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49th out of 402 books
—
910 voters
Save Me The Waltz
One of the great literary curios of the 20th century, Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when her husband was working on Tender is the Night—which many critics consider his masterpiece—Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story. The novel strangely parallels events from her husband’s life, throwing a fascina...more
Paperback, 225 pages
Published
August 2nd 2001
by Vintage (Random House)
(first published 1932)
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I found this in a used bookstore around the corner from my apartment.
On the wordy side, but not at all the impenetrable mess people make it out to be. I happen to love dense, elaborate prose. Hers is synesthesiacally brilliant. It's true, the paragraphs are somewhat lacking in rhythm. So much energy went into the individual sentences. But it's one of those books that make me kick my feet with joy and occasionally pause to meditate on a thought or description.
Poor Zelda! Even the cover is dedicat...more
On the wordy side, but not at all the impenetrable mess people make it out to be. I happen to love dense, elaborate prose. Hers is synesthesiacally brilliant. It's true, the paragraphs are somewhat lacking in rhythm. So much energy went into the individual sentences. But it's one of those books that make me kick my feet with joy and occasionally pause to meditate on a thought or description.
Poor Zelda! Even the cover is dedicat...more
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It often strikes me as absurd to attempt to "rate" literature. Save me the Waltz, for example, is probably not a four-star book. It was, however, a four-star reading experience because I have a fascination with the Fitzgeralds; because it is challenging and fragmented and bizarre; because it makes no sense as a novel and belies the meaning of the genre. Certainly not a read for everyone, but if you have read Tender is the Night, or are at all interested in the lovely Zelda, Save Me the Waltz mig...more
I won't pretend that the book isn't uneven, and I actually read it as part of Zelda Fitzgerald's collected works, but regardless, it's worth reading. I'd call it something of a three act: We start with dreamy descriptions of a Southern town where our somewhat coddled heroine grows up, and ultimately falls in love with a serviceman. Her stern father seems larger than life, the dialogue's a bit stilted, but it could be a worse opening. After that, our heroine and her husband travel to Europe, wher...more
Why five stars for such an unevenly written novel? Despite her over use of similes, Zelda's writing sizzles with dazzling descriptions. I'm convinced that she either wrote or edited the first party scene in "Gatsby" because that same cadence of phrasing in those long sentences that crescendo to delirious heights appear throughout "Save Me the Waltz." Another bias that supports five stars rests in my sympathy for Zelda's protagonist, Alabama. When her manic swings are on the rise, her aesthetics...more
Zelda had a way of writing that was lively and sometimes hard to figure out, but a far cry from the woman who was portrayed in Z. If this is what it's supposed to be- her side of the story - she did a much better job of explaining herself than did those who set out to explain her. She describes herself as a person who needed an awful lot of space from the requirements of being a wife and a mother. She couldn't run a house, she really couldn't give her daughter enough structure or home training,...more
This is a hard book to read--an even harder book to write.
So much of this novel has to been seen in the context of Zelda Fitzgerald being the wife of the most popular and well regarded writer of her peers. So much of what is wrong with this book feels like it is because of that weight pressing on the author--but it is a book that should not be ignored or forgotten.
The story is simple--a beautiful couple mixed in the world of fame, art, love and hope... Him a world famous painter and her a world...more
So much of this novel has to been seen in the context of Zelda Fitzgerald being the wife of the most popular and well regarded writer of her peers. So much of what is wrong with this book feels like it is because of that weight pressing on the author--but it is a book that should not be ignored or forgotten.
The story is simple--a beautiful couple mixed in the world of fame, art, love and hope... Him a world famous painter and her a world...more
3 likes · like · see review
Zelda Fitzgerald is one of those endlessly intriguing figures who seems like a character herself – if she hadn’t existed, someone would have made her up. Save Me the Waltz, the only novel she ever published and something of a roman à clef, gives us a beautiful glimpse into her life, from growing up in Alabama, to falling in love with a talented man on the brink of fame, to her desperate quest to become a professional ballerina.
