and stronger books out there and some I much prefer. But the man could write. -- SWM

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A horrible addition to the American Literature....
Review: ... which is already lacking...

I have read a huge amount of books in my life and I have never read anything more boring than this book. The conversations like "Amory, my darling" and "Beatrice, my darling" made me sick to my stomach. I mean, did people really speak like that? The poetry referenced seemed endless.....there was no structure....it was incredibly hard to follow...and, overall, was just very UNinteresting...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fitzgerald comes of age
Review: An interesting thing about This Side of Paradise is how strongly autobiographical it is. Like Fitzgerald, the protagonist, Amory Blaine, goes to Princeton; like Fitzgerald he forms a strong friendship with a prominent intellectual in the Catholic church; like Fitzgerald he struggles through various romances; like Fitzgerald he searches in vain for meaning, for his own path intellectually.

In a sense, this is an autobiography of Fitzgerald's own intellectual awakening, and interwoven into the tale is a sort of reading list of literature that Fitzgerald found meaningful at various stages of life, such as Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Whitman's Leaves of Grass. It's interesting to trace his development by looking sequentially at the literature he got into, what he found most interesting and most relevant.

This is the story of an intellectual struggle, a search for meaning, and as such it can be rather depressing at times; it's very relevant, however, to our own times. The issues Amory Blaine grapples with -- his own desire to be powerful, his struggle to find who he is intellectually, the trials of maintaining intellectual and artistic integrity in the era of the mass media -- are ones that we still face today. For today's youth struggling to figure things out, the tale of Amory Blaine, lurching in fits and starts down his own path, is relevant; the general emotions and impressions he encounters, combined with the specific works that become instrumental in his development, make this a unique and interesting novel. It was Fitzgerald's first novel and does have its shortcomings -- a strange structure, sometimes incredibly artificial dialogue, and a style that hadn't yet matured into the graceful prose Fitzgerald would exhibit in The Great Gatsby. Yet as a story of a young man's intellectual awakening, it has great relevance even now, at the start of the 21st century.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book is an Explosion
Review: I read several of Fitzgerald's books before this one, and, although they were all fantastic, this one blew me away. It was Fitzgerald's first book, and you can tell. I can just see his mind saving up all these things to say for twenty years as he grows up, and then finally finding an outlet. The book has energy, much like Kerouac's On The Road, and it sustains an intense level of philophisizing and intellectualizing all the way through. It is an explosion of ideas, coming from one of the greatest literary geniuses of the century.

I do admit that subtley is not one of the traits of this book, and that each idea is expressed fully, with nothing held back. I think that's what makes this novel so unique among his other works; he is letting out all he has been dying to say, and he says it very well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fitgerald's real masterpiece
Review: Okay, okay I've heard it a million times about This Side of Paradise, Amory Blaine isn't the most likeable character. True, but I ask you, who among us is completely likeable? Who out there doesn't have some flaw? It is these flaws in Amory that make him one of the most wonderful characters in American Literary history.

It's also true that This Side of Paradise is a young person's book because it deals with a coming of age and within Amory's character is a certain amoount of angst and maybe even repressed sexual anger, but still no matter who you are, wouldn't you rather read about a character you can relate to on more than just an idealized level like many of the characters in the Great Gatsby? Due to the strength of its central character, Amory Blaine, I think that This Side of Paradise is F. Scott Fitzgerald's real masterpiece.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: What I thought of this side of paradise
Review: Upon concluding my reading of this piece, I came to the realization that F. scott is quite a good writer. Still His style isnt quite to my suiting, but I thought The Great Gatsby was a good book too, only that it ended a little off key, like something wasnt quite right. The same goes for This Side of Paradise. Just seemed like something was missing. The whole book Amory the main character seems to be out to "find himself". Amory is a young fella attempting to move up in the world. But the structure of the book poses some problems for me as a reader because it has no real structure, very undirected. But even so, I do think it is well written as much as it bugs me that i have trouble following it. After all, cant you think something is beautiful even if you dont like it? Cant you think that a song is well written even if it doesnt appeal to your taste? Well thats how i feel about this book. I suppose maybe you just need to be a certain type of reader to really understand F. Scott Fitzgerald. Bottom line, Good book, i didnt like it though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The "Coming of Age" Novel Perfected, and then some...
Review: This is a brilliant work that many categorize in the "male coming of age" genre. It is correctly placed there and is on par with, if not better than, "Great Expectations." This novel shows the zest of a young writer already in greatness on his way to perfection. The radical structure of this novel shows the creativity and non-conformity that Fitzgerald set as the mode for the modern day contemporary novel. His incorporation of poetry, music, and, and then sudden shift to play-writing, in his prose, to get his point across are brilliant in his execution of "showing rather than telling."

