This Side Of Paradise
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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With this first novel, 23-year old Fitzgerald was catapulted into fame as the offspring of the Jazz Age, and with no surprise. This novel, which covers the life of Amory Blaine, a wandering Princeton egoist who is bored and disillusioned with the world around him, is reminiscent not only of the lost generation after World War I, but of the great coming-of-age novels of our time, most notably Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
It was Fitzgerald himself who said that he was merely "a produ...more
It was Fitzgerald himself who said that he was merely "a produ...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Someone very vain
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
immature intellectual snobs, i.e. me my freshman year of college
This review will likely be far longer than others since it's Fitzgerald, and honestly I can't remember the last time I read this book, but it's been several years certainly.
At first I was chiefly interested in the introduction of Tom D'Invilliers, a minor character to say the least, but important insofar as he "wrote" the epigram leading into Gatsby. But the deeper I read, the more I realized that this wasn't the Fitzgerald of Gatsby, this was the 21-year-old kid pub...more
At first I was chiefly interested in the introduction of Tom D'Invilliers, a minor character to say the least, but important insofar as he "wrote" the epigram leading into Gatsby. But the deeper I read, the more I realized that this wasn't the Fitzgerald of Gatsby, this was the 21-year-old kid pub...more
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Read in January, 1993
A very flawed novel but one much adored in its day---in fact, Paradise was FSF's best known work during his lifetime (not Gatsby). Inevitably, biographers pun on it: THE FAR SIDE OF PARADISE, EXILES FROM PARADISE, CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE---okay, maybe not that last one, but you get the point.
What's most interesting about TSOP (as we in the Fitz biz call it) is the new type of Bildungsroman it established. Unlike Victorian coming-of-age novels (think Dickens), Amory Blaine's story avoids eas...more
What's most interesting about TSOP (as we in the Fitz biz call it) is the new type of Bildungsroman it established. Unlike Victorian coming-of-age novels (think Dickens), Amory Blaine's story avoids eas...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone with the ability to see it for more than a "university" novel.
"Oh, I'll admit there's money in it eventually. Talent doesn't starve anymore. Even art gets enough to eat these days. Artists draw your magazine covers, write your advertisements, hash out rag-time for your theatres. By the great commercializing of printing you've found a harmless, polite occupation for every genius who might have carved out his own niche. But beware the artist who's an intellectual also. The artist who doesn't fit--the Rousseau, the Tolstoi, the Samuel Butler, the Amory B...more
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Read in June, 2007
The last line, "'I know myself,' he cried,'but that is all.'" must represent the disillusionment and despair that many modernist writers share with Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. The work must be kept in that context to be better understood.
Despite being hung on every word for the last 20 pages or so, the first 260 were rather laborious. I grew bored, rather quickly, with the main character's journey as a self-proclaimed "egotist". At times the story felt more a...more
Despite being hung on every word for the last 20 pages or so, the first 260 were rather laborious. I grew bored, rather quickly, with the main character's journey as a self-proclaimed "egotist". At times the story felt more a...more
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Read in May, 2008
Gatsby, it turns out, is the book that has made me the least of a Fitzgerald fan. This one is fabulous, weird, stream of consciousness, shifting voices and even genres [poetry/theater script] modernist, not at all as expected given the vast number of years since its execution and that of his great crowning modernist masterpiece Tender Is the Night. In this one visavis Tender...., the subject matter is for my taste more banal, boy's school, boys being aristocrats, but like in Tender.... Fitzgeral...more
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Read in February, 2008
Of all the writing by writers in their early 20s I've read (and written), this book is down the street and around the corner from most. I wish I'd read about the Romantic Egotist before I wrote a book about Egotourism that also takes place in the Princeton area. (I loved when Amory Blaine biked at night with a friend from P'ton to my hometown.) Fitzgerald writes sharp, swervy, gorgeous, clever sentences, pretty much always with his eyes on the socio-existential prize. Also, really funny: 30 LOLs...more
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True, Fitzgerald only writes about one thing it seems: the frailty of the wealthy class, and the fear of losing wealth. But to me he seems the predecessor of modern existentialism and the likes of Brett Easton Ellis.
Amory Blaine and his hapless college friends seemed if they were teenagers in the 1980s and wore topsiders, they could just have easily been the cast of Ellis' The Informers. Amory would fall in love with a girl in an instant, noting the clothes she wore or the kind of friend...more
Amory Blaine and his hapless college friends seemed if they were teenagers in the 1980s and wore topsiders, they could just have easily been the cast of Ellis' The Informers. Amory would fall in love with a girl in an instant, noting the clothes she wore or the kind of friend...more
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Read in October, 2007
Someone needed to tell F. Scott Fitzgerald to stop writing poetry and including it in this book as the work of his characters. You have to read it, because it's freaking F. Scott Fitzgerald and you don't skim the man's work, but honestly this was insufferable.
There were passages in this book that I loved, and parts that I couldn't put down: but overall the work seemed uneven. The plot structure wasn't really there. The whole focus of the book is simply one character's development as a pers...more
There were passages in this book that I loved, and parts that I couldn't put down: but overall the work seemed uneven. The plot structure wasn't really there. The whole focus of the book is simply one character's development as a pers...more
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Read in June, 2008
A great read for Gatsby fans! The book is clearly not as refined and sure of itself as F. Scott's Great Gatsby, but you can tell during the course of the book that its because the author himself is not much older than his main character. This was Fitzgerald's first commercial success before Gatsby and, while its a bit disjointed in spots and rough around the edges, you can still clearly see the promising genius that later fully manifested in his later works. Fitzgerald has a way of painting s...more
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Read in May, 2008
If you loved Velvet Goldmine, you'll probably LOVE this book.