If I have my facts right and I’m not just caught up in literary myth,...more
If I have my facts right and I’m not just caught up in literary myth,...more
I am not sure it is fair to classify this as a "literary curio"--it goes beyond that in many ways. It is a tangle of madness, misery, and even general misanthropy, but it is also tinged with love, admiration, and moments of lucidity.
Had this been properly revised, I think it could have been quite a masterpiece. Zelda has this remarkable way with words (half of the lines in the book will require you to read them two or three times over) even though some of her phrasing in somewhat incomprehensibl...more
Had this been properly revised, I think it could have been quite a masterpiece. Zelda has this remarkable way with words (half of the lines in the book will require you to read them two or three times over) even though some of her phrasing in somewhat incomprehensibl...more
I very nearly regretted picking up this book when, four lines in, I ran into this humdinger of a sentence:
“Most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbridges from emotional retractions and scaulding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes.”
“Oh snap,” I thought. “I’m never going to get through this.”
Either I grew used to it, or she toned her writing down, but reading Save Me the Walt...more
“Most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbridges from emotional retractions and scaulding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes.”
“Oh snap,” I thought. “I’m never going to get through this.”
Either I grew used to it, or she toned her writing down, but reading Save Me the Walt...more
Naturally, Save Me the Waltz is a curious and interesting book to those who are fascinated by the Fitzgeralds. Reading it, it is impossible to separate the real Fitzgeralds from the novel's Knights - readers with even a passing knowledge of the famous couple should be able to draw numerous parallels. Tender is the Night is my personal favourite of F. Scott's novels, so together with Zelda's book they make an interesting 'double bill', a kind of 'His' and 'Her' version of events. Zelda's writing...more
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Portrait of a marriage, companion book to Tender is the Night, by Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda. When Zelda wrote Save Me the Waltz, started as therapy in one of the many mental hospitals she stayed in, Scott was angry that she had used their life in her novel: instead of leaving her diaries and letters and autobiography free to be reinvented in his fiction.
To be fair he was the better writer, and he paid for her ballet lessons and silk underwear and stays in nuthouses with his writing income....more
To be fair he was the better writer, and he paid for her ballet lessons and silk underwear and stays in nuthouses with his writing income....more
This was a novel I had to brave for quite some time before I could embrace it. While it is, yes, excessively verbose, I was able to ease my way through the book after the first hundred or so pages. The story both blossoms and wilts under the wild metaphors and sheer energy, and despite its incongruous nature, I did enjoy the book. (I found that I read it at an opportune time, too: I read this after "Tender is the Night" and Bryer and Bark's compilation of Scott and Zelda's letters, "Dear Scott,...more
I was really confused by the reading experience of this book. I found out about it because I recently read The Great Gatsby and it was mentioned in the biographical sketch of F. Scott at the end - it basically said he was mad at Zelda because she "scooped" him in writing about the same period in their lives that he was writing about in Tender is the Night. I read that years ago and liked it, so I was interested in hearing someone else's version of the same story. Then I looked up some more info...more
1 like · like · see review
Sep 12, 2012
Algie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Algie by:
Google
Poor thing.
Poor, poor thing.
Zelda had such a wonderfully, dismally, perfectly sad life, that was absolutely filled with her optimistic outlook and biting wit. I loved the part of her childhood, where she was so conniving and so intent on catching everyone out. She was not just a literary curio, she was a literary Queen. Heralded only as the wife of Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda deserves far more a substantial place on the pantheon.
It was, however, a trial to read at times. Her words flow slightly c...more
Poor, poor thing.
Zelda had such a wonderfully, dismally, perfectly sad life, that was absolutely filled with her optimistic outlook and biting wit. I loved the part of her childhood, where she was so conniving and so intent on catching everyone out. She was not just a literary curio, she was a literary Queen. Heralded only as the wife of Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda deserves far more a substantial place on the pantheon.
