Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD by Therese Anne Fowler

3.5 Stars

Even now, I would choose differently than I did.

For me, this was a fascinating biography. I entered it with little knowledge of anything byoned the works of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald. As it turns out, that gave me an insight into their lives for many of his stories were thinly veiled, fictionalized versions of his dreams and demons. A golden couple of the Jazz Age that skated the edge for too long, the stress of reality and the Great Depression inevitably took a toll lon them emotionally, psychologically, and physically. 

It is written as first person point of view from Zelda's perspective and gives a strong sense of an intimate diary. It frames her life from childhood in the Deep South to the wild parties of NYC to the glittering carousel of postwar Paris. As a couple they were like flames making one giant bonfire, both burning bright. Scott chasing his next novel and dueling with the demon of alcoholism, both believing the act they put on to sell more books wasn't them, and the machinations of outsiders meddling in their marriages--and not just infidelities. Let's just say, I like Hemingway's writing, but he's obviously an ass and this book really nails him to the wall. Hard to imagine that my regard for Hemingway as a person or lack thereof could actually decrease but it plummeted.

For readers who come to this book with a more informed background might not be as impressed; this is an entertaining biography not an academic one. For me, it was a missing piece of mosaic that helped add a whole section of a picture developed in my mind from years of history and art, all the people mentioned and how they tied in helped me weave the information together. 

Zelda was a modern woman, who unlike many of her feminist friends, climbed into the cage of marriage not because she was stupid, but because like many women she loved Scott. Alas, love does not conquer all, it can be a salve as we battle realities or the greatest torment. Anyone who's been in a long term relationship knows that it is like the ocean, waves come, you go up and down, and you either cling together or drift apart or occasionally, who climb on top of the other drowning them. This story does a beautiful job of demonstrating both Scott and Zelda's love for each other, unfortunately they were trapped in time and a certain prescribed set of values and as the less privileged party Zelda suffered for it. The greater sacrifice was hers.

Work of a wife.That was it, W-I-F-E, my entire identity defined by the four letters that I'd been trying to overcome for five years.

For years, Zelda wrote short stories to help finance the family coffers and from the start the editor said they could get more money if they sold them under Scott's name--so she did. When she finally wrote a book and published it under own name the reception was less favorable. The process was ego destroying for both Fitzgeralds and gave their demons stronger footholds. At the end, I'm melancholic. Their lives were a heroic and tragic, larger than life.

Btw. Fowler claims this is not a biography rather a fictionalized imagining of what it was like to be Zelda.