If you hated Velvet Goldmine, you'll probably HATE this book.
I belong in the latter category. I don't know why this book exists except that its sales gave Fitzgerald the boost and moolah he needed to write Tender is the Night. But it was mostly a waste of time for me; completely disconnected storyline; a nonsensical climax involving a limo ride where the main character talk about Socialism like he read about the theory on the b...more
If you hated Velvet Goldmine, you'll probably HATE this book.
I belong in the latter category. I don't know why this book exists except that its sales gave Fitzgerald the boost and moolah he needed to write Tender is the Night. But it was mostly a waste of time for me; completely disconnected storyline; a nonsensical climax involving a limo ride where the main character talk about Socialism like he read about the theory on the b...more
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If you're a fan of Catcher in the Rye, you'll like this book. Or at least that's what it reminded me of at first. If you've graduated from college, this book will make you nostalgic for your college years. And yet it's all about the isolation, intense emotion, and looking to the future that come during those years as well as the let down that often occurs in the post-college years. Yes, it's heavy stuff. Amory Blaine is the son of wealthy Midwestern parents, though very little of the book f...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Recent graduates
At first, I thought this book was completely disjointed. The writing style and format change drastically over the course of the novel! However, the character is so interesting, and it really is a journey through his self-discovery.
It's a great 20-Something book, as it's all about a smart kid who is trying to figure out what's important in life and what that means for him. There are great debates about classism and the importance of wealth. I found it interesting from a social justice perspe...more
It's a great 20-Something book, as it's all about a smart kid who is trying to figure out what's important in life and what that means for him. There are great debates about classism and the importance of wealth. I found it interesting from a social justice perspe...more
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Read in June, 2006
recommends it for:
Lost Gen fans. Good intro to Fitz
Young Fitzgerald. This is literally the most narcissistic, self involved, preening novel I have ever read. It takes the cake. And that is saying a long among the egos of the authors I've made my way through. However. It is Fitzgerald doing the preening, and he has some reason for it. The writing experiments are very interesting, and they do make you look at the story a different way each time they shift. The prose is beautiful, though out of control and all over the place. I think that's part of...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
poets, egotists
Just getting into it now. Is it just me or is this kind of a mockery of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? Lots of parallels, from what I remember of my least favorite Joyce novel (ok, the only Joyce novel I ever almost finished).
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I enjoyed the book, overall. It's funny that it brought Portrait to mind because he mentions reading it in the book (specifically, he wrote that Amory was 'puzzled and depressed' by it), which, to my mind makes for a good reason...more
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I enjoyed the book, overall. It's funny that it brought Portrait to mind because he mentions reading it in the book (specifically, he wrote that Amory was 'puzzled and depressed' by it), which, to my mind makes for a good reason...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
no one in particular
It is seldom that I start a book without finishing it, but this is one of those. It was Fitzgerald's first novel and I can find nothing in it to suggest the success he would become with The Great Gatsby or Tender is the Night.
The story, such as it is, is about Amory Blaine, self-important young man with limited talent and imagination that always sees himself as someday being admired by others, for no reason other than that is what he wants. He has friends he doesn't care about, meets women...more
The story, such as it is, is about Amory Blaine, self-important young man with limited talent and imagination that always sees himself as someday being admired by others, for no reason other than that is what he wants. He has friends he doesn't care about, meets women...more
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Read in June, 2005
First novel by the Jazz Age great. It’s hard to like the narrator or his contemporaries but the writing is often grand and picture perfect. Unfortunately it is just as often tedious, self-referential, and full of the delusional thinking of an unworthy elite. (We’re special, aren’t we? If only the world weren’t so rotten as to not notice.) You much prefer an intervention by, say, characters from a Steinbeck novel, to come over and slap some sense into these Princeton snobs and debs. Could...more
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Read in July, 2007
This is Fitzgerald's first novel. If you liked The Great Gatsby" then you may want to check this out. It lacks a solid ending, but character growth is evident through the narrative. Part of the text is written like a play, and the novel contains a lot of poetry. In short, its unorthodox in its structure. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"Why don't you tell me that "if the girl had been worth having she'd have waited for you?" No sir, the girl really worth having won't w...more
"Why don't you tell me that "if the girl had been worth having she'd have waited for you?" No sir, the girl really worth having won't w...more
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At times, the novel's episodic structure really limited my appreciation despite a glib and overall fond reading. The protagonist's sardonic shifts through various classes ring with a tone foreboding of Salinger. The plot feels too collegiate, focusing on Amory's romantic conquests or lack thereof while upholding the value of inside references inherent to an elitist educational institution; this is decidedly Fitzgerald's "Princeton" novel. After finishing the work, I read a piece of cri...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.74 (3293 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.73 (2361 ratings) number of reviews: 256popular shelves
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quote
"And he could not tell why the struggle was worthwhile, why he had determined to use the utmost himself and his heritage from the personalities he had passed...
He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky.
"I know myself," he cried, "But that is all.""
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