Book report 12
By A. Bae Hel
Tender is the Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald
There are some books in life that hold a position of absolute blessing. For me The Great Gatsby is the one. It was my emotional support book, my safe place, my comfort during The Troubles of 2022.
Tender is the Night would be a contender should I ever grow bored of Gatsby. We have no writers today like him I suspect. He uses words like magic – “ But women marry their husbands’ talents and naturally, afterwards, are not so impressed with them as they may keep up the pretense of being”
Wow, the impression of marriage he conveys is full of disappointment and longing.
The Divers are, like Daisy and Tom Bucchanan, modeled after Fitzgerald’s real life and times. The post WWI gestalt was a period of trying to drown the horrors with enough money and gaiety. If you are charming and surround yourself with entertaining people you can build a façade of success. Dick, like Gatsby, in search for the American Dream, finds it ultimately where it has been hiding, drunk in a burning dumpster.
Fitzgerald was a keen observer of Americans abroad 100 years ago and their desperate attempts to become something akin to royalty. Entertainment was the venue to that status. Then as now. The cast of characters wander the lands of the Mediterranean in search of something to distract them from themselves. At a time before hordes to tourists could afford to travel and before the massive tourism industry offering cheap hotels and bus tours, the wealthy took up residence in countries with warm water and sunshine where they could build an enclave of like minded and financially secure individuals.
The Divers drift languidly through their privilege as their marriage comes apart, their friends die and their affairs become tedious. Worst of all, Dick becomes no longer entertaining. Simply a drunken bore.
Reader warning if you decide to read this book. It is a product of the 1920. It conveys words and characterizations that would be seen as offensive to today’s delicate sensibilities. If such language and imagery get you upset, offended and outraged and determined to see a book banned, please don’t read it. Stay away and leave it for those who can understand context and history.
I, Medusa
Ayana Gray
I was so disappointed, I had read another Medusa book last year, and the myth has always captivated me, but the was not that.
To be fair, I think it was a book targeting a much younger audience, like about 12-year-old girls. I am weary of girl children who are so naively portrayed.
So, I moved on.
