Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant work of modern literature
Review: I thought I had reached the high point of Fitzgerald's work when I read The Great Gatsby. I was wrong. This book is not as organized nor as focused as Fitzgerald's more popular work, but, in my opinion, it is better. The characters are astoundingly complex, and are fascinating to read about and get to know. The setting--various places in Europe--is brilliantly depicted. But what makes this book great is the interaction between the characters. It is a story of the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a couple who all but trade roles in the course of the novel. The story opens with Rosemary, a young actress, as she meets the Divers and is completely enthralled by them. Through Rosemary we see that the Divers are, in fact, very nearly the ideal couple at the beginning of the book; but this apparent bliss is a mask of a deep, complex, and difficult history, and an awful foreshadowing of a tragedy to come. The story moves backward to Dick and Nicole's meeting, then forward again to the tragic climax. Dick, a psychiatrist, met Nicole at his clinic, where she was a patient. He was a brilliant young doctor and successful author, she, a broken and troubled youth. Dick helped her put the pieces back together, and married her. They lived an almost blissful existence for a time, but then Nicole began to relapse. The bulk of the novel deals with Nicole's problems and her struggle to overcome them, as well as Dick's growing problems, which he, with all his training, is not so able to move past. Dick and Nicole's relationship develops into something ugly, a shattered remnant of its past glory. And what is worse, it isn't even really Nicole's fault. Fitzgerald has a gift for beautiful prose and a talent for storytelling that is almost unparalleled in literature. This book should be considered a classic, and surely deserved to emerge from the shadow of its sister work, The Great Gatsby, and be regarded as the masterpiece that it is.
Rating:
Summary: Holidays in the Sun
Review: OK I will try to retain my temper while rectifying some of the inexcusable comments made by various reviewers. Someone has said that this book has no structure to it and that it is confusing and difficult to read. That is strange, since one of my first thoughts after reading the first few chapters was 'By God this is nicely structured, isn't it? This Fitzgerald fellow must be a genius to pull it off like he does.' Furthermore, the story is told chronologically and causes no confusion in that aspect. I would also like to note that my mothertongue is Dutch and that English is only my third language, still I had no problems with the writing of Fitzgerald and found it easy enough to read. I also get sick and tired of people who'll tell you the book is bad because the book and/or the characters are morally incorrect. Look, life isn't morally correct and neither are people, so why would you want your art to be? Perhaps you like to be lied to? I always wonder where these people get the authority (and the nerves) to question other people's morality. Then another reviewer wrote that there is no central point to the story. I mean what book did you read? There is only one point to the story and that's the marriage between Dick and Nicole, how it came to be and how it eventually faded out like the day into the night, ever so tender. And I think this is what most people have trouble with: Fitzgerald's subtle, almost minimalistic writing. In the whole book (my copy was 392 pages) there is not one redundant word, it's like a poem. If you want a good book that's beautifully written and masterfully structured, you can't go wrong with this one. If you want action, plot, speed, heroics, morals, endings and whatever it is you crazy kids crave for nowadays: go to the movies!
Rating: 
Summary: Triumph of language, tragedy of realism
Review: Because Tender is the Night is a novel without any central conflict (such as the well-known story of Forest Gump), I didn't find it to have any real point. There was no central theme to tie it all together and teach something about life. The imagery and detail was phenomenal, and every aspiring author should aspire to his level of diction, but the plot left something to be desired.
First of all the characters' morality is certainly lacking. Dick has an affair with a budding young actress (Rosemary), has a drinking problem, doesn't care about his children, and seems out to insult everyone he comes across. Nicole has a history of mental illness, which resulted from incest with her father, cares nothing for her children, creates a plenitude of problems for her husband, and eventually has an affair with Tommy Barban - who she later marries after divorcing Dick.
Second, Dick and Nicole Diver seem to live in a fantasy world where money is never lacking, they can always stay in the poshest hotels, and mingle with the elite of American society abroad. Everyone seems to know the Divers, and have an opinion of them. Even the Great Depression seems not to have fazed them even though much of Nicole's family money was invested in America. The only conflicts they have are with each other. This results in a distance from the rest of the world and a profound internalization of conflict.
