Customer Reviews

The Last Tycoon

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The Last Tycoon was to be Fitzgerald's return to Gatsby form and to critical acclaim. In his notes, he wrote that this was to be more like Gatsby than like Tender is the Night (yet altogether original).

Indeed, F. Scott gets the setup right - a sympathetic, immensely talented and paternalistic workaholic movie producer with an ailing heart (medically and emotionally) discovers the potential for salvation in the arms of a true love while trying to baffle his greedy partner's plots for takeover. And FSF conceives a partly Conradian narration of the chief plot points - through the eyes of Cecelia, the partner's daughter, while offering an omniscient overview.

The book is hard to evalaute as we see less than half of Fitzgerald's execution, but it's fascinating to watch the pieces fall into a place (if some may miss). Fitzgerald's tone progresses from a shaky start into his patented lyricism and elegantly seamless observations on love. Read the notes, as they give an intriguing look at the great author's mind at work.

Fitzgerald's last unfinished novels is one of his best in that his style has evolved from his cluttered previous novels into a clean and unfettered one. Every event that occurs is absolutely vital to the plot. He masters the mood and atmosphere of Hollywood. His protagonist has the same rags to riches story, same charisma, and same leadership qualities as his other characters, Gatsby and Dick Diver. However, Stahr is the more developed character. Even unfinished, this tragic tale has a clear theme and style.

The Last Tycoon had promise and still does in the sense it was unfinished, however it could not be compared to The Great Gatsby. The description of the time period, as present in The Great Gatsby, was not exhibited in this book by Fitzgerald. Instead it was replaced by an explanation of the life in Hollywood. Fitzgerald was trying to portray the life of the business world, according to his notes, but instead lacked the description that was required to get a feel for their lifestyle. The plot itself seemed to be solid and plausible in portraying the life of Hollywood. The book itself revolves around Celia Brady the daughter of a wealthy movie maker. She takes a liking to her father's partner Monroe Stahr, who she meets on the flight home from college. On this flight she meets another man, Wylie White, whom she had an affair with towards the end of the book. Monroe and her father have a fight between them. Which leaves Celia torn between her father and the man she loves. Mr. Brady and Mr. Monroe lead to each others downfall. The actual written manuscript is incomplete yet it shows progress. The book goes through an accurate description of events present in the manuscript however the ending is still just outlines. Celia seems to need some development a problem which I am sure Fitzgerald would have fixed in the final chapters of the book. The manuscript present is in good shape. I think Fitzgerald's notes, present in the back of the book, show an ending that would have entertained and brought closing to this novel. It is stated in his notes that he wished the book to sixty thousand words yet already the unfinished manuscript was seventy thousand words. I think this is an intriguing fact being that the book does not yet contain an ending and is probably several chapters from it. Without an ending the book is worth a read if for nothing else to try to understand what Fitzgerald went through to write a novel. I found that the book contained a solid plot, decent characters, and intriguing writing notes. I found that, while this book could in no way compare to The Great Gatsby, it is worthy to read if you enjoy Fitzgerald's work.

I am sure it must have been tempting as a publisher or one in whom the rights to publish resided, to get excited about an unfinished work from a master with the mystique and cache of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this case, while there is certainly merit in the writing, and some rewards to be had from the reading of this incomplete work by an acknowledged master, it is debatable whether many readers have been satisfied by reading it. I was not one of them. As always, Fitzgerald introduces characters both rich and shallow, and makes fascinating observations of an era which most of us find fascinating. But it felt incomplete, all the way through, not just at the end, and perhaps Fitzgerald may have polished or edited it a great deal more had he survived to finish it.

I will stick with Gatsby and Tender is the Night and put this one down to experience.

The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald was more than just another depiction of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald's theme, corruptive wealth is also present in The Last Tycoon. Even in this unfinished work Fitzgerald portrays the spirit of the age well at the smae time critizes the values of our society.

I think The Last Tycoon is a hard book to read because there is a whole lot of names to remember and it's about film producing-it somewhat gets boring to read about movie writers, actors, producers etc- However the book starts to get interesting towards the end because you wonder whether Monroe will be able to get rid of this boring life or not. But you don't get the answer to that because the book is not finished... I didn't know that it was unfinished until I read up to the end because it wasn't mentioned on the book.

I must admit i am not too familiar with FSF's work. Sure, i read The Great Gatsby centuries ago, but in Spanish. I also watched the movie. But that's it. Dare i say, then, that if this had been finished, edited and released, it would not have the same success it has? Part of the aura of The Last Tycoon is that FSF, on account of his death, never finished it. I found the prose a bit difficult, and there were enough situations loaded with innuendo that i was not able to resolve. For example, the cameraman who attempted suicide. Was he going blind? Was all a malicious rumor? How about the actor who is "through"? What unspeakable issue does he suffer from to stop his career? "I've tried everything. I even - one day in desperation I went down to - to Claris. But it was hopeless. I'm washed up". Does he mean he was impotent?

So i found the novel itself very frustrating. However, i found the development notes fascinating. Those notes offered a fantastic behind-the-scenes peek at how a novel is written. I had no idea there was such a method. My guess was that the process was far more visceral, more gut-feeling as to what should happen now and what then. But by reading the notes that FSF left, i understand what a systematic and structured process it is.

I read The Last Tycoon, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I thought that it was really bad. All it was about was the incredibly boring life a movie producer, the affairs of the same man and his partner, and I felt that all of the events in the book were ludicrous. Nothing like that happens in real life. I could not stand the book.

The book was kind of boring. It wasn't very interesting reading about Hollywood back in the thirties. Adults may get into it more, because they will be a little bit more familiar with the time period. But for teenagers-not very interesting to read. There are alot of names to remeber throughout the book, and you don't know how it really ends, because it is unfinished. You may want to know if one of the characters will get rid of his boring liferstyle, but you never find out. I have not read any other books by this author, but by reading this one first, I don't think I'll read any more of his books.