Amory (wordplay on amorous) is looking for truth and sense in his life. He seeks it in intellectual pursuits, riotous living, and love. Love is what makes him most vulnerable.

His general liking for the arts rather than the sciences mirror the ambitions of so many young males, males who would be reading this novel. He can't dwell in what is known or scientifically documented, his heart lies in the arts and history: the former a place an outlet to seek truth and the latter a point of reference by which he categorizes himself. He believes love to be something tangible like the music he hears, the poetry he reads and writes, but love is chaos. He makes lists to categorize and make sense of elements of the social world around him, but life (especially in the shift from adolesence to young-adulthood) and people are so incongruent that none of it is able to be categorized. The use of the shift to play-writing is not used gratuitously. Amory believes that life and love fall into place once one is done with school and sets out for the world. He is acting/living out a love story in the real world, but nothing in life is structured like the story line to a dramatic romance.

Fitzgerald's narrative is a lyrical, yet chaotic whirlwind, it perfectly coincides with the life of a person coming into adulthood during a time of drastic social change and the disillusionment from the atrocities of The Great War.

The last quarter of the novel shows the roots of what would grow to Fitzgerald's literary perfection. Reading the ending to this book keeps the reader in a state of awe.

There is a beautiful array of one-liners gracing the pages during Amory's conversation with the Goggled Man and his partner. Everyone I discuss this novel with has a favorite line or two from this section. The words that have been turning over in my mind ever since the first time I read this novel are:

"'I'm restless. My whole generation is restless. I'm sick of a system where the richest man gets the most beautiful girl if he wants her, where the artist without an income has to sell his talents to a button manufacturer.'"

The last line of the book is a lesson in itself. Fitzgerald entertains the reader from the soft and subtle beginning, to the chaotic yet, settling end:

"I know myself," he cried, "but that is all."

After all the people he had come in contact with during his journey for truth and love, and all the low and high points that Amory has had, he feels his efforts were worthwhile, but doesn't know why.

Mapping life is a futile effort. Mapping and knowing yourself is an amazing feat in and of itself that few achieve. And knowing yourself is "all," everything that you would ever need to know in life...

This novel is a must read for all young men. ENTER THE LABYRINTH.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Young, Excited, Romantic
Review: Reading this book coincided with my decision to major in English. I find it easy to relate to as a college age male (Fitzgerald wrote most of this work while an undergrad at Princeton). It is certainly less polished than his later work, but there is such a young, excited, romantic feeling here. In his later works (including Gatsby) he's come in contact with the unhappy sides of life. This makes his later works more poignant, but you have to love his young idealism mixed in with romance, alcohol, college life. Like almost all of Fitzgerald, this is extremely autobiographical, and this makes it seem more heartfelt in my mind. I couldn't recommend this book more, especially to those in college.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ohhh, this book rocked on!
Review: Okay, so I didn't even want to read it, but I picked Fitzgerald for my major paper at the end of my AP lit class, and Tender is the Night was checked out of the library. So I picked this as a substitute, I read it really fast, and I tried to analyze while I was reading. I didn't get it until I stopped trying to figure it out. Amory is such a great character, a work of genius in my mind. Fitgerald has such a talent for wrapping his books up in one last line, something that summarizes the entire novel and reveals to the reader the true purpose of the story. Amory's last line, "I know myself, but that is all" is perfect for a story about a man's growth and maturing in every way. Amory Blaine, I love you even if you are an egotist. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love for literature or just a love for a good story. It is a book that can be seen on a million different levels, one is never too uneducated or too intelligent for it, I believe that it can speak to anyone and everyone.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Just didn't appeal to me.
Review: I don't know why. I liked The Great Gatsby. I love Fitzgerald's short stories. But I just couldn't get into this book. It took me months to make it halfway through because I'd put it down and read a few other books before picking it back up. When I realized I was looking at finishing the book as a chore instead of a leisure activity, I moved on completely. I'll just have to live with not knowing what happened in Amory's life.


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