Not only are the main characters morally bankrupt, the entire world is as well. As Dick and Nicole travel they come in contact with murderers, the violent, the intensely selfish, the alcoholics, and the insane of two continents. There is no 'guiding light,' no 'shining example' to reveal their decay by contrast.
Lastly, there is no concrete conclusion and readers are left hanging, waiting for closure. I felt vaguely dissatisfied for several days after finishing this book because there was no resolution of conflict.
While the characters are astoundingly complex and realistic, they are set into an improbable world and dubious plot twists. Fitzgerald has a phenomenal ability to transport readers to the worlds in his books, but, unfortunately, the world in this novel is not one that most would care to visit.
Rating:
Summary: Still Brilliant
Review: It is presumptuous of me to try to "review" F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the premiere authors in American Literature. But, having recently read an eye-opening biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, wherein I learned that F. Scott had purloined many of Zelda's writings verbatim to use in his own novels, I felt compelled to reread this work. I always considered "Tender Is the Night" to be Fitzgerald's finest work, unlike most Fitzgerald scholars, who lean toward "The Great Gatsby." I am no scholar, nor do I pretend to be, but to me, "Tender Is the Night" was always the most mature and most tragic--and showed a greater insight into Fitzgerald's psyche than perhaps he meant to show. The thinly veiled story of his tragic marriage to Zelda, the story takes place in all their real-life stomping grounds, from the Riviera to Paris to Switzerland--with a few side trips to the United States. In the story, Dick Diver, a prominent psychiatrist, is the protagonist. His wife, the beautiful, fey and often mad Nicole, is Zelda. As they aimlessly flit from place to place (the Fitzgeralds, and thus the fictional Divers, were the original "beautiful people"), the scholarly and noble (oh, so noble!) Dr. Diver begins to disintegrate under the weight of caring for a mentally ill but outwardly quite normal wife. In the end,it is he, not her, who is destroyed. There is a lot of anger in this book, and still more, almost unbearable pathos. I still think it is brilliant--a work of art in words. And I found, as I was reading, that I didn't really care which words were Zelda's and which were Scott's. As in real life, they formed a tragic whole--bent on destroying themselves and each other--and this book shows Scott's clear-eyed insight into that fact. The art is the tragedy--and the tragedy is the art. My admiration of F. Scott Fitzerald, and the lovely and lost Zelda, remains intact.
Rating:
Summary: Fitzgerald Had One Good Book in Him....
Review: ....and "The Great Gatsby" was it.
Rating: 
Summary: Should you read Tender is the Ngiht?
Review: The novel Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald, a tragic romance, is about a young 18 year-old actress named Rosemanry Hoyt, and her realtionship with the Diver's, an American couple. Their realtionship starts off with a growing friendship, which leads to Dick's (the husband)downfall and causing his wife to marry another man. The setting allows the reader to understand life during the 1920's before the time of the Depression, with close attention to characters and how our ways of living have evolved since the 1920's. F.Scott Fitzgerald uses a style of writing to fit both the time period and the setting of the novel.
With F.Scott Fitzgerald being born in 1896, he has first hand knowledge about a time period important to our country's history that most of can only read about. He depicts the life of a young actress trying to fulfill her dream and a sophistaicated couple whose wealth forces them to live a life that they do not desire, and have to be people that are not. Dick is a brilliant psychiatrist who has an affair on his wife who enters into many clinics for a mental breakdown brought on by sexual abuse from her father. I can see why the novel may have received mixed reviews in 1933 when it was published. Even though life during the 1920's is depicted (in which it seems to me) accurately, but the plot of the novel is not what you would expect. I believe that it is a good novel, but not everyone would want to read this type of novel. If you can read this novel and enjoy it, you will recieve knowledge from it
Rating:
Summary: A Look at the Effects of Mental Disorders
Review: When Rosemary Hoyt first glances at Dick Diver standing on the beach in the Riviera, he desperately intrigues her. She is in love at first sight, and she wants to know everything about him. There is a lot to know about Dick and his wife Nicole. As the story unfolds, naturally, more and more about the Divers is exposed. The effects of mental disorders are complex and devastating. Tender is the Night talks gracefully about mental disorders, not putting them down, but showing that even the most beautiful "normal" people can be affected. Dick and Nicole Diver have a seemingly perfect marriage until Dick's life begins to come apart at the ends. Nicole's schizophrenia becomes too much for Dick, who is also her psychiatrist, and their marriage. This book was really a writing from Fitzgerald's heart. It directly reflects his wife, himself, and the failing of their marriage. His wife was also a schizophrenic, and her institutionalization marked the end of their marriage. Her mental disorder had torn them apart. My favorite quality about Fitzgerald's writing has consistently been his ability to transport the reader directly to the 1920's. One feels like he/she is in the scene, watching the characters play out the book.
