Rating: 
Summary: More about the Lost Generation
Review: This was a beautifully written, though somewhat disjointed narrative about American expatriates in Europe between the wars. It was very similar in feel to Hemingway's "Sun Also Rises", and shared some of the same sunny locales. Like many readers, my concentration was tested with the abrupt narrative shift from Rosemary's to Dick's point of view several years earlier. But on reflection, I think it was the most effective way to dramatize Dick's deterioration, beginning when he was at his radiant peak. As with Hemingway, we are forced to infer motives for some surprising behaviors by characters (Dick especially) for whom little cognitive insight is provided. It seems to have been a literary virtue for authors of this generation not to over-elaborate a character's state of mind. Of course this may have something to do with many of their works being so plainly autobiographical!
Rating: 
Summary: The enabling of Nicole Diver
Review: Dick Diver a promising young pyschiatrist falls in love withan emotionally disturbed young woman with a troubling past and a great deal of money.Dick forgoes self to shelter Nicole from the harsh world and shelter friends and family from Nicole's demons. As his character is introduced he is the facilitator and the party organizer of all the english speaking ex-patriots who vacation on the Riveira. As Nicole recovers, Dick loses himslf as he slides into alcoholhism and boorish behaviour. This novel closely resembled Fitzgerald's own tragic life and, like Gatsby,is a classic.
Rating:
Summary: More difficult that The Great Gatsby
Review: "Tender is the Night" is obviously a more complex novel than "The Great Gatsby" and more difficult to read. I picked this book up twice. The first time I gave up after reading only half. The second time I got bogged down then hopped onto Amazon.com to read the customer reviews. Here someone wrote that you should spend sufficient time with the novel and read it with careful concentration. That was good advice indeed, because the novel then rolled along and became a pleasure to read once I gave it sufficient attention. The first part of the novel is a little annoying. The unmarried Rosemary pursues the married Dick Diver with complicity from her mother. Why would her mother encourage her daughter to get involved with a married man? That part I found frustrating. I was also confused as to what motivated Dick to marry Nicole. Some characters in the novel said it was money. One reviewer here at Amazon.com, whose opinion seems learned, says he did so out of pity for her schizophrenic state. The novel circles back from the beaches of Cannes and streets of Paris to the mountain hospital where the two characters first met. At first I found myself backing up and rereading parts of this because the change in venue was so abrupt that it left me somewhat lost. It was a major shift from the breezy momentum of the early chapters. But this part of the novel is where the real drama in the story begins to unfold. So it was a necessary detour. Other reviewers have noted that this novel varies in style from Fitzgerald's other novels. I read "The Great Gatsby" for the second time in one sitting. That novel is more lyrical and rolls along more easily than this one. There are certain sentences here in "Tender is the Night" that I wondered how they escaped the careful editing of Maxwell Perkins (editor at Charles Scriber and Sons). Finally fans of Fitzgerald who long to read about rich American expatriates living in Europe will find plenty to entertain them here. The scenery is the beaches of Cannes, the streets of Paris, and the spas of France. Nicole and Dick Divers go from one gathering of glitterati to the next. Fitzgerald drops you squarely into the lives of the idle rich as he did in "The Great Gatsby". But here he also reveals a lot about their miseries and heir drunkenness. Maybe that is the chief difference between the two novels (if you ignore that crimes in Gatsby).
Rating: 
Summary: Fragile: Handle With Care
Review: This book is certainly less popular than Gatsby or This Side of Paradise because it requires the reader to be committed. It does not flow with the same tempo as some of Fitzgerald's other works but it is SO MUCH more "literary". Tender is the Night, therefore, is only enjoyable when you are reading passionately and allowing yourself to be immersed in all the various messages, patterns, and thematic influences that are constantly being projected by the author. It's like looking at one of those pattern pictures at the mall with the images buried in them-- it hurts your eyes at first, but once you see the image beneath it can be sublime. If there is a flaw to Tender however it is what could be considered as its inconsistency. There are moments reminiscent of the most brilliant elements of Faulkner's characterization, Hemingway's style-- even Gertrude Stein's insight. Unfortunately, these moments don't always coincide with each other. Nevertheless, this is Fitzgerald at his best and a strong recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: the writing blew me away ...
Review: read other reviews for a description of plot but i will add my two cents re the WRITING, stunning, unbelievable. i go to the bookstore and pick up recently written novels and then read this ... apples and oranges, no comparison, how can i ever attempt to write after reading tender is the night? this review a bit dramatic, yes, but as lost as i got in the book there was always a part of me outside marvelling at it as an objective art form. while some parts of the novel are stronger than others (the third part the least strong i think) it is an overall masterpiece, and several passages just took my breath away.
