Read This!: Tender Is the Night

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

If you are one of the dedicated readers of our blog (and since there are so many how could you not be?), you would know that I read The Great Gatsby a few months ago and that I really enjoyed it. Based on that, I took Mr.'s advice and picked up Tender Is the Night. (He had heard some good things about it but never actually had read it.)

The book jacket claims that this is Fitzgerald's most autobiographical novel. Being an alcoholic with a mentally ill wife, Fitzgerald's and the main character's, Dick Diver's, lives are similar. After that I am not sure where the fiction comes in and the real life is left behind.

There are three primary characters: Dick, his wife Nicole, and Rosemary, a young movie actress whom they meet abroad. This book covers the years when the three of their lives intertwine. It details the struggle Dick has with his career as a psychiatrist, his need to cure Nicole, and the temptation represented by Rosemary.

Overall, I thought The Great Gatsby was more enjoyable but this book was more thought-provoking.