This Side of Paradise (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

How presumptious of me to write a review of F.Scott Fitzgerald but in truth I think he would understand. Set in privileged, clueless ,dream-state Ivy League twenties America, Amory Blaine goes about his business of "let's pretend we really are intellectuals and see if we can squeeze a life out of that". Because Fitzgerald got me mad and maybe a little embarrassed too,(I was a college kid once)I realized,"This guy got it right and wrote it right too.." Hemingway might have shared my reaction to this novel and who knows, may have seen it as the basis for the famous exchange between himself and Fitzgerald;Fitzgerald,"The rich and the poor are different."
Hemingway,"Yes,the rich have more money."
That's how I concluded as well,self delusions are poison to a full true life, And they can hurt people and nations. Fitgerald was a master and did get it right,even if I didn't like his characters and their values,he got it right,and wrote it brilliantly.
But thats only round one,this a fight,and far from over.Amory Blaine; his generation,dubbed"Le enfants purdue",(the lost generation),has lost,like his personal Catholic faith, all "the ornaments on the tree"but the tree lives,he wants the tree,wants to live,wants to change,wants to change the world.He teeters on the edge of socialism,"Every boy should have an equal start,not be falsely bolstered by money,or those hideous boarding schools,dragged through college."As had in fact ,Amory.
He decries the shallowness of that education,goes on to say,and I paraphrase loosely,"I got an education despite having gone to college."
Fitgerald can be frighteningly,poetically fierce.In a scene in a graveyard by Princeton, his alma mater,Amory is contemplating nature,Hamlet-like,he touches a vine growing on vault,"covered with late blooming,weepy,watery blue flowers that might have grown from dead eyes,sticky to the touch with a sickening odor."
The exchange ,in a scene where Amory ,enduring hard personal changes in fortune, is offered a lift in a limo,and holds forth on the need for social change,is less poetic but not less powerful. Flappers aside,roaring twenties aside,this book is responsible,it lives,just as Amory wanted for himself finally.You know,I have to say it,"it was an education,really." And by a master.

4 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is what Fitzgerald should be known for!

I have read this inumerable times! My all time favorite book, especially by my favorite author. Never quite understood how The Great Gatsby can overshadow this amazing work of literature! The life of Amory Blaine is fascinating, following through his school days, the reader actually feels like they are there with him. Highly reccomended to anyone and everyone!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An American Classic

F. Scott Fitzgerald's picture of the 'jazz age' is not unlike much of today's more youthful generations. While this book is overshadowed by 'The Great Gatsby'it definitely should be read. It gives us a little insight to what the generation before WWI was up to before the depression and WWII.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fascinating Glimpse into the 1920s

Fitzgerald's semi-autobiographical novel was utterly fascinating; as a 22 year old, I find it baffling that someone my age could have written such a cutting and spot-on description of everyday life. I could go into the fact that he was one of the first truly modern authors, how he is one of America's greatest authors, etc. but what I found most powerful was that his work is still relevant today. I've been in similar situations, I've felt the same way Amory felt (in relation to being better than everyone, in relation to "acting" at being into someone) which serves to highlight how timeless this novel truly is. I was captivated from start to end.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Classic

This is Fitzgerald's first attempt at novel. Considering that this was written by a 23 year old it is amazing. The middle third or so of the book is written as play, where the main character Amory gets involved with a girl. The main character was very irritating. His time as Princeton was described in brilliant detail though.
The plot seems disjointed, but somehow it makes sense. If you are a fan of Fitzgerald this book is highly recommended.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Confusing, but impossible to put down

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise" was written in the typical excessive Fitzgerald style, with lots of confusing allusions and very lengthy, wordy descriptions. However, the satisfaction in reading this comes mostly in the voyeuristic, almost "E! True Hollywood Story"-like glimpse into the main character, Amory Blaine's life. The main character was probably the sole thing that kept me interested while reading this - the book made me want to know everything there was to know about Amory, and by the end, I did know everything about him and I wanted him to see the things in himself that I saw in him, thanks to the author's masterful description of him and his personality.
I also found myself kind of desperate for Amory to be happy in a relationship for once - I could have sworn that Rosalind was going to work out, but typical of Fitzgerald, like in "The Great Gatsby", nothing happens like we want it to.
My favorite part in this book was the entire Rosalind arc, from the mad, passionate love that he shared with her (that never really ammounted to anything by today's standards) to the point where she shot him down and he was crushed - this was probably the one point where I really emotionally connected with the character and felt just as miserable as he was when he lost his love.
My least favorite part was in the middle of the story, where it felt like absolutely nothing was happening. I understand that this feeling is probably what Fitzgerald wanted the reader to feel, since this was the point where Amory was in the army for the war that none of the snobbish Princeton boys cared about, including Amory, but still - it felt very dry and boring, and I wanted to skip ahead where I felt sure something exciting was going to happen.
Overall, this was a great book. The language is hard to follow at times and there are parts where it gets pretty boring, but all of this is overshadowed by the incredible insight we get into the psychology of the character, his development, and his ultimate dismaying self-realization.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Forgotten Classic...