Rating:
Summary: "First the Morale Goes, then the Manners."
Review: Tender Is the Night is one of the most interesting examples in 20th century fiction of reversing the usual social metaphors. Dr. Dick Diver, a psychiatrist, is examined as a case of mental health. He is also placed in a classic woman's role, that of the desired, amiable beauty sought after by all and sundry. These juxtapositions of the usual social perspectives allow the reader to touch closer to the realities of human need and connection, by piercing our assumptions about what is "right and proper." The story begins from the perspective of Rosemary Hoyt, an 18-year-old motion picture star, recuperating on the Rivera. One day she goes to the beach and becomes entranced by the Divers, Dick and Nicole, a golden couple with whom she immediately falls in love. Beautiful, young, rich, and looking for adventure, she quickly sets out to capture Dick who is the most wonderful person she has ever met. Later, the story shifts to Dick's perspective and traces back to the beginnings of his marriage to Nicole. She had formed an accidental attachment to him (a classic psychiatric transference) while residing in a mental hospital. He returned her friendship, and found it impossible to break her heart. They married, and he played the role of at-home psychiatrist tending her schizophrenia. All went well for years, but gradually he became weary of his role. His weariness causes him to re-evaluate his views on life . . . and the psychological profile of Dr. Diver, charming bon vivant, begins. The tale is a remarkably modern one, even if it was set in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deeply investigates the meanings of love, humanity, and connection. In so doing, he uncovers some of the strongest and most vile of human passions, and makes fundamental commentaries about the futility of fighting against human nature. The result is a particularly bleak view of life, in which the tenders may end up more injured by life than those they tend. What good is it to please everyone else, if they offend rather than please you instead? The character portrayals of Rosemary Hoyt, Dick Diver, and Nicole Diver are remarkably finely drawn. I can remember no other book where three such interesting characters are so well developed. You will feel like each of them is an old friend by the time the novel ends. If you have ever had the chance to read Freud, the novel will remind you of his writings. There is the same fine literary hand, the succinctness and clarity of expression, and the remorseless directness of looking straight at the unpleasant. I felt like I was reading Freud rather than Fitzgerald in many sections. This book should open up your mind to thinking about which social conventions you observe that leave you uncomfortable . . . or which are in contradiction to your own nature. Having surfaced those misfitting parts of your life, I suggest that you consider how you could shift your observation of conventions to make them more meaningful and emotionally rewarding for you. Be considerate because it pleases you to be, not as a ruse to obtain love!
Rating:
Summary: A Good Story, but nothing extraordinary.
Review: Tender is the Night is a very well written and engaging novel. However, it is a far cry from some of Fitzgerald's other works. By no means did it impart the dramatic and profound portrayals of The Great Gatsby, yet it did create a certain amount of sympathy for its leading characters and the lifestyle as a whole. Again, Fitzgerald does what he does best in portraying the lifestyles of the upper-class during the 1920's. I would recommend this book for those interested in the culture of the 1920's and for mere entertainment's sake, but it is not as profound a novel as it could have been.
Rating: 
Summary: Gatsby it ain't
Review: It is often said that every writer has, at least, one good book in him. Sadly most of them only have one. This certainly appears to be the case for Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby, while flawed, is nonetheless a great novel. Gatsby is a tragic figure motivated by a self destructive pursuit of his vision of the American dream. Dr. Dick Diver, the central character of Tender is the Night, on the other hand, is naught but a dissipated wastrel. As his wife, who he met while he was working as a psychiatrist & she was interred in an asylum, gains mental stability & some kind of shaky personal wholeness, he descends into drink & carnality & ends the novel roaming from town to town practicing medicine briefly before moving on. Diver is the kind of insipid navel gazing character who has plagued the Century's fiction. Tom Wolfe, touring in support of his new novel, has launched himself on a jeremiad against the Modern novel & novelist. His central point is that novelists need to stop looking inward and look without. He's saying, Go out into America & tell the wonderful stories that you find there. There are wonderful stories, waiting to be told, but our greatest novelists are cloistered in Universities, Manhattan apartments, etc., picking at the scabs on their own psyches & the vomiting forth their internal monologues. Tender is the Night seems to be a victim of this Modernist disease, too autobiographical & self absorbed to tell us much of value about the wider world. GRADE: C-
Rating:
Summary: Why was it unpopular?
