This Side of Paradise Paperback – May 21, 2014

First things first....IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ THIS BOOK--DO NOT READ THE PREFACE!!!!!! IT GIVES AWAY THE FINAL LINE OF THE ENDING !!!I am a Fitzgerald addict. I remember being forced to read 'Gatsby' at some point in school and grabbing the cliff notes and throwing a worthy paper together somehow (still getting an excellent grade because at that time before college-before I realized the value in education- I had a superb knack for maneuvering words around to make my papers look authentic) . Years later I decided to pick it up again, tired of reading all the bubble gum crap written by my contemporaries I decided to revisit the classics. I have always loved to read but thought I mainly preferred 'light reading' . But I was at the end of my rope with predictable crap that lacked any sort of substance. I actually stopped reading altogether for a long time because I thought I was just simply bored with it. After being out of college for a few years, and living a life with virtually no mental stimulation, I felt a desperate need to feed my starving mind. I looked up lists of the classics and ordered several and dug in. I began by reading Catcher in the Rye, which I actually did love as a child; and loved and appreciated it even more this second time around. I think 'Catcher' is such a special an unique gem because it is such a 'light' and 'easy' read and at the same time still profoundly brilliant. I then picked up 'Gatsby', and again I stumbled on the first few pages, not that they were challenging, but I didn't feel "hooked". I felt bored with the detailed descriptions of East Egg and West Egg, but I pushed onward. And then around the beginning of the 2nd chapter it happened...I was hooked. The words seemed to jump up off the pages and suck me in, the images were crystal clear. I felt chills of enchantment the first time Jay Gatsby made his appearance, I felt Nick Carraway's excitement and awe in that magical summer. I could feel the tension and loving adoration between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, and watched his character visibly weaken in her presence...'The Great Gatsby' is the masterpiece of all masterpieces'..it's perfect. But 'This Side of Paradise' IS F. Scott Fitzgerald. There is something so special about this book, Amory Blaine is as tragically flawed as any character could possibly be, but I instantly adored him from the very first page. Literally watching Amory grow from boyhood to a manhood, I felt I was reliving my own life. And mine was nothing at all like his, but Fitzgerald perfectly and poetically captures the pains of growth and experience that shape us all; and the existential crisis that many of us face in our lives as we search for meaning and purpose. I have more underlining in this book then anything I have ever read on paper. Every word, every sentiment evoked some primal emotion inside me. I think the reason that F.Scott Fitzgerald's books are so magical, is that he is an artist in the truest sense, he gives parts of himself away to his work. You can really feel him, especially in 'This Side'..Amory is largely in part made up of Fitzgerald. They always say an author's first novel is autobiographical, but it seems like 'This Side' almost IS autobiographical. Of course I must admit that knowing the story behind the writing of the novel, how desperately Fitzgerald was trying to finish it in order to become a success and win Zelda back,also played a part in the romance of "This Side of Paradise" for me.I just can't rave enough about this book. I started on a journey to read the classics and nourish my post-collegiate mind. I read 'Catcher' , then 'Gatsby' , and then the 'Beautiful and Damned' , which is fantastic in it's own right, but for another review... 'This Side' was my 3rd Fitzgerald read, and next I will read 'Tender is the Night' . So my 'classic lit. journey' has turned into a 'Fitzgerald journey'. While the novels are still essentially 'light reads' [ex. I began an attempt to struggle through Dante's Inferno - now that is not easy reading ! ], I am captivated by the soul of FSF's stories, and any contemporary author (that I have read at least) has failed in giving their story any actual soul. I plan on reading his final novel 'The Love of the Last Tycoon ', published posthumously , after I finish reading 'Tender is the Night '. And if by then I have not grown tired of Mr. Fitzgerald { unimaginable! }, I plan to read his short stories. I know this review trailed way off the subject of 'This Side of Paradise', but I have never loved an author's ENTIRE body of work before, never had a "favorite author", nothing that I have ever read has come close to the brilliance of F. Scott Fitzgerald. . 'This Side' was written almost a century ago but the story and the journey is timeless.*** As I mentioned in the first line, if you have not read this book, do NOT read the preface. I was SO disappointed and shocked that they would give away the ending before the story. I enjoy reading anything that has to do with F.Scott Fitzgerald's life and history of his stories and novels, so naturally I read the preface [ written by James L West III ], and in it he tells you the final line of the book! I was hoping that it wasn't the last line, because he discusses how there were several versions of the book throughout the publication of each edition, but it is and he GIVES AWAY THE FINAL LINE!! I was extremely irritated by this and it doesn't make sense because at the very back of the book- AFTER the ending and final line--there are Notes, further reading and a section about FSF's life and career so they could have also have put this SPOILER in the back of the book.

