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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat skewed look at an idiosyncratic talent, October 7, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zelda: A Biography (Paperback)
I re-read this as a sometime writer myself, and first read it when I was about fourteen. Now it appears to me that Zelda created original images in her writing -- as well as emotional connections -- that hadn't been put together quite that way before. Her letters, as quoted by the author, teem with improvisational phrases, original images, and sometimes deep insight, although her use of the self-important elegiac tone is typically, generally, in our culture only granted to certain male writers. Fitgerald was eager -- obsessed -- to make a name for himself, and her talent (which came through even in her madness) became his plagarized muse. Both of them fell victim to these circumstances and mindset.
After reading this bio I would bet dollars to donuts that the image that kicks off "Tender is the Night," "the tan prayer-rug of a beach," was thought up by Zelda. This bio makes clear, to my mind at least, that Scott, acutely aware of the demands of the literary craft, recognized and basically stole her strikingly visual phrases, to sprinkle through his own writing; as well as making her life the subject of several of his stories and novels.
The drawback to this book and what makes it progressively harder to read is that, in the latter half, the author Milford often uses narrative structure to drain both any sympathy for Zelda's condition and any empathy which admiration for Zelda's talent might cause. Often after a typically striking example of Zelda's prose, Milford will follow it with, "She was truly alone now," or "Her face looked haggard as she..." Milford seems to focus on such not-really-telling "details" of Zelda's life to hide her own (Milford's) basic lack of empathy.
It is tempting to read this bio and then throw up one's hands at both of them, as mere pawns of Twenties Madison Avenue or of the jaded jet-set; and paint Scott as the sufferer. (Scott used Zelda's imagistic prose, but it didn't go the other way around; Zelda's autobiographical novel, "Save Me the Waltz," made her narrative limitations clear.) If you read carefully Zelda's letters excerpted throughout the bio and are familiar with Scott's work, you will retain some sympathy for the both of them, and have no doubt that if Scott hadn't had her words, her self, and her insights to use here and there, there would be no Fitzgerald legacy.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Zelda," By Nancy Milford, May 29, 2003
This review is from: Zelda: A Biography (Paperback)
I absolutely adored this book. It is extremely depressing at times to read considering the life of the woman the book is based upon, but other than that, it was fascinating. Milford' writing style is unique as well as informative and quite objective. The details about Zelda's life could only come from an author who has done her research. I would definetly recommend this book.
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34 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you're looking for Zelda, you won't find her here., November 9, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zelda: A Biography (Paperback)
Given this book's formidable reputation as a landmark of female biography, I found it a surprising disappointment. Although I tried and tried to get close to Zelda - who was at best a very elusive character - Ms Milford simply would not let me anywhere near her. The author's writing has a cold, dispassionate quality. She has an irritating habit of mentioning obscure details (names of people, for example), and either explaining them much later or not explaining them at all (her more recent book on Edna St Millay shares this technique). The effect is curiously distancing; as if the author knows far more than she lets on and does not care to explain it all to mere mortals like us. Given the importance of ballet in Zelda's later life, for example, why is a picture of her as a young teenager in a ballet dress included without any comment whatsoever? Did she learn ballet as a girl? Was she any good at it? Was there anything to indicate that it would later become an obsession? These are important and enlightening details that we never learn. Nor do we hear of anything beyond Zelda's death, which rather abruptly ends the book, offering little insight into her later legacy and reputation. It's as if we're constantly trying to spot the subject in the middle distance, only to find Milford's head in the way every time. Factually, the book is faultless, which only makes this distance even more frustrating. I wanted to find Zelda; to know this fascinating person and to form my own conclusions about her, but she remained completely elusive amongst the cold, clinical facts.
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