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)