Not My Cup of Tea

A short while ago I wrote about the book "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles.  I said that although I had enjoyed two of his other book, that one was not my favorite.  Some critics compared it to F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby", and I stated that I did not care much for "The Great Gatsby" either when I read it many years ago.

The next book that I picked from my bookshelf was another Fitzgerald novel, "Tender Is the Night", and it simply confirmed my opinion that he is not my cup of tea.

The novel portrays a wealthy couple Nicole and Dick Driver who are vacationing on the French Riviera.  Among the group of expatriates with whom they socialize is teenaged Rosemary Hoyt, and up and coming movie starlet who falls in love with Dick.  The characters mirror Fitzgerald, who was descending deeper into alcoholism, and his wife Zelda who was institutionalized after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Even Rosemary is based on a young movie star with whom Fitzgerald had an affair.

Frankly, I have to wonder if Fitzgerald was drunk when he wrote this novel.  I found his writing style difficult to follow, at times incomprehensible. There was passage after passage in which I had no idea what he was writing.  I was reading words, they were written in English, yet I was lost.  I soon grew weary of trying to decipher them.  After reading about one hundred pages, I finally said, "Enough!"  Life is too short to waste time on a book that I am not enjoying.

Many critics consider "Tender Is the Night" to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.  I'm sorry if that makes me an uncultured Philistine, but the book is going back on the shelf unfinished.