The Last Tycoon: An Unfinished Novel

Rating:
Summary: Not Highly Recommended
Review: The book was kind of boring. It wasn't very interesting reading about Hollywood back in the thirties. Adults may get into it more, because they will be a little bit more familiar with the time period. But for teenagers-not very interesting to read. There are alot of names to remeber throughout the book, and you don't know how it really ends, because it is unfinished. You may want to know if one of the characters will get rid of his boring liferstyle, but you never find out. I have not read any other books by this author, but by reading this one first, I don't think I'll read any more of his books.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Tycoon
Review: The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald was more than just another depiction of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald's theme, corruptive wealth is also present in The Last Tycoon. Even in this unfinished work Fitzgerald portrays the spirit of the age well at the smae time critizes the values of our society.

Rating:
Summary: An Unfinished Masterpiece?
Review: The Last Tycoon was to be Fitzgerald's return to Gatsby form and to critical acclaim. In his notes, he wrote that this was to be more like Gatsby than like Tender is the Night (yet altogether original).

Indeed, F. Scott gets the setup right - a sympathetic, immensely talented and paternalistic workaholic movie producer with an ailing heart (medically and emotionally) discovers the potential for salvation in the arms of a true love while trying to baffle his greedy partner's plots for takeover. And FSF conceives a partly Conradian narration of the chief plot points - through the eyes of Cecelia, the partner's daughter, while offering an omniscient overview.

The book is hard to evalaute as we see less than half of Fitzgerald's execution, but it's fascinating to watch the pieces fall into a place (if some may miss). Fitzgerald's tone progresses from a shaky start into his patented lyricism and elegantly seamless observations on love. Read the notes, as they give an intriguing look at the great author's mind at work.