It was, however, a trial to read at times. Her words flow slightly c...more
Nel leggere l'unico romanzo lasciatoci da Zelda bisogna sempre tenere presente, io credo, che esso fu concepito come un esperimento terapeutico e prodotto sotto il diretto consiglio delle infermiere durante la lunga permanenza in un ospedale psichiatrico dove l'infelice moglie di Scott Fitzgerald - tanto meraviglioso come scrittore quanto disastroso come marito, questo io credo - fu ricoverata per curare la sua (presunta) schizofrenia. Questa consapevolezza aiuterà il lettore a trovare l'indulge...more
Zelda's only published work has a unique narrative structure and style. Semi-autobiographical, the novel follows a marriage between a famous painter and his wife that bears striking resemblance to the Fitzgeralds' relationship. Save Me the Waltz was written before Scott's take on their marriage (Tender is the Night).
Zelda's heroine struggles with the love, boredom, jealousy, and purposelessness that comes from being wealthy, young, and married to a man whose fame complicates life at home. Desper...more
Zelda's heroine struggles with the love, boredom, jealousy, and purposelessness that comes from being wealthy, young, and married to a man whose fame complicates life at home. Desper...more
This book was written while Zelda was in a mental institution being treated for schizophrenia. The book very much reflects her mental state at the time. It is dizzying and hard to follow and confusing. But I was fascinated and could not put it down. She has a tendency to overwrite and I almost needed a dictionary to read the book, but there is something delicious about really having to work to understand what is being said (similar to how I feel about her husband's writing). With this book, howe...more
Some might give this novel a lower-rating because it doesn't have a finished, well-edited feeling, and it's not technically as "strong"as one of Fitzgerald's novels, per say, which is valid. But, it's a mostly-autobiographical work, which merits a read in my opinion, as Zelda Fitzgerald is an icon. This novel was Zelda's labor of love written in 1932 during her extended stay in a psych ward battling mental illness. I think it's meaning rings true to her emotions going through that experience. La...more
I'm glad to see the interest in Zelda Fitzgerald's life surfacing both as a result of Baz Luhrman's Great Gatsby coming out, but also via Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD... If anyone's curious, I read this novel last year, and I found it to be really uneven but for those of us ex-dancers, a remarkably accurate portrayal of dance. Then added to the layers of the pressure to become a performer are interesting points of view around motherhood, and what family means, how it's built, how delicate it t...more
I don't think many people are aware that Zelda wrote as well, I enjoyed a few of her short stories and then I found a copy of this book. I think it was very interesting to see her side of "the story", since this is partly autobiographical, as is F. Scott's "Tender is the Night". Once you get over the difficulties of her writing style, the story of a spoilt American girl obsessed with becoming a ballet dancer in 1920's Paris is quite fascinating. I think it is worth noting that this was written w...more
This book could have been a lot better than it is, as there are many mistakes, but I still really like this book and I think it deserves more credit(Although it may be because I admire the time period, Paris, ballet and the fitzgeralds). The pacing of the book was irritating at times, and there were many moments when I didn't no what was happening - Zelda has moments when her prose are extremely articulately and intellectual, like Scott Fitzgerald - but I eventually became immersed in the story...more
This was, by far, the strangest and most challenging book I've ever read.
Structurally, it's a rambling thing and occasionally it seems to reflect, in & of itself, the protagonist's search for meaning:
"She had a strong sense of her own insignificance; of her life's slipping by while June bugs covered the moist fruit in the fig trees with the motionless activity of clustering flies upon an open sore."
... Yes?
Its prose is often clunky & disordered, & there is a marvellous 'note on the...more
Structurally, it's a rambling thing and occasionally it seems to reflect, in & of itself, the protagonist's search for meaning:
"She had a strong sense of her own insignificance; of her life's slipping by while June bugs covered the moist fruit in the fig trees with the motionless activity of clustering flies upon an open sore."
... Yes?
Its prose is often clunky & disordered, & there is a marvellous 'note on the...more
As I picked up Save Me the Waltz to read it a second time, the dry brittle pages started crumbling under my fingers, the dog-eared corners simply gave up and fell away, leaving me surrounded with tiny flakes of yellow paper.
