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This book could have been at least 150 pages shorter and I think I might have given it a better rating. I've always preferred Fitzgerald to Hemingway, mostly because Hemingway adds a turd frosting of misogyny to Fitzgerald's cake of racial and class prejudices, and because while they both write some condemnable characters, only Fitzgerald actually takes the time to y'know, condemn them. It is no different in The Beautiful and the Damned. Anthony and Gloria Patch are spoiled, lazy, and selfish twits who can't seem to put the bottle down long enough to realize that they're the source of their own unhappiness. It's a bit sad that Fitzgerald can write so knowingly and judgmentally about these characters while simultaneously his own marriage is beginning to crumble. It's been known that Fitzgerald used bits of Zelda's old diaries as the basis for his selfish female characters, but he gets on a self-righteous bent and accuses her of plagiarism when Zelda comes out with her own version of the dissolution of their marriage? Something smells like hypocrisy, my dearest Scott.

2022-08-30 14:41