Customer Reviews

Zelda

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Semi-brilliant because it was still a time when Zelda was explained as sick because of her ambition and lack of satisfaction in the demands of being a wife and mother. No one thought to tell her as a child she may have to make her own way and Scott only said it later because he was tired of her financial drain on him and already looking with desire at other women. She expected exactly what she was told would happen, and it did happen for a little while, until it all started falling apart.She wasn't prepared, but made a valiant attempt to succeed- Against a destructive jealous alcoholic genius husband, a snobbish daughter, and a world that wished she would learn her "place", could you have stayed sane? Granted she wasn't an angel, but F. Scott Fitz owes his very legend to her. This book reveals through her own words and those of others what she may have been, and frankly what she became as a writer and artist is more than many "sane" people will ever be.

The world of Zelda Fitzgerald, (the long suffering wife of F.Scott Fitzgerald), is shared openly and honestly by Milford. From her priviledged childhood in Montgomery, Alabama; to her final descent into maddness. Zelda's talent as a writer is evidenced as she is rumored to have written some of the works credited to her husband. Zelda was a liberated woman who rebelled against the social mores of her time, and by doing so, reserved her spot in history

I was actually surprised to see reviews of those who did not like this bio! Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, daughter of an Alabama Judge, and fashion plate to New York and Paris, was a fascinating woman who, as happens in life, experienced good times and bad. She was the life of the party, she threw the party, she was the party. She attempted things during "mid life" that others of that era would not have thought of attempting--- ballet, painting, writing, etc. I absolutely soared with her spirit when she was on top of the world, and wept when she was deep in depression. I was saddened when she was humiliated by those who didn't know or understand her, and more saddened still when she ended up in an institution in Asheville. But even then, there was an aura about her. She continued to paint while institutionalized, and actually did her self-portrait at that time.

Someone mentioned the fact that F. Scott was mentioned several times in the book, thus the book should have been entitled with the names of both. Well, I'm not sure one could write a book about the wife of such a prolific writer without mentioning his name, but for me, the book was all about Zelda.

This bio is thoroughly researched and extremely well written. The author painted a vivid picture of Zelda in every aspect of her life, and she used the same bold strokes to include the reader. Loved it!! Well done, Ms. Milford!

While most people know of "The Legend of Zelda" as a video game, in fact the game takes its name from the real Zelda, the wife of F. Scott (Francis Scott Key) Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was without any doubt a superlative author in his own right. However, an interesting and lesser known fact is that his work comes very much out of his own personal experience with his wife Zelda.

Milford's book, which reads like a novel, is an incredible example of what can be done when one combines intense research skills with extraordinary writing acumen. Zelda was a Southern Girl from Montgomery, Alabama, the first capitol of the Confederacy. It was also the home town of Jefferson Davis the only President of the Confederacy. The Southern ways stuck long after the end of the Civil War in Montgomery and Zelda was truly a child of the era.

What is fascinating about Milford's book is what happens to Zelda and Fitzgerald after they marry and move to New York. Fitzgerald produced two very successful books, the second of which was "The Great Gatsby" and then basically expatriated to France where he was in the good company of Ring Lardner, Ernest Hemingway and many others of that ilk. He and Zelda were friend of Dorothy Parker and Gertrude Stein and the list goes on.

Zelda though, was the creative mind behind "The Great Gatsby" and was the one who created the visual image of the character that Fitzgerald used as the basis of his book. Even more interesting is that Zelda, after a wild life with Fitzgerald in their early marital days became a serious alcoholic and had a horribly debilitating mental disorder that kept her in insane asylums for the better part of 12 years. She never did overcome her problem and ultimately died in a fire when serving one of her many commitments as the building was wood, along with the fire escapes.

The book is perhaps one of the greatest biographies ever written and tells a tale of a lady and her famous author husband both of whom lived at the end of an era that shall never return. It is highly recommended for all readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald and makes a superb biographical connection between Zelda and her famous author/screenwriter husband.

Many of the other reviews of this biography by Nancy Milford give a misleading picture of it. First, there seems to be such a need or desire to see Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald as a feminist heroine that this biography is misread. There is, to be sure, some evidence that Zelda had some literary talent of her own: she actively contributed to her husband's best work, she wrote some stories that were published under his name and he suggested in a letter that if she hadn't met him, she would have grown into a genius. Yet it's clear Milford, when writing this book, had a more circumscribed view. She read all or near all of Zelda's surviving fiction and found much of it shallow or incoherent.

Second, the other reviews don't, in my view, really convey the depth of tragedy here. If Ford Madox Ford had a time-traveling library and could have read this book, he would not have begun The Good Soldier with, "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." Instead, he would have sad, "This is the second saddest story I have ever heard." Zelda and F. Scott became an incredibly famous and glamorous couple in the early 1920s, but within a decade, their lives were complete misery. F. Scott was a raging alcoholic and his inept responses to what in hindsight were early signs of his wife's mental illness would likely be considered abusive today. And Zelda for her part wasn't particularly loveable. The sