Tom's Two Cents : Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

With the current release on film of Scott Fitzgerald's "Gatsby,"  I can think of no better time to read the new novel called "Z" by Therese Anne Fowler, now available in book and tape format in our library.  Told in the first person by Fitzgerald's wife Zelda Sayre, "Z" is the story of her courtship and marriage to one of America's most famous writers, of his early struggles, huge popular successes and tragic dissolution into alcoholism and early death.  But it is not so much the tragedy of the Fitzgeralds as of their fairy tale life in  America and Europe of the Roaring Twenties that makes this book so engaging.

Scott and Zelda were the golden couple of their era, surrounding themselves with fascinating literary and artistic people, especially in Paris and the Riviera in the decade before the Crash of 1929.  They literally lived as if there were tomorrow, and indeed in their case there wasn't.  Scott died in Hollywood at the age of 44, trying to establish himself as a screenwriter.  Zelda lived long enough to know her first grandchild (the famous couple had one child, a daughter, Scottie) but checked herself in and out of mental institutions for years with a mental condition of what would now probably be diagnosed as bipolar disorder.

But this is not a book that dwells on sad events.  Zelda's life is fully explored as she searches for her own artistic identity in writing, painting and ballet.  She was an accomplished writer and dancer, but she could not escape the inevitable presence of her famous husband.  Written totally from the viewpoint of its heroine, "Z" is in the tradition of the recent autobiography of Hadley Hemingway, "The Paris Wife," and though it lacks the style and substance of that work, it is both entertaining and enlightening.  For summer reading, I would certainly recommend it.