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Summary: The Dying Fall
Review: I have read this book maybe a half dozen times and everytime the book gets better. This book was produced inbetween nine years of distraction and disapointment, and while Gatsby is lean and tight and fluid--this book is anything but. It has its problems, but Fitzgerald writes his way out of them. The Difference between the twenty-eight year old writer of 'Gatsby' and the thirty-seven year old author of 'Tender' is just that--Fitzgerald had grown up. He wrote a book he hoped to be the model for the age--Joyce, Stein, Conrad, Proust. But instead he produced a book that is all Fitzgerald and consequently a model for any age. His style has exceeded 'Gatsby' and so has his content; his characters are real--breathng, smiling, crying, lusting, drinking, smoking, loving, and thinking. A book about "the dying fall"--something we all understand. Filled with soul--it is Fitzgerald's absolute finest.
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Summary: Fitzgerald's Worlds
Review: I, like probably everyone else, read 'Great Gatsby' as my first Fitzgerald novel. 'Gatsby' was his greatest work, no doubt. In 'Tender Is the Night', he expertly displays why he was such a good writer. He was a master. He is great at building up rich, beautiful worlds that are barely imaginable. He opens them up to us, and drops us right in the middle. In 'Tender Is the Night', you get to follow the story of a man's less than ideal journey through life. It takes you trough different women, different locations, etc. You effortlessly get inside Dick's (the main character's) mind. If you've read 'Gatsby', make this book your next Fitzgerald read.
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Summary: I won't repeat the biography...
Review: On a regular basis, I see these reviews that seem pretentious. They don't really say much except that the person reviewing the book knows a lot about the author. You could take this as meaning that he or she is an authority and therefore to be trusted on the issue, but it also means that person is very biased. I'm an English major and I can spout off that information but I choose not to for the same reason that I became an English major (and teacher) in the first place: because I love to read and to write. The writing in Tender is the Night amazes even in scenes that may not push forward at a very fast rate. Fitzgerald doesn't have to fill the book with little literary tricks to keep you interested. The writing shines on with every page. You don't need to know every detail of his and Zelda's life to get Tender is the Night. You just have to love to read. This book ranks as one of my absolute favorites.
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Summary: A book of absolute genius
Review: I first read this masterpiece in college. It impacted me greatly. To that end," Tender is the Night" gets my vote as the all time greatest American novel. Every private library must have this work of absolute genius. The author is gifted and is able to write great prose at an early age, with the publication of his first novel, "This Side of Paradise." However, upon his return to the United States after spending many years in Paris with "The Lost Generation" F. Scott Fitzgerald finally completes "Tender is the Night." He tells the story of Dick Diver whose life and work tumbles because of his marriage to the wealthy beauty Nicole Warren. This book is heartbraking. Fitzgerald's command of dialogue and masterful understanding of human emotions shakes the soul of the reader.
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Summary: The writing is exquisite...he's the greatest, incomparable!
Review: A.J. of Maryland, a former reviewer, said it all about the gorgeous writing. The word "ambrosia" was used - yes, this book is like a great gourmet feast, where literary skill is concerned. Fitzgerald cannot be copied because his style is so uniquely his own. As for comparison with "Gatsby": I did not enjoy "Gatsby" as much as "Tender." "Gatsby is, indeed, nearly a perfect novel. It has been described by the great literary critic Milton Hindus in a monograph about the book as resembling the tiny inner workings of a Swiss watch...you peer inside and wonder how the craftsman could have created something so intricate, jewel-like, perfect. And yet, "Gatsby" did not move me like this book. "Tender certainly has its flaws. Some of them are quite laughable because of what we know today about mental illness, alcoholism, homosexuality (that these things are not "curable," for instance...that homosexuality does not lead to a downward spiritual spiral, etc.) And yet, the "Tender" part of the title stands. This book quivers with love and tenderness. Historically, this book is uniqely autobiographical. I couldn't help feeling, as I read, that Fitzgerald wanted to set things straight about his relationship with Zelda. Refuting the belief that "Dick (read: Scott) married Nicole (read: Zelda) for her money" might have been the pivotal idea Fitzgerald was trying to get across, though it probably seems unlikely to most readers. Still, that line, spoken by a minor character, leapt out at me. I thought, He wants us to know that it is not true: he adored Zelda; he wanted to take care of her because she was mentally fragile and only succeeded in being dragged down by their co-dependence; he wanted to be his own man, but as a writer never could live up to her huge wealth; still, he liked the things money can buy - who could blame him; in the end, the madness and drinking and inequality of resources caused him to "dive," like his hero, Dick Diver, into dissolution and failure. I disagree with the comment of another reviewer that the lack of development of the children's characters meant that they were not loved. Of course, it was a dysfunctional family, so in that case "love" has a lot of strings attached to it...however, I know that the Fitzgeralds loved their daughter, Scotty. She turned out to be a delightful, well-adjusted person, from what I've heard. But more than that, I felt that Fitzgerald didn't want to drag his daughter or even fictional children into the sordid adult tale. He actually did them a favor leaving them out. Also, it must be remembered that adults and children interacted differently in earlier times in this century. Children played a far more minor role in their parents' lives - especially children of the very rich, who were often cared more by governesses and other servants than their own parents. In fact, it's amazing that the Diver children played such an important role in the book at all. It is fun to read about the psychiatric community in the 'twenties, and the old attitudes people had about mental and addictive diseases. However, there is a certain amount of condescending racism, classism, sexism and even an anti-semitic reference here and there in the book. And yet - Fitzgerald is a master. I recommend the short stories...I think these are the jewels in his crown.
