Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Copyright 2013
St. Martin's Press - Historical Fiction/Fictional Biography
375 pp.

Source:  ARC sent by my delightful friend, Paula

What's it about?

Z is a novel in which the author tried to imagine and portray how Zelda Fitzgerald may have felt during her courtship and marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What I liked about Z:

I thought Therese Fowler did a phenomenal job of presenting Zelda as a lively, accomplished individual with surprising strength of character.  Her mental illness and the treatment that likely caused her worse trouble rather than being curative is very nicely described (and made me burn with anger).  I came out of the reading with an unexpected admiration for Zelda.  She's been much maligned as "crazy" and blamed for her husband's decreasing productivity, but Z makes it clear the opposite was likely true.  She was far from perfect but Scott Fitzgerald definitely came off as an alcoholic blamer in denial.

I've always been fascinated by the expatriate crowd of the 1920s and Z definitely makes me want to read more.  I also appreciated the fact that Z didn't focus exclusively on the negative.  A lot of the recent historical fiction titles I've read have been painfully melancholy in tone, which I abhor.  I thought Z contained a nice balance of the good and bad times and Zelda and Scott's emotional reactions.  Scott and Zelda were a tragic pair, but Therese Fowler gave Zelda back her humanity, in my humble opinion.

What I disliked about Z:

I'm perplexed by the author's choice to fabricate letters when she clearly states in her notes that she had access to the real thing.  Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald apparently left a wealth of correspondence to each other and to friends.  I understand that the book is fiction, but I think when fiction involves characters who really lived and breathed, it's best to incorporate as much of reality as possible.

Recommendation:

Highly recommended - A very nicely balanced account of the tumultuous life of a famous couple from the more maligned woman's point of view.  In spite of the fact that I strongly dislike the use of fictionalized letters, I think Z is one of the best fictional biographies that I've read in quite a while.

So this is the new easy format:

I've made some minor changes to my old easy-review format, but this is what I'm going to stick with, for now.  I added the "source" of the book because I often forget to note whether a book is an ARC from a publisher, a book received from a friend, a library check-out (rare -- still don't have a library card for my new county) or from my personal library.

Pic of the day:

I made it my goal, one day, to try to capture a photo with both a European bee (the most productive cross-pollinators and honey producers) and one of those whopping big bees that we normally see.  We have hardly seen any European honeybees since a big die-off in 2005, but this year we have plenty.  I think there must be a local beekeeper, nearby.  The small bee at lower right is the European.  I don't know what the inch-long fellow in the flowers at top left is called.  Anyway, I had fun shooting and am thrilled to see European bees, since mass die-offs have become a regular event.  This tree was actually so full of bees, last week, it sounded like the tree was humming.

Currently reading:

The Clover House by Henriette Power and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - a new edition illustrated by Michael Sieber.  Almost done with The Clover House.  Oz is fun and surprisingly lacking in menace by comparison with the movie, thus far.  I love the fact that this edition contains an introductory note by the author explaining why it was time for a new kind of fairy tale as "modern education includes morality."  Boy, times do change.  Modern education apparently is about to include armed teachers, where I live.  Ask my former-teacher son what he thinks about arming "the most stressed-out group of people" he's encountered and you'll get an earful.

Book stack photos forthcoming:

I tend to use natural light and we've been low on that, due to a stormy week.  I'll snap photos of my gigantic stack of recent arrivals when the sun comes out, 'kay?

I've been organizing my ARCs by month of release so a couple might disappear due to organizational imperative, but you'll obviously hear about them soon enough.

What wonderful books have you read, lately?  

My husband would prefer that you to not tell me.  :)

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