Tender is the Night

Hmm. After reading and loving The Great Gatsby, I was looking forward to reading this, however I don't think it is coherent enough to reach those heights. Despite this, there are flashes of brilliance (hence the 4 stars) - I just wish it was able to maintain them throughout.

The first third of this book is an evocative portrayal of the life of a group of American upper and upper-middle class people on the French Riviera in the 1920's, at the cusp of it becoming a summer tourist destination (the implication being that these people made it the destination it became). The description of the interactions and dinner parties are enthralling.

After this however, it descends into a far less involving description of the evolution of the main couple's relationship. It also has a habit of switching through multiple viewpoints almost in the same paragraph, which is distracting. I also suspect that the language and context has not aged well, which makes some of the events that are meant to be important seem remarkably trivial (an alcoholic is largely signposted by their occasional faux-pas at parties, when a more modern reading would probably require something more significant). Most of the characters also seem deeply unsympathetic, which makes it hard to care about them.

I suspect you might get more from this if you are deeply familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald's life story, since, after reading up further, it is apparent that this is obviously meant to be semi-autobiographical.