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Summary: Not bad, but...
Review: Tender is the Night is certainly a professional effort, however it is dull, it is a bit dense, and the timelines occasionally are confusing, making the first two obeservations even more glaring. It is a sad story, but one in which I found a chore to read for the most part. It seems to cerebral to conjur up the passion of a taboo love affair and the malaise of a dying one. We can't compare all of a writer's work to his greatest triumph (gatsby in this case) but since I read Tender is the Night because I liked Gatsby so much, the comparison is inevitable. Maybe I'm too young to truly understand this story or better yet feel it, but I have a feeling when I'm older I won't want to attempt another pass.
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Summary: Perfumed heaven, but for the madness.
Review: This is my favorite Fitzgerald novel, primarily for its biographical proximity to their similarly glamourous and ghastly marriage. The story opens on the unspoiled Riviera where money and adventure ruled, the Divers were the epitome of the expatriots of the Lost Generation/Jazz Age. Not only mythically gorgeous, Mrs. Diver was an ideal as a mother and dramatic gardener. She removes to an Eden-like retreat of lush and fragrant blooms that is infamous for its mistakes, i.e. Fitzgerald's lack of familiarity mixing tulips with sunflowers and other late summer blooms. The endless parties and thrill seeking begins to cloud the horizon and the startling secret that the couple have been trying to elude, breaks into a storm.
The unraveling of this pharntom perfection is indeed `Tender' and ineffably sad. Zelda and Scott scaled Olympus as well, and suffered from excess and what was explained as a streak of madness in Zelda's family like a fatal flaw.
The alcohol factor, in Zelda, given the advantage of the times, seems far more likely the major factor for her suffering than some arcane mental illness. Fitzgerald and Zelda were co-dependent, last stage alcoholics with irresponsible and self-centered natures, the ingredients of tragedy and self-destruction. The ingredients often of great writers.
Yet, in Tender Is the Night, it is more as if madness comes like fate to challenge such god-given beauty and glory. The hot Riviera, white walled, and perfumed heaven is no where else so perfectly envisioned. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is generally considered a better work, but for pure mood to attach to the Lost Generation, this is by far and away the one that touches my heart.
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Summary: The Great Fitzgerald
Review: WHile it did not enjoy the acclaim of it's prodeccesor, The Great Gatsy, Fitzgerald succeds once more in capturing the melancholy, self-disapassionated apathy of post-world war one america. WHile the the tangled lives of the DIvers are in themselves intersting enough to drive the story, it is Fitzgerald's astounding capacity to capture human interactions that makes it wonderful.
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Summary: Tender is the Night
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald has well developed the novel Tender is the Night. There is a lot of conflict throughout the whole entire novel. He begins by introducing two different groups of people into the novel. Then he movers into the main conflict which is the love affair between Rosemary Hoyt, a movie star, and Dick Diver, a psychologist. This affair then causes many problems at different times throughout the novel.
The characterization shows how people can be categorized in different groups. The characters in Tender is the Night are very well rounded and kept. There is a lot of controversy among the two groups of people. The first group consists of high-class, wealthy, and good-looking people. While the other group consists of more middle-class people and they are not so attractive either. Conflict first begins with these two groups because Rosemary likes a man, Dick Diver, who is from the high-class group, but would still like to associate with the other group of people. This conflict is what led to the next conflict being the affair between Rosemary and Dick.
The actual affair between Rosemary and Dick made the novel interesting to read...
The novel was very well written and interesting to read. Fitzgerald does and excellent job developing the different conflicts throughout the novel. His use of the different groups of people is well related to how many groups are and act today. Which can be comparable to everyday life.
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Summary: What makes Dick tick?
Review: Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this book is the freshness of its language: except for a few slang words used in speech, the prose is so cutting and modern that it reads like a recent creation.
Much of the discussion surrounding this book has to do with its semi-autobiographical nature, at least to the extent the Divers' marriage and Dick's personal unraveling mirrors the effect Zelda's mental illness had on Fitzgerald. Yet knowing too much about the parallels between a writer's life and his work can be distracting, and this is a good enough story to stand on its own without recourse to voyeurism. Fitzgerald shows the effects of insanity on a marriage and on its (initially) stronger member, but is discreetly circumspect as regards his inner feelings. We can see Dick working to create a sphere of normalcy around Nicole, yet his motivation is not entirely clear. In fact, Dick Diver is ultimately the least fully explored of the bunch: we never really learn what makes Dick tick. Why does he have this compulsion to make himself liked, to briefly be the life of the party then move on before his charm wears thin? In this behavior Dick displays a restless sociopathy worthy of a Bret Easton Ellis character - which also, again, proves the essential freshness of this novel written a lifetime ago.
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