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald In F. Scott Fitzgerald¡¯s first and semi-autobiographical novel, This Side of Paradise, he portrays the eccentric coming of age of Amory Blaine. Fitzgerald reveals his personal life struggles through Amory. Because of this, the reader is exposed to intense and honest prose regarding each of Amory¡¯s situations. His internal desire for pretentious social hierarchy and his external displays of idleness and hubris close many doors that would otherwise have been open. This struggle, lined with the excitement racy youth and post-war extravagance bring with it, embodies This Side of Paradise and makes it a must- read classic. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. He enrolled in Princeton, but was unable to graduate due to joining the army. He started his first novel, This Side of Paradise, while stationed at a Kansas military camp. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre and together they raised their only child, Scottie. Fitzgerald and wife Zelda were said to have been attracted to and active in the New York aristocratic social scene. After publishing The Beautiful and Dammed in 1922- and The Great Gatsby in 1925, Fitzgerald suffered from alcoholism, and Zelda was institutionalized due to her emotional breakdowns. Fitzgerald worked in Hollywood as a scriptwriter before he died on December 21, 1940 of a heart attack. This book, although not as highly revered as The Great Gatsby, remains amongst a very short list of great American classics- and with reason. It is a beautifully executed, honest projection of an era that is otherwise filled with illusion and policy. This Side of Paradise holds within its bind a history lesson far deeper than that found in any text book. Fitzgerald elegantly and vividly portrays the young idealism of the ¡°Flapper age.¡± Fitzgerald writes, ¡°Ten o¡¯clock found them penniless. They had suffered greatly on their last eleven cents and, singing, strolled up through the casinos and lighted arches on the boardwalk, stopping to listen approvingly to all bang concerts.¡± Like this small excerpt, the books¡¯ entire diction is bubbled with young hope and exuberance. The experience and emotions Fitzgerald provides to the reader are precise and consistent. It is like the fountain of youth- flooding with the promise of handsomer times. Anyone who reads it is bound to feel a little bit livelier. This book is recommended to all history students, for all the social climbers who wish to empathize or to be empathized with, and to all those who need to be reminded about the purities of youth.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Wowza!

This book is such a classic! In the first chapter, which is conveinently segregated into titled bits, I got this feeling of literary genius. I immediately got this groovy Catcher and the Rye sensation right when the main character, Amory Blaine, began an in depth analysis upon all his education. Amory Blaine is such an amazingly conceited and zealous character he thinks he is completely amazing when in reality he is a lazy optimist, this is where the reader picks up hillarious emotions that allow loud outbursts of laughter. I absolutely adore this novel what a feat from F. Scott Fitzgerald. I dare yell OUTSTANDING!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Bad

Nothing good dont waste your time

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fitzgerald is one of the staple writers of American Literature,

Fitzgerald is one of the staple writers of American Literature, especially for Modern American Literature. Fitzgerald is probably best known for his Beautiful and the Damned and The Great Gatsby, both of which are superb books.
I feel like I am losing a sense of who I am by writing a review of a great writer here. Who am I to judge Fitzgerald in all his greatness and the skills he has mastered as a superb writer? I, who has not published anything is judging Fitzgerald's first novel. How pretentious?
IF I am not wrong Fitzgerald wrote this book when he was in his early twenties and still inexperienced. However I feel that we must judge each book separately with it's own merits and not against other comparisons; whether it be against other writers or the other works of that particular writer. It is true there are some flaws with this book; but let's be honest, which book doesn't? There are no perfect books on which everyone will agree on. Everyone's best of classics will always be different.

I however love this book. The characters are well designed and it reflects the 1920s through a young artist's eyes who is in the work of becoming one, though not yet one. The heartaches, the difficulties, mentalities and thought patters are carefully observed and presented, not always in the clearest way, however always there. Amory's awakening feels real, happening not in a fast paced story that seems to be based on too many coincidences. We don't just hit a wall and then a bulb doesn't go off in our heads. The influence of his parents, particularly of his mother, his religious mentor, his friends and the countless women who go in and out of his life. They all shape him separately in different directions in which his confusion becomes profound and relatable. Descriptions, monologues are enlightening, creative and original. No body does the Jazz era better than Fitzgerald, with hits glam and it's gloom.

