West of Sunset
Stewart O'Nan does best when he writes about ordinary people as he did in LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER. When I read that, I couldn't tell if it was fiction or non-fiction. That's not the case in WEST OF SUNSET, about F. Scott Fitzgerald's last days.
He's out West trying to make some money as a screenwriter to pay for his daughter Scottie's college and Zelda's stay at a sanitarium.
The only time he actually got a screen credit was for THE THREE COMRADES, which was supposed to star Spencer Tracy who bowed out because of appendicitis. Scott was plagued by a co-writer, whom he considered a hack. The man questioned most of Scott's scenes. Apparently this was payback for when Scott used the man's real name in one of his books, portraying him as a doofus. But the film made money, and it got good reviews. Joseph Mankiewicz also had a penchant for making changes while he directed, thusly the references to the nazis were deleted. One of the financiers was German.
Sheila Graham is also a major figure in the book, as is Zelda. Sheila portrayed herself as a high-classed Englishwoman, but she eventually tells Scott Sheila Graham wasn't her real name; she was born Cockney and worked her way up from the bottom. They fight over Scott's drinking and she doesn't let him move in with her until his heart begins to give out.
Scott doesn't start working on THE LAST TYCOON until the last part of the book. He had to borrow money from Maxwell Perkins in order to pay for Scottie's tuition and Zelda's care. He tried to serialize the book in some of the major magazines but was turned down, which mortified him. He had been pretty much blackballed as a screenwriter because of his drinking.
Familiar people keep popping up. If you remember the golden age of television, you'll recognize screenwriter Budd Schulberg who worked with Scott on a picture set at Dartmouth University; it was about the winter carnival; everybody was drinking, a bad place for Scott and Budd as they were both eventually fired for imbibing more than writing.
Everybody wants to know about Zelda. I know it's sounds like Scott was unfaithful, but he remembered the young and vibrant Zelda, and he went to see her out East quite often. Most of the time, she sounds normal, calling him by his nickname, Do-Do, but then she lapses. She has a big one when they finally let her go home to visit her mother and sisters in Alabama.
A big surprise is that Scott worked on GONE WITH THE WIND. It was “all hands on deck” as Scott's boss at Metro told Scott, but he only lasted a few weeks.
There's a cute little sequence toward the end when Scott hires a college student as a secretary to work on LAST TYCOON. He calls her Francois, her real name being Francis. She calls him monsieur. She's a great sounding board, as he interprets her body language when she reads back what he's written. Sheila is jealous.
Despite the above, I don't think there's enough here to merit a book. You're probably better off reading one of the many biographies. The biggest outrage seems to be that the doctor's weren't honest with Scott. He thought he had angina. Maybe if he knew he had serious heart disease he would have taken better care of himself. After all he'd had a heart attack at a movie theater the same day he died. Instead of going to the hospital, he made an appointment with his cardiologist for the next day.
He's out West trying to make some money as a screenwriter to pay for his daughter Scottie's college and Zelda's stay at a sanitarium.
The only time he actually got a screen credit was for THE THREE COMRADES, which was supposed to star Spencer Tracy who bowed out because of appendicitis. Scott was plagued by a co-writer, whom he considered a hack. The man questioned most of Scott's scenes. Apparently this was payback for when Scott used the man's real name in one of his books, portraying him as a doofus. But the film made money, and it got good reviews. Joseph Mankiewicz also had a penchant for making changes while he directed, thusly the references to the nazis were deleted. One of the financiers was German.
Sheila Graham is also a major figure in the book, as is Zelda. Sheila portrayed herself as a high-classed Englishwoman, but she eventually tells Scott Sheila Graham wasn't her real name; she was born Cockney and worked her way up from the bottom. They fight over Scott's drinking and she doesn't let him move in with her until his heart begins to give out.
Scott doesn't start working on THE LAST TYCOON until the last part of the book. He had to borrow money from Maxwell Perkins in order to pay for Scottie's tuition and Zelda's care. He tried to serialize the book in some of the major magazines but was turned down, which mortified him. He had been pretty much blackballed as a screenwriter because of his drinking.
Familiar people keep popping up. If you remember the golden age of television, you'll recognize screenwriter Budd Schulberg who worked with Scott on a picture set at Dartmouth University; it was about the winter carnival; everybody was drinking, a bad place for Scott and Budd as they were both eventually fired for imbibing more than writing.
Everybody wants to know about Zelda. I know it's sounds like Scott was unfaithful, but he remembered the young and vibrant Zelda, and he went to see her out East quite often. Most of the time, she sounds normal, calling him by his nickname, Do-Do, but then she lapses. She has a big one when they finally let her go home to visit her mother and sisters in Alabama.
A big surprise is that Scott worked on GONE WITH THE WIND. It was “all hands on deck” as Scott's boss at Metro told Scott, but he only lasted a few weeks.
There's a cute little sequence toward the end when Scott hires a college student as a secretary to work on LAST TYCOON. He calls her Francois, her real name being Francis. She calls him monsieur. She's a great sounding board, as he interprets her body language when she reads back what he's written. Sheila is jealous.
Despite the above, I don't think there's enough here to merit a book. You're probably better off reading one of the many biographies. The biggest outrage seems to be that the doctor's weren't honest with Scott. He thought he had angina. Maybe if he knew he had serious heart disease he would have taken better care of himself. After all he'd had a heart attack at a movie theater the same day he died. Instead of going to the hospital, he made an appointment with his cardiologist for the next day.
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