The story is excruciating. But, since that is what the autor intended I suppose it makes this a "good" book. I would put it in the same category as Farewell to Arms...that is, not my favorite and not as good as say...The Sun Also Rises (for post war angst).

(a reluctant 2.5) maybe it’s because this is the third fitzgerald book in a row i’ve read for class or maybe due to its absolute lack of plot and sole focus on style but i. did not vibe.

skimmed most of it

Finally finished half a century later due to my crazy semester. I suppose I forgot about Fitzgerald's writing. I came from a year's worth of Murakami and Foster Wallace, both men filled with either dreamy rhetoric or ridiculously overbearing rhetoric, to Fitzgerald, who I find kind of slow and nonchalant. I gained a bias from how jarred I was coming from those two authors to an author I only read in high school English classes.

I told all my friends and coworkers how Fitzgerald is sexist, annoying, materialistic, etc. Granted, the guy wrote much of his books about the dramas between uncomfortably wealthy people with serious mental issues. However, by the last 150 pages I finally remembered what reading Fitzgerald is like. You have to stop only reading the petty dialogue and instead regard how the author formulates the sentences; it was a skill I COMPLETELY forgot about since high school English. Probably because when you're reading for leisure it's not natural?

Also, watching the main character fall into his alcoholism, like Fitzgerald did during the time he wrote the book, while the other main character steeped into her mental illness, like his wife Zelda did during the time he wrote it, was powerful enough for me. The end of the book had a string of poignant sentences that Foster Wallace tries to deliver in every page. That was nice to end the book on.

I give 3 stars because it's not the best book I've ever read. But, I appreciate how amazingly tough and strong-headed Fitzgerald was to write this. I can understand why this would be a favorite book for others. I guess just not for me.

This is Fitzgerald's best, I think. The story starts slow but reaches a fever pitch near the end with some of the sharpest prose I've read closing out the final chapters. These characters were written by someone who was walked through the darkness. And like Kerouac's Big Sur, this one was written at the end for Fitzgerald while he (and his wife) deteriorated.

The middle 1/3rd is fantastic--the rest, not so much. Hard to judge.