** spoiler alert ** I admit it -- I hated The Great Gatsby when we read it in High School. I couldn't connect with the characters, and the philosophy and the history of the Roaring Twenties went way over my head, to say nothing of the author's subtle humor.

This Side of Paradise was a revelation. Semi-autobiographical, our protagonist (I hesitate to call him a hero, though I did eventually develop a fondness for the guy) Amory Blaine is spoiled, narcissistic, and overly dramatic. This is his coming-of-age story, growing up, attending Princeton, and living the high life and the low life in the pre-1920s.

Amory is a (consistently) failed romantic:

"Isabelle and Amory looked at each other tenderly over the fried chicken and knew that their love was to be eternal."

... who fails at success:

"Oh, Lord, what a pleasure it used to be to dream I might be a really great dictator or writer or religious or political leader--and now even a Leonardo da Vinci or Lorenzo de Medici couldn't be a real old-fashioned bolt in the world. Life is too huge and complex. The world is so overgrown that it can't lift its own fingers, and I was planning to be such an important finger"

But at least he's (mostly) honest with himself:

"I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."

And in the end, he learns a bit about himself:

"He found something that he wanted, had always wanted and always would want--not to be admired, as he had feared; not to be loved, as he had made himself believe; but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable."

F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing is sharp, sometimes biting, often philosophical, and occasional frustrating. He commits Random Acts of Poetry, which sometimes annoy, but which suit the character so well, that they work. I went in to this book expecting another Catcher in the Rye -- but instead, I loved it.

Oh, and did I mention, the ending is *perfect.*