Stories that capture both the magic and disappointment of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s lives.
Raffetto’s collection of stories is haunted by one of American literature’s most glamorous and tragic couples.
The romantic but troubled relationship between the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda permeates all three of these collected stories to some degree. From beyond the grave, Scott Fitzgerald narrates “Young Scott and Zelda” (“I died at the peak of my writing powers”), commemorating a time when his youthful confidence was boundless despite obstacles (Scott’s mother disapproves of his novel writing, preferring him to pen ads, and editor Maxwell Perkins doubts that Scott’s book will sell many copies). Zelda, ambitious herself, doesn’t want to marry. Yet, suddenly, life becomes a fairytale—Scott’s novel is a best-seller, and Zelda agrees to wed. In “Three A.M.,” Scott no longer narrates, and the couple’s lives sour. Scott and Zelda throw wild parties, flirt with others, and accumulate debts. Scott is often a mean drunk, while Zelda develops mental health issues that lead to her hospitalization. “Kristen B.,” the last story, is only peripherally about the Fitzgeralds. A young woman, Kristin, shows her Scott and Zelda screenplay to a producer who sexually assaults her. Emotionally scarred, Kristen begins an intense relationship with Holden, a sensitive ex-baseball player with a violent family history. Well-chosen vignettes from the Fitzgeralds’ lives fill the first two stories, such as Scott callously kicking a tray out of the hands of a woman selling food and Zelda’s scorn at Scott’s flinching when he dives into water. But in “Three A.M.,” the narrator’s intrusive opinions weaken the story; readers are told it’s laughable to imagine Scott and Ernest Hemingway as lovers, and that Zelda would probably have left Scott “if their story had taken place sixty years in the future.” “Kristen B.” is the strongest of the three stories, capturing the flavor of the Fitzgeralds in modern times. Like Zelda and Scott, Kristen and Holden are damaged, unable to assimilate into the practical world of 9-to-5 jobs and sedate married life. Unlike the Fitzgeralds, Kristen and Holden move beyond trauma (albeit not in an ideal manner) and end on a hopeful note.
Stories that capture both the magic and disappointment of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s lives.Pub Date: April 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780990614982
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Noovella.com
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.
A woman faces a health crisis and obsesses over a local accident in this wonderful follow-up to Sandwich (2024).
Newman begins her latest with a quote from Nora Ephron: “Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know—it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.” It sets an appropriate tone for a story that is just as full of death and dread as it is laughter. Two years after the events of Sandwich, Rocky is back home in Western Massachusetts and happily surrounded by family—her daughter, Willa, lives with her and her husband, Nick, while applying to Ph.D. programs; her widowed father, Mort, has moved into the in-law apartment behind their house. When a young man who graduated from high school with Rocky’s son, Jamie, is hit by a train, Rocky finds herself spiraling as she thinks about how close the tragedy came to her own family. She’s also freaking out about a mysterious rash her dermatologist can’t explain. Both instances are tailor-made for internet research and stalking. As Rocky obsessively googles her symptoms and finds only bad news (“Here’s what’s true about the Internet: very infrequently do people log on with their good news. Gosh, they don’t write, I had this weird rash on my forearm? And it turned out to be completely nothing!”), she also compulsively checks the Facebook page of the accident victim’s mother. Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines (one passage about the absurdity of collecting a stool sample and delivering it to the doctor stands out). As Rocky deals with the byzantine frustrations of the medical system, she also has to learn, once more, how to see her children, husband, father, and herself as fully flawed and lovable humans.
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063453913
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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