Rating:
Summary: A work of pure genius
Review: Through his unparalleled social insight and clairvoyant, intuitive, and translucent dialogue, F. Scott Fitzgerald has masterfully established himself as undeniably one of the greatest writers of all-time - as well as my favorite writer. Having read Fitzgerald thoroughly, I can pithily opine that his amazing use of the English language approaches the sublime. Tender is the Night, written arduously between 1925-1934, is the work of a more polished, mature, as well as hardened, writer than that of the young 23 year-old rookie who wrote the idealistic, yet splendid, This Side of Paradise. That being said, F. Scott does not disappoint by any means. This poignant and provocative tragic allegorical narrative of Dick and Nicole Diver strikingly, albeit unshockingly for Fitzgerald devotees, resembles F. Scott and Zelda's convoluted & tumultuous marriage. While F. Scott's alcoholism parallels Dick in an eerie kind of way, Zelda's mental instability and infidelity echo through the character of Nicole. When reading Tender is the Night, I felt as though I were on the beach in the French Riviera or on the Champs-Elysees in Paris with this group of pretentious and morally depraved bourgeoisie. Only Fitzgerald has that unique, intangible, & utterly indescribable ability to transport you into his vibrantly decadent world of the 1920's - a world that he brings to life unlike any other ever has - or ever will. How Hemingway could trash this great work that F. Scott poured his soul into is infantile and beyond me. To quote F. Scott, "Gatsby was a tour de force, but this is a confession of faith."
Rating: 
Summary: Even Fitzgerald couldn't kill a story this good.
Review: The prose is ridicilously florid and at times downright bad...The characters are idealized versions of the flights of melancholy...But the story...the sheer bravado of it's telling...is enough to almost overlook, the numerous, almost stupendous flaws of the book. Fitzgerald was not a great talent...let's get this out of the way up front...however, there is something of the sublime running through this absolute carnival of ridiculous events and even more ridiculous people. There is something almost holy about something this sure of it's own importance. It reminds me a little of Von Trier's work, in it's absolute, go-for-broke, intensity to the point of nonsense; however, like Von Trier, Fitzgerald, slams on the gas when the book goes out of control and in his pursuit of utter craziness almost reaches something transcendental. I suspect this is what makes this absolute train-wreck of a novel of interest to people. And it's certainly why I stuck through with it. There is something magical here...
Rating: 
Summary: No surprise it flopped.
Review: "We are rich and beautiful, and I am in love with you!" "But I am married, and it is forbidden!" "But we are rich! And I love you!" "I love you too, even though I am married! Because you are beautiful, and rich! Even though my wife is also beautiful and rich!" Depression era publishing, and F.Scott was SURPRISED that this book wasn't well received? The characters are so distantly removed from reality (the successful doctor, the daughter of ridiculous wealth, the movie star) that it's impossible to connect with anyone in this book, even coming from an upper middle-class lifestyle. If I were scrapping for food in the depression, I can't IMAGINE reading this book--it would've infuriated me. I dragged byself through it largely because of Gatsby: we've all read Gatsby, and we all liked Gatsby. This book might follow the course of Fitzgerald's own life, but it's hard to read and impossible to associate with, and it was painful to get through. None of Gatsby's rich imagery or deeper undercurrents. A 'Confession of Faith' for F.Scott, perhaps, but overall a shoddy 'other book' by an author of high standing. No surprise to me, whatsoever, that Tender is the Night flopped and broke Fitzgerald's heart. I can't say I'd recommend reading it, unless you want to be one of the few who's read 'the other book' by the Gatsby guy.
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