"In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year. Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it."

 

So I started The Great Gatsby last night and realized I would finish much sooner than anticipated so to fill my time I decided to read a little about Scottie and Zelda.  

 

Interesting facts about the Fitzgerald’s:

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald is a distant relative of Francis Scott Key who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. He was named after him so his full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. He also passed down the “F. Scott” tradition to his daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald.

2. This Side of Paradise was the novel that put Scott on the map. Essentially Zelda wouldn’t marry a man who was unsuccessful in his career so she broke off her engagement to him. Heartbroken and (presumably from his reputation) fueled with belly full of alcohol, he returns home to finish the novel with the ultimate goal of winning Zelda back. Oh the things we do for love but was it worth it Scottie?

3. Zelda suffered from two breakdowns which ultimately landed her in a mental hospital. From what I have read and understand about Zelda, she was a force to be reckoned with but she did not know how to slow down which is perhaps why her last days were spent in the sanitarium. Here she wrote her only publish novel Save Me the Waltz and not long after, is also where she perished from a fire.

Salutations!

Hello all! Welcome to my humble little blog. I am new to this new set up here and I seem to be a little behind the times for the new technology. I hope to catch up once I play around a bit. Anyhow, I am starting this blog to both explore new books as well as to return to my old favorites that made me fall in love with Literature. So, I welcome you to join in a discussion or merely just to share in my love for reading by listening.

I would like to start with a book that most people probably know. For my first entry I will begin with a classic which can be noted as one of the most iconic time pieces of the 1920s era. In honor of the upcoming film that will be adapted from this book, I thought it would be neat to revisit it after letting it sit on the shelves for so long (for shame!). So without further ado the first book I will be reading will be The Great Gatsby.

A little background for this novel for those who may not have read it or even heard of it. This was written by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Fitzgerald is from Minnesota and was married to Zelda Sayre.  The book was first published in 1925 during some of the most tumultuous times of his marriage (Zelda was a handful). What I find so fundamentally interesting about the book is although it may be fiction, there are elements that mirror the issues that erupted in the 1920s, prohibition, gangsters, and women were trading in their traditional roles for bobbed hair, fringed dresses,  and a flask hidden in their guarders. Everything was on the brink of change and this was a time for people to break away from the oppressiveness of their former models of living. Gotta love The Roaring Twenties!  All of these little topics are rolled up into one little time capsule of 174 pages just for our enjoyment. What amazes me most is that this novel gained its success almost entirely posthumously. Go figure.

Anyhow, looking forward to discussing it next week.