This Side Of Paradise

Rating:
Summary: Early Days of Romantic Scott
Review: Like everything Fitzgerald wrote this has that burnished by the morning sun feel to it. Certainly there are real themes in it that make this a substantial first novel but the lasting appeal is that romanticism that Fitzgerald himself seemed to have created with his own hands. Forged in that prep school fire though that romanticism isn't made of the toughest stuff and perhaps since Scott never really had any difficulties along the way to becoming a young succesful novelist he was never really forced to become more than that, a young success. His great theme is romance itself, he brings it to everything from football to war to young ladies to writing, he just has the gift to touch and make golden. Not many people will be immune to the contagion of such a disease. Amory is the perfect name for this amourous and ardent young east coaster, a character who was immediately embraced with the publication of this book as the spokesmen for the new up and coming generation, not yet named the lost generation. This book was full of promise and that feeling was infectious and equally attractive was the rather free libertine approach to sex. With Fitzgerald the twenties were born. Amory's affairs are just that, his romances mere flirtations, but he has the ability to make all seem of utter importance because all outcomes effect the state of our heros grace. An egotist, yes! But at that age, college age, what else is there to be. His egotism fuels his romantic ideas about life, and the fire builds and builds slow and burns as bright as life can burn in youth.....at least on this side of paradise.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Tyranny of Tumbo the Clown
Review: Many may argue that the title of this review is nonsensical-I agree. It was a ruse. I found this book to be, most simply, erudite. This is a wonderful case where the book is merely a vehicle of message. I was not particularly attached to any of the characters and I was not meant to be attached. No character is ever truly developed and they, in effect, act as mirrors of the personality of Amory Blaine. Its just him from different directions. Even with them surrounding him-hes still not quite lovable as a character(However, I thought the concept of Amory was great).Noting this, I found the book insightful. Fitzgerald certainly had alot to say about the generation in question. He emphasized their feelings of disenchantment and emphasized this by the seemingly stale characters of the novel. He may have coined one of the best phrases that I have seen in such a novel-"I know myself, but that is all I know". Its a line I'll have to remember. Its a good read, sophisticated, and worth it for it's ambitions.

Rating:
Summary: Love, Adoration, and Whatnot
Review: I have to say, I found this to be by far the best book of Fitzgerald's. Not only was it entertaining, but by turns I was repulsed, horrified, overjoyed, and attracted to the main character. I find that he is very much like a 17 or 18 year old male, heading to college. The descriptions of Princeton are apt, and vivid. I think it would make great reading for a high school English class-- not only is it better than Catcher in the Rye, it is also far more appropriate to their age than Gatsby.

Rating:
Summary: Great First Novel, but uneven
Review: Fitzgerald's first novel, this book is a character description of one Amory Blaine. In terms of plot, there doesn't seem to be one - at least in the traditional sense. A lot of things happen, such as Amory's romantic exploits and induction to Princeton University.

The best thing about 'This Side of Paradise' is its beautifully-written prose. The description and narrative are poetic, almost sugary. That is what makes this book worth reading. Also included is insight into the times of turn-of-the-century America and the images summoned at the mention of the Roaring 20s. World War I, speakeasies, flannel suits and ballroom dancing are all events Amory experiences. If you've read the Great Gatsby, this would be a good follow-up book.

Note: There are a few typos present in this book.

Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to Fitzgerald
Review: I was about to pass this book up in order to buy The Great Gatsby, but someone reccomended me to read this one first before I got to read the other books by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I have to say it was a excellent introduction to the author; I've also been told that this book is one of Fitzgerald's less accomplished works, and I did find it a bit lacking on something, I don't know what, but I enjoyed it anyway. Amory Blaine, although richly described, is not a particularly likable character, but he is certainly bright and his capacity for self analysis is amazing, though his little why-is-everyone-but-me-an-idiot attitude can grate in your nerves sometimes. Oh well, I guess that can be forgiven, considering his age; I also believe (sometimes) that at my ripe old age of nineteen I already know all I'll ever need to know about pretty much everything. Speaking of which, I loved that line, "I know myself, but that is all", I think it about sums up the whole story. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Rating:
Summary: Great Writer-Terrible Book
Review: Fitzgerald is obviously one of America's greatest modern writers-his prose style and use of language is amazing and The Great Gatsby is a classic that everyone should own and re-read on a regular basis. Yet this book, his first, has one of the most obnoxious, least-likeable protagonists in American literature- Amory Blaine. Blaine is arrogant, self-centered, self-important, and a pompous windbag; yet not in an interesting way such as Holden Caufield. Also, Fitzgerald's description of the idealism of Ivy League life and society is so corny and hokey that it is difficult to read at times.
Of course, the book has its merits for the fact that it is the first novel of a great novelist and it contains the seeds of the literary style that he polished with later works. You can still find insights and character descriptions that lesser authors could only hope to create.

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This is one of my favorite fitzgerald books and its so unbelievably like princeton today with much more glamour

Rating:
Summary: First of all, his name is Amory...
Review: ...Not Armory. Just wanted to clarify that, although I agree with many of the points raised by other reviewers.
This is the first work of Fitzgerald's that I've ever read, and now I realize that I will have to read another (perhaps Gatsby) to give him a chance to redeem himself in my mind.
Amory Blaine is possibly the least appealing protagonist I've ever encountered in fiction. He is self-centered, spoiled, snobbish and priggish, and not in an amusing way. Worse that this, as the book progresses, Amory gets progressively more misogynistic and racist. He "discovers" that beautiful women are evil incarnate, is disgusted by having to share a train car with "stinking" foreigners, and wishes that America were comprised of "a homogeneous race". Because I was determined to finish the book, I tried to excuse some of these appalling views on the grounds that this novel was written some 85 years ago, and cannot be judged the same way as modern novels. But it's funny, isn't it, that authors like Twain held such enlightened views decades before Fitzgerald was born?
So why do we consider Fitzgerald one of the masters of American lit? THis Side of Paradise gave me no clues. Apart from being morally and politically repulsive, it was mind-numbingly boring, completely lacking in dramatic tension. I am going to have to read another of Fitzgerald's books, just to see if I can comprehend the reasons for his fame. But first I'll read a different author, to rid the bad taste from my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: Okay read
Review: Not as great as "The Great Gatsby" or Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," but still a good read. It's a little more "gnarly" than his Gatsby, and not quite as colorful.

Also recommended: Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Bark of the Dogwood

Rating:
Summary: 4 years of paradise
Review: This Side of Paradise is a paean to that special period in a young man's life when he forges the principles, flirts with his talents, find and loses love.

Fitzgerald's story is a bit more convoluted as he nurtures his hero from strangeness of childhood (a Portrait of the American Artist, to some extent), through the vanity of teens, through the confusion of college. He captures some of the ubiquitous sensations of being a college student - of the effervescent but ephemeral experience that feels like it will last forever; of friendships, and the general experimentation of finding and losing.

The book is also notable for a protofeminist (albeit from a male perspective) subtext that seems to play out in the background. When women enter into Emory Blaine's Life, it is as if the narrator yields the floor to the object of his affections so that she can write her own part, and by providing differentiation and individuation for the female characters, Fitzgerald validates them as living, breathing, self-willing entities.

By its end, This Side of Paradise seems like an incomplete story whose only outcome is melancholy. It is the gateway to FSF's biggest works, as the pathos of graduation from college leads to our most consequential decisions and ambitious acttions. Yet something is missing - the carefree, unadulterated moments of certainty that we will do something great, that the world is great, and that anything is possible as long as we don't attempt it.