So, what was wrong with it? I don't think at any given time a student at Yale could be so carefree without having to work so hard at his studies. Sometimes the plot doesn't feel as established, solid and well planned out. There aren't always particularly something happening, or something being set up. (not that all plots needs to be this way, however for a novel of this length, sometimes it makes a reader feel like the writer is just dragging it on and is not authorized) to write the book. Some characters don't always seem to particularly have a purpose of being there. The book could have been shorter, the space utilized more efficiently. All in all though, it's a great book that is to be recommended.

No thanks

Too much like reading a history book.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Impressed in some ways.

I really liked the characters, they were interesting and well set. The plot was a bit stale and depressing, but very stimulating and thought-provocative. Overall I liked it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's recommended

I recently finished this novel on my spare time. I found this story ok but not great. Some parts were boring and some were a little hard to understand. But if you just like really concentrate on the story, then I'm sure you can successfully complete it. Fitzgerald is a very creative writer and i just love the jazz age [ 1920's]

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Egotist Becomes a Personage.

The criticism that Paradise begins well and ends poorly is evidence of a misunderstanding. There is a natural build up of the bizarre social mold, not just of the upper class, but by America in general. Slightly slow to take off from the gate, this novel makes up for, in its second half, all that it missed as it idly drifted and set up in the beginning chapters. More than simply a ¿youth novel¿, as most reviewers have claimed, I found this to be an accurate criticism of the mass media driven rat race that we continue to live in today, more than 75 years after the book was first published. If I could give this piece three stars for a mediocre start and six for an excellent finish, that would be the only accurate review. It is absolutely worth picking up if you are young, have ever been young, or have ever done any small amount of thinking.

That Side of Paradise

Started off with promise but had to make myself finish the last few chapters of this youth novel.

Immaturely Written

This Side of Paradise was Fitzgerald's first book, and it clearly shows. He seems unable to capture human emotions realistically. When he does, Fitzgerald is melodramatic. The ending is rushed, and does not fit with the rest of the book. Amory seems to have some revelation about his life, though there is nothing in the previous chapters that would contribute to this revelation. Fitzgerald merely tries to make sense of a nonsensical book. I read this for a high school class, and found it not quite up to par with some of his other works, such as The Beautiful and The Damned, The Great Gatsby, or even Tender is the Night

Caitlin's Review of 'This Side of Paradise'

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'This Side of Paradise' met with popular acclaim for its creative technique. Fitzgerald was one of few authors at the time who was able to capture a period of American history and paint a portrait of the new youth culture. He saw through the glamourous lifestyle to its morality of emptiness. This novel is a character study of the protagonist Amory Blaine. Throughout the novel, Amory attempts to make peace with himself and find his place in society. Several times in the novel, Amory reflects what has influenced his development the most. He eventually arrives to the conclusion on his road to self realization that convention, women, and money are the main elements that have influenced his life. Raised by an unconventional mother, Beatrice, Amory tries to correct her influence by indulging conformity. Eventually he discovers that a life full of conformity is full of emptiness and attempts to get back on the path of individuality. After many love affairs, Amory falls head over heels in love with Rosalind, sister of a former friend. Rosalind breaks Amory's heart by refusing to marry someone without great wealth. Amory Blaine eventually abandons women as a source of inspiration. By the end of the novel, Blaine finds himself penniless because of bad investments and no inheritance. With no money, Amory has to look harder for the meaning of life finding a source of guidance within himself. The last line of this novel, 'I know myself, ' ... 'but that is all,' sums up the theme of the entire book. Mistakes are defined as experience.

Gorgeous

This is a young book, but it doesn't disappoint. The prose is absolutely gorgeous. Fitzgerald had a perfect pitch for the language that rivals that of his hero Keats... Of Gatsby and TSOP, Gertrude Stein said: 'Here we are and have read your book [The Great Gatsby] and it is a good book. I like the melody of your dedication ['Once again to Zelda'] it shows that you have a background of beauty and tenderness and that is a comfort. The next good thing is that you write naturally in sentences and that too is a comfort. You write naturally in sentences and one can read all of them and that among other things is a comfort... You make a modern world and a modern orgy strangely enough it never was done until you did it in 'This Side of Paradise.' My belief in 'This Side of Paradise' was alright.'

Amazing Character

Amory was a famously well written character. I found myself enthralled in his life watching those he knew through his eyes. Fitzgerald's style of writing is flavorful.

Only read if you must!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't feel this book captured my attention nor did I like it. I could and have read much better. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.