Review: I wonder why this was so unpopular, as reflected by sales after its first publication. It's a tragic depressive book, true, but then so were 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Beautiful and Damned'. It features the same bright and beautiful people who, through fatal flaws in their characters, fall through the cracks and never clamber up. This is the only one of the novels, though, that focuses on Americans out of America - rich expatriates in Europe. It's rather Hemingway-ish, except that of course instead of bull-fighting and big-game-hunting they go to beaches and do a lot of shopping. :) It is true, however, that this book is generally darker and grimmer than the others. The others started off with hope and excitement and wonder. Except for the first section, this is not the case here. Even when we view events through Rosemary's eyes, we are always aware and disturbed that things are not as they seem and people are falling apart. The prose is more muted, too - less of the lovingly lyrical imagery of TBAD, fewer descriptions of the wealth and opulence of TGG. There is a sense of concealed decay throughout this novel. This has a lot of disturbing undercurrents under its bright and polished surface. The events of the novel, in fact, reflect the characters of Dick and Nicole Diver themselves (Nicole more obviously, with her schizophrenia). Perhaps there isn't the same sense of optimism and idealism that one senses from the protagonists in the other books - Amory Blaine in 'This Side of Paradise'; Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert in TBAD; Jay Gatsby, however deluded he is in his case, in TGG; even what's-his-name? in The Love of the Last Tycoon. The first fifth of the book shows Dick and Nicole young, but henceforth they are tired and jaded and struggling desperately to keep up appearances. Rosemary Hoyt is likeable when she first appears, but by the last two sections she is hopelessly corrupted as well. The characters all seem particularly depraved; or perhaps amoral. This is clearly exhibited through their adultery. Yet Anthony Patch had an affair as well; and Jay Gatsby was intent on breaking up a secure marriage. Another aspect of it might have to do with the fall. Anthony and Gloria were played out by fate. He was the heir to a large fortune and he lost it due to a moment's folly. His error was constructed on a foundation of weakness and ignorance, true, but circumstances play a part. For Gatsby, one can't possibly blame him for not doing enough - if anything, it was that his vision was flawed in the first place and so whatever he did couldn't possibly have achieved him his desire. The reader feels sympathy for him. Yet Dick and Nicole don't have that luxury of blaming things on fate. They have money, they have attainable dreams, they have beauty and power. They foul it all up with no help from anyone else. To a certain extent the reader recoils from such characters. Fitzgerald appears to have pinned Dick's fall on his need for approval, attention and affection - which fits quite well. It would explain why he married Nicole, who needed him so badly; why he chased after other women, to ascertain to himself that he was still attractive and desirable. Nicole is tougher. I get the impression Fitzgerald uses her schizophrenia as a cover for a lot of things, a one-size-fits-all explanation. Why is she like that? Oh, she's crazy. Why did she do that? Oh, she's crazy. So what have we looked at? Theme - grimmer, but similar to other books. Characters - less likeable perhaps, but overall still similar. Setting - I can't see that it makes much of a difference. Timing plays a part too, of course. This book came out in the aftermath of the Great Depression, after the Jazz Age had blown past. People didn't want to be reminded of the glitzy parties of a past they couldn't return to; they were focused on hard work, picking up the pieces, moving forward in a steadier saner world. Poor Fitzgerald - he couldn't have helped that, after all.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I found "Tender Is The Night" to be a very captivating story from the beginning to the end. It is an engaging story which grabbed not only my attention, but also my imagination by leading me to make early conclusions about how the story was going to turn out. I was reading the book always waiting for my predictions to come true, which kept me in some suspense. I found this facet of the book to be very exciting. However, unfortunately for me, I was wrong in some of my premature conclusions, and so, I was inevitably a little disappointed by the end. My suggestion is to read with some wonderment about what is to happen, but try not to set yourself up for any initial conclusions you might come to about the final destiny of the characters. Speaking of the characters, you definitely take on their emotions or develop your own about them, making the book that much easier to read and enjoy. I was liking some, feeling sorry for others, and still completely disliking others. The only negative thing I would say, looking back over the book, is that I do believe that there are some aspects of the characters' emotions and predicaments, which are alluded to, but then dropped. So, I was left with the feeling at times of expecting the deeper meaning of a character's wants, needs, and reasoning to unfold later. However, I found they never did. I, of course, could've been reading more into the words than what was intended. All in all, though, I recommend getting a copy and allowing yourself to be drawn into this emotional story. I think most people will find it enjoyable and easy to read.
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