The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is a collection of short stories and I will try to comment on all of them, but I haven't finished them all so I will probably update this sporadically if I ever get back to them.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Honestly, I was disappointed in this story. Because it was turned into a movie, I was hoping that the story itself would have some depth (which I think the introduction implied that it did), the depth was really superficial. Perhaps it's because the introduction summed up the themes so neatly that I expected more, but the plot was really simple and although I didn't completely agree with all of it, for what Fitzgerald was trying to accomplish (a statement about the times and about youth versus age and wisdom), I think he did a pretty decent job. In the end though, I had wished there was something more.

The Offshore Pirate

This was a cute little story about deception and illusion. I thought that this was nice though again, I felt like it was a little superficial. There didn't really seem to be any substance than that dreamy quality of a transient world that was soon shattered by the "real" world. However, I did like the characters he created. I really liked Ardita because of how different she was. There was also the underlying idea of one's perception of oneself versus how others perceive them (Ardita thought she had all men wrapped around her finger but there were implications that this was not the case). All in all a decent read but somewhat lacking in substance.

The Ice Palace

This one was about how people are unable to change and perhaps a statement about how the North and South don't get along and the differing values between how to live one's life. Also about how one's perception of oneself is different than reality. This story could also be viewed as a cultural clash between the North and the South and how difficult it is to overcome these differences. Sally Carrol thought she was meant for more but ends up that she wasn't. However, I found her character to be a little frustrating because she struck me as close-minded ("well the people in the south aren't like this blah blah blah") but perhaps not. The idea of love not being enough for her to stay at the place was also interesting and the parallel of ice and the coldness of the Northerners to Sally Carrol was also pretty interesting. I can see how the introduction mentions that Fitzgerald had potential (which he apparently uses in his later work).

Head and Shoulders

This one has the whole idea of role reversal and lost dreams. I felt bad for Horace in the end because he meets his role model in philosophy who ends up coming to meet his wife. No one seems to realize Horace's intellect and potential and I almost feel like he wasted it away. Perhaps that was Fitzgerald's point. The irony is a sad one and if Horace's pride doesn't get in the way it should be fine, but these types of things happen to so many men that they become defeated and broken and unhappy with where they are in their lives (and then it becomes the oh-so-familiar midlife crisis). At any rate, it was an interesting read and definitely got its point across.

The Cut-Glass Bowl

Although this story was a little morbid, I really liked the way the story played out. The parallel between the bowl and Evylyn was really good and almost Portrait of Dorian Gray-esque. Obviously her soul wasn't locked in the bowl but just how both came to the same end and how one pays for the mistakes they make in sometimes the direst ways I thought was pretty interesting. In the end, it paints a pretty dark picture of of the world but perhaps it is also an honest picture for most people unless they realize it and try to do something about it (though Fitzgerald doesn't give any implications of this).

Anyway there should be more to come. (hopefully)

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I had read one of his other novels a year or so ago (Me Talk Pretty One Day) and had really liked it.

This too was an engaging read although I felt like the different anecdotes and chapters were somewhat choppy in the way the novel flowed. Obviously it isn't your typical novel with a linear plot, which was fine, but some of the transitions between the chapters I felt were really abrupt.

There was definitely this underlying idea of how sometimes the very things that we judge/laugh at others for, we're just as guilty of the same things. I liked that. I also liked how although he talks about more difficult issues (i.e. death), the way he maneuvers around it in a matter-of-fact but not cold way was really well done. He was remember these people that affected him yet, it wasn't focused around the death of the person and it wasn't morbid and although it was somewhat funny, I felt like he really was able to have it be a happy reminiscing rather than a lamentation of a person's death or a fluffed up version of person because they were dead.

I don't think I'd pick this novel up again though because it isn't really academic (nor is it meant to be) though perhaps if I were in the mood for some good, funny reading that I knew wouldn't disappoint, I'd maybe pick it up again.

I would recommend this to most readers because of the way some of his illustrations are creative yet so aptly put and it's an easy read. There's also more to the book than meets the eye, but even if these points are missed, it doesn't retract too much from enjoying the book.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I can't say that I completely enjoyed Hard Times. I loved A Tale of Two Cities but this one was stylistically really different - probably due to the time constraints that Dickens was trying to get used to. The style was really dry and the introduction mentions that he wrote more "journalistically" (or something) which to me translates to "dry and boring".

I'm not quite sure as to what it was but I think it's because he took too long to build up the characters and when the plot finally started moving I had lost interest in the novel. I had picked it up a while ago and it took me quite some time to finish this less than 300 page book. It shouldn't have taken me this long to finish it but I kept putting it down for more engaging texts (Disgrace was a much easier read... probably also because it's modern fiction...).

At any rate, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except those in academic circles because it really is just an academic read. The middle of the novel is so un-engaging (for a lack of a better word) that even if it ends quite nicely, I would hesitate to say that the novel is "good."

However, the introduction does mention that he was adjusting and how suffocating a weekly serial was for him so I mean I can see how the time constraints affected his writing. Hopefully my next Dickens novel will be a better experience.