Book Review: Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Blurb:

A dazzling novel that captures all of the romance, glamour, and tragedy of the first flapper, Zelda Fitzgerald. 

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. 

Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes. 

My Review:

Z begins with a wild, flirty, rebellious young girl living in a conservative household who falls for a man with big dreams. 

During the first part of this book, I felt sorry for F. Scott because Zelda acts like a flighty girl just playing with his feelings. Zelda is wild and kind of crazy but she's accustomed to a type of living that at first F. Scott cannot financially provide for her so she won't marry him until he "becomes something." F. Scott is a piece of work in his own right as we learn as the book goes on.

At first Zelda's story about marrying F. Scott and their life together in the early days was interesting, but then it seems to just be repetitive as all they seem to do is drink, party, spend money, and get kicked out of places. Then things get just plain depressing as Zelda's mental state begins to crumble.

Overall I liked this book, but at times felt like it dragged. I thought it perfectly portrayed the era in which Zelda and F. Scott lived and it was interesting to see glimpses of the life of the man behind Gatsby and his fascinating wife, but in a way it made me lose respect for him, as well as other people of that era. The ending was probably my favorite part as we learn about F. Scott and Zelda's tragic end. They were two people who lived life hard, if not to the fullest and in the end it took a toll on them both.

My Rating:

3.75 of 5 Stars