Meeting F. Scott Fitzgerald. Created and performed by Larry Vanderveer, R and E Arts, 2005. Meeting F. Scott Fitzgerald is a DVD of a one-man show not unlike Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain Tonight. In this case, we are imagining author F. Scott Fitzgerald on stage in 1940 telling us something of his life and works. … Continue reading Meeting F. Scott Fitzgerald – Review
Michael Chabon. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Morrow, 1988. Hemingway once wrote words to the effect that all American literature since 1880 derives from Huckleberry Finn. I might qualify that by saying much of it nowadays derives from F. Scott Fitzgerald. I confess to being disappointed with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. As a native of that … Continue reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh – Review
Ernest Hemingway. A Moveable Feast. Scribner’s, 1964. A Moveable Feast tells in vignettes about Hemingway’s life in Paris and France (mostly) from 1921 to 1926 when he lived among and associated with English and American expatriates. He focuses on his interactions with other writers and artists, but we also learn a lot about him and … Continue reading A Moveable Feast – Review
Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street. 1984; Vintage, 2009. The House on Mango Street was mentioned a number of years ago on the Advanced Placement English Literature Exam.1 I happened across a copy and decided to pick it up. The House on Mango Street is a collection of sketches. Nearly all of them are … Continue reading The House on Mango Street – Review
Richard Russo. Empire Falls. 2001; Knopf, 2010. I picked up Empire Falls because I read somewhere that it had a connection with The Great Gatsby. Well, it does contain the famous quotation about “boats against the current,” from that novel—other than that, no so much. Having said that, Russo does suggest as Fitzgerald did elsewhere … Continue reading Empire Falls – Review
Thomas Wolfe. Of Time and the River. Thomas Wolfe: The Complete Works. 1935. Pandora’s Box, 2018. The biography of Eugene Gant, protagonist of Look Homeward, Angel, continues with Of Time and the River. Yes, the story rambles. Yes, by modern standards it has too much description. Still, the saying that Wolfe had plenty of bad … Continue reading Of Time and the River – Review
David O. Stewart. The Babe Ruth Deception. Kensington, 2016. The Babe Ruth Deception tips it hat to The Great Gatsby as it tells a fictional tale concerning people peripherally involved with the life of Babe Ruth. Some are historical figures like Arnold Rothstein (whom we have taken a look at in a few places and … Continue reading The Babe Ruth Deception – Review
Van Wyck Brooks. The Ordeal of Mark Twain. 1922; Project Gutenberg, 27 Feb. 2013. E-book. Van Wyck Brooks was a well-known critic a hundred years ago. If The Ordeal of Mark Twain is any indication, he was an early adopter of applying Freudian psychology to literature. This book is basically a psychological analysis of Mark … Continue reading The Ordeal of Mark Twain – Review
Owen Johnson. The Salamander. 1914; Amazon Digital Services, 2011. E-book. Fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald and people researching his Jazz Age stories will be interested in The Salamander. A recent review here noted how a friend said that all Fitzgerald’s female characters are based on his wife Zelda. Zelda, in turn, was influenced by The … Continue reading The Salamander – Review
Richard Webb, Jr. Boats Against the Current: The Honeymoon Summer of Scott and Zelda, Westport, Connecticut 1920. New York: Prospecta P, 2018. Print. This nicely researched picture history of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is meant to go along with the documentary of the same name produced by the author. It works well. It has … Continue reading Boats Against the Current – Review