Though I wanted to read this while also reading Tender Is the Night, it looks like I'll need to do some book rescue before I can read this one. When I first bought this book, it was out-of-print and impossible to find; I got lucky with a cheap paperback at an oblivious bookst...more
Though I wanted to read this while also reading Tender Is the Night, it looks like I'll need to do some book rescue before I can read this one. When I first bought this book, it was out-of-print and impossible to find; I got lucky with a cheap paperback at an oblivious bookst...more
Southern belle, Alabama Beggs, is the youngest daughter of a prominent judge and unlike her two older sisters from her endearing wit to her attitude towards life. She meets David Knight during his visit to the South during World War I; they marry and ultimately move to live in the Riviera. David, an artist, carries on an affair with an actress, a relationship of which Alabama is aware. In her desperate attempts to salvage the marriage she throws herself into learning ballet, an exceptionally dif...more
Oh, Zelda. Look what they've done to you. Sure, your novel had a few problems, but there's no way you deserved this fate - to be regarded as interesting only because you were married to some guy who wrote a few books. It's about time the snobbery surrounding Save Me The Waltz stopped, and people read this book for what it is, rather than who the author was married to.
My complete review is online at my book review (and time travel!) blog, Book to the Future: http://booktothefuture.com.au/?p=1397
My complete review is online at my book review (and time travel!) blog, Book to the Future: http://booktothefuture.com.au/?p=1397
Who knew the genius behind Scott? If you read this book, even though it was obviously printed before editing was complete, you can see imagery that shows up in the other Fitzgerald novels. Turns out she wrote every day, and some of her stuff is better than his. Seems to me after reading this and her bio, they were really a team of writers, but he got all the credit. The setting sun "bleeding itself to death" is just one good example.
I can't believe Scott called Zelda a "third-rate writer." She wrote better than him.
Also, remember that in 1930, when Zelda was committed to a sanatorium, we had a much more rudimentary understanding of mental illness. "Schizophrenia" was often used as a catch-all. Zelda strikes me as having aspects of OCD and bipolar disorder, not schizophrenia. Of course, we'll never know.
I'll be updating this review with my favorite passages. I think this is the most I've ever highlighted passages in a novel....more
Also, remember that in 1930, when Zelda was committed to a sanatorium, we had a much more rudimentary understanding of mental illness. "Schizophrenia" was often used as a catch-all. Zelda strikes me as having aspects of OCD and bipolar disorder, not schizophrenia. Of course, we'll never know.
I'll be updating this review with my favorite passages. I think this is the most I've ever highlighted passages in a novel....more
I was disappointed to find out this book would be Zelda's only full novel because her husband, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, got after her for telling her story when he was writing about a similar subject in one of his books. She stopped writing after that although she has a huge collection of poems and drawings I wouldn't mind getting my hands on as well.
To this day, I think she was a better writer than her husband!
To this day, I think she was a better writer than her husband!
An interesting read, especially if you've read Tender is the Night and know a bit about the Fitzgeralds and their life, but Zelda is no F. Scott and I had a hard time staying interested in the characters. I was constantly comparing it to Tender is the Night in my head and I admit that was a bit unfair, but in the end this book was more intersting to me as glimpse inside Zelda's head, than a work of literature. I think I'll reread Tender is the Night now...
This book closely parallels her husband's 'Tender is the Night', also a fictionalised re-telling of their tumultuous marriage. Maybe it's because I'm a woman and can relate, but I far preferred this book.
Zelda Fitzgerald was a fascinating, troubled woman, and her book is exactly that: fascinating, troubled, and as frenetic as the age she came to represent.
Zelda Fitzgerald was a fascinating, troubled woman, and her book is exactly that: fascinating, troubled, and as frenetic as the age she came to represent.
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Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, born Zelda Sayre, was a novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper". After the success of his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920), the Fitzgeralds became celebrities. The newspapers of New York saw them as embodiments of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties: young, rich, beautiful...more
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“There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention.”
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“isn't it funny how danger makes people passionate?”
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