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
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
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