Customer Reviews

Reader's Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night

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It is interesting to note the evolution of Ernest Hemingway's reaction to "Tender is the Night". When the novel first appeared, Hemingway, while noting some fine passages, dismissed "Tender is the Night" as yet another example of F. Scott Fitzgerald's decline as both a writer and a person. However, as the years passed and Hemingway revisited the novel again and again, he came to regard it as Fitzgerald's best book.

Hemingway's reaction has always interested me. It was also a source of frustration as I tried without success to get through "Tender is the Night". At first I thought my abandonment of the novel was due to the introduction of too many characters too early in the book, but Bruccoli's very fine companion has made me re-evaluate this view. I think my earlier frustration was a direct result of my unfamiliarity with many of the places and people that Fitzgerald alludes to throughout the novel. Bruccoli gives succinct descriptions of people and places that may not be familiar to modern readers, but he also goes further. He points out logical inconsistencies, chronological errors, and outright mistakes that can distract (or confuse) the reader.

Is this effort worth it? Most definitely. Bruccoli's work pays off handsomely, helping to bring into focus a beautiful, intricate novel.

Just ask Papa.

As the volume's introduction points out, this "is not a critical study: it does not analyze the putative meanings of Tender is the Night." Instead, Bruccoli's purpose is to briefly explore the novel's genesis, creation, publication, and aftermath. The main course of this feast, however, is a lengthy section of explanatory notes on Tender's numerous references. The text is additionally buttressed with photos and illustrations as well as a time scheme and chronology of events. Bruccoli's presentation is thorough without being pedantic, making this quite readable by scholars and students alike. One only hopes that someday this material will be shuffled with Fitzgerald's novel for a long-overdue annotated edition of this greatly underrated work.--Michael Rogers