TENDER IS THE NIGHT BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALDThere is a very interesting lecture at YaleCourses on YouTube where Professor Wai Chee Dimock talks about stylistic aspects of Tender Is The Night, in particular one of its strongest tropes: the association of love and war, which in Fitzgerald's prose come together and can't be taken apart. That made total sense to me, because in TITN life seems to be a very convoluted bag of mixed feelings.I actually decided to read TITN because the book came to my mind after finishing Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. I had a feeling that both would share similiarities as depictions of tragedies of the wealthy in the Roaring Twenties. But they are quite different in tone: while Madox Ford's novel is a misery of unreliable narrators, with a secret to be discovered, Fitzgerald's seems like a confession of one's own fears and regrets in a very personal and intimate note.The title of this book never has left my mind since I first heard about it as a TV miniseries, I guess in the 1990s, with Peter Strauss as Dick Diver, Mary Steenburger as Nicole and Sean Young as Rosemary. Not that I actually followed the TV series then, but I vividly remember how the announcer's voice recited in off, "Tender is the Night", like a perfect melody, something that, to me, was as sweet and delicate as Schubert's "Am See D746". I didn't know then as I know now I that Fitzgerald found the title of his novel in "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats, a poem about the efemerous beauty of youth and love--just the decay Fitzgerald wanted to portray in his novel, as in the stanza in the middle of the poem: "youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies" and "beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow." Sure enough, I didn't know what TITN was really about.TITN was not well received when published in 1934, and I imagine that deeply hurt Fitzgerald, especially because he thought of it as his most mature work, and because he included so much of his own personal experience into the book: Nicole's psychological instability mirrors that of his wife Zelda Sayer, Dick Diver's troubles with alcohol are Fitzgerald's own--and even the traumatic events in Rome that result in Dick Diver's being beaten by the carabinieri and put into jail seems to have actually happened with Fitzgerald himself when he was in Rome late in 1924. Prof Dimock calls attention to the fact that very early in the novel, when young and naive Rosemary sees Dick and Nicole Diver, from the distance for the first time, Nicole's face is described as "hard and lovely and pitiful". The association of such distinct, dissonant and even contradictory adjectives are a very intriguing way to subtly suggest the whole path from glory to ruin to oblivion.However implausible and farcical many scenes in the novel may seem (many think the duel between McKisco and Tommy Barban is nonsensical and gratuitous, but I tend to agree that McKisco is a counterpoint to Dick Diver as much as Abe North is a preview of Dick's drunken tragedy), there is still a sense of truthfulness and sincerity in this novel that really touched me. To me, reading through TITN was almost like painfully witnessing Fitzgerald's attempting to conquer his own insecurities and anxieties as a writer, as much as Dick Diver tries in the novel to cope with his wasted 'career' as a husband and as a medical doctor. The fact it all ends the way it ends leaves a terrible (but brilliant) sour taste in the mouth. I guess that is why TITN made a much stronger impression in me than The Great Gatsby, because it so much more powerful and poignant, an experience that, ironically, you can't forget.

I first read The Great Gatsby fifty years ago, and have re-read it regularly over the years to indulge myself in the richness of the prose and the clear morality of the story. I had several times attempted to get into Tender is the Night, but until earlier this month it had always eluded my attention. Gatsby has a clear narrative timeline and two fine characters - the self-effacing Nick, and Gatsby himself - and two detestable pantomime villains: Daisy and her husband, who damage people but then pass on cocooned in their wealth.Tender is the Night has a quite different structure - and there are no villains at all. I tackled the book again a week or so back at the urging of a friend and published author whose views I much respect, and who rated the book greater than Gatsby. I read it once, and at the end of this first reading quite frankly didn't see the point: medical charlatan marries young, beautiful, rich patient and gets his comeuppance. But, respecting my friend's views, I persevered: and half-way through the second time I began to get an understanding. Now, having read it in full three times in succession I can see why it can be considered to be greater than Gatsby.The triptych structure is essential to the book. The first part shows Dick and Nicole Diver at the height of their existence: glamour and attractiveness seen through the perceptive eyes of a young (seventeen) but self-assured young actress, Rosemary, who falls heavily in love or infatuation with Doctor Dick. He rises nobly to resist her attempt at an affair without offending her, and clearly expressing his responsibilities to the wife and children he loves.The second section is a flashback explaining how their relationship came to be, and the perilous quicksands upon which it is built. Dick is a serious young psychiatrist with a dazzling future ahead of him - but he is poor. Nicole, then sixteen, becomes his patient and over time they fall in love and marry: she is emotionally damaged, but very rich. Taking this history in the second part gives you cause to reflect upon the dazzling impressions of the first part, and to suspect the weaknesses that underlie it.In part three, the finale, the edifice of their life together crumbles and eventually their marriage falls apart. They separate, divorce; with Nicole now strengthened to independence and Dick descending into alcohoiism and a succession of appointments in small towns where his charm can disguise the failure of his talent. Nicole still loves him for what he meant to her, and you know that he still loves her - but that there is no way back. Both Dick and Nicole terminate their relationship with a dignity that confirms that their relationship, although flawed, was nevertheless something of value.I now, and somewhat to my surprise, agree with my friend's assessment that it is greater than Gatsby - but it requires more effort than a casual flipping through.

The writing, as in most of Fitzgerald's work, is fascinating. He writes wonderfully. The storyline, in my opinion, was unfortunately rather boring. I struggled to get past 100 pages with this one... Perhaps as a reader I am too immature, but I need a little more excitement out of a storyline to continue and complete a 3/400 page book

There are three reasons why you should not be offering this edition to your Kindle customers or making a charge. First this ebook is a Project Gutenberg edition for which there should be no charge. Second the text is defective - which you can verify by comparing it to the original. Third, Kindle customers can access a free copy of the same novel by buying the Complete Works. You should remove this offer from the Kindle store.

This edition is F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1934 original novel. There is a cheaper edition, but I noticed reviews saying it had spelling and punctuation mistakes, and even missing text. So I was glad I bought this edition which is free from errors and well laid out. There are contemporary photographs between chapters which are unique to this version as well.If you haven't read Tender is the Night before, it's a longer and more challenging work than The Great Gatsby, more ambitious and more rewarding in my mind. You can see the influence of Sigmund Freud and notions of madness. I would recommend you Google 'Hemingway's Letter to F Scott Fitzgerald' to see what another great writer thought about this classic book.

The opening sentence of this edition is: "On the exceptional shore of the French Riviera, approximately 1/2 manner among Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a huge, proud, rose-colored resort".According to Project Gutenberg Australia that should read: "On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel".