This Side of Paradise

[Review written by my younger self]
With this first novel, 23-year old Fitzgerald was catapulted into fame as the offspring of the Jazz Age, and with no surprise. This novel, which covers the life of Amory Blaine, a wandering Princeton egoist who is bored and disillusioned with the world around him, is reminiscent not only of the lost generation after World War I, but of the great coming-of-age novels of our time, most notably Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

It was Fitzgerald himself who said that he was merely "a product of a versatile mind in a restless generation-—with every reason to throw my mind and pen in with the radicals." The appeal of this book is hence universal and completely timeless, and just like Holden Caufield, many will take on this character and his hedonism as their own, recognizing his faults and weaknesses and learning, probably before he does, from his mistakes. Based partly on Fitzgerald's own burgeoning academic life, the author claims to capture "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."

Probably the most experimental of all of Fitzgerald's books, filled not only with the actual story text, but also with acridly humorous lists, melodramatic poems, and even a section written like a play, all coming together seamlessly to show how Blaine learns from his friendships, affairs, and intellectual and spiritual lessons and mishaps how to become a more mature (though not necessarily a better and happier) person.

Though not all will be drawn to this self-absorbed character, many still will find a thread of themselves in this man. As Fitzgerald's first novel, this is probably his most unadulterated and honest, and hence is of great value to all Fitzgerald followers.

Those who have read other Fitzgerald books may not find this to be like the others. It lacks the flapper-filled floating atmosphere of The Great Gatsby, which is certainly his greatest novel. It lacks the sweet and insipid romance of such novels as my personal favorite, [b:Tender is the Night|46164|Tender Is the Night|F. Scott Fitzgerald|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170314348s/46164.jpg|8272].

Still, there is a pervading sense of instability in Amory that seems extant in many of Fitzgerald's heroes and heroines, a certain off-center quality that keeps them down to earth at the same time it makes them other-worldly. Amory carries this quality like a sword and shield, and, more than any one of Fitzgerald's characters, looks at the world around him with the illusion that he is far above it because of his idiosyncrasies. ( )

Beautiful, brilliant but 100% a novel written by a 24 year old and not always in the best way. Keep that in mind when considering anything F. Scott Fitzgerald touched a "classic" ( )

Everyone quotes [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218672960s/4671.jpg|245494] as Fitzgerald's quintessential American novel, but this existential coming-of-age story flogs Gatsby with a curtain rod--and I don't mean any cheapo one you can get at Wal-Mart for $3.87 plus tax, but one of those decorative jobs you get at high-end home furnishing stores that have various protrusions, um, protruding.

The haunting but exhilaration exhortation of "I know myself, but that is all" made by Amory Blaine (son of Beatrice) at the novel's conclusion is a declaration that I will spend the rest of my life recalling and repeating. ( )

read over 50% and bailed.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. The book examines the lives and morality of American youth in the aftermath of World War I. Its protagonist Amory Blaine is an attractive student at Princeton University who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking, and takes its title from a line of Rupert Brooke's poem Tiare Tahiti. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre's hand in marriage; its publication was her condition of acceptance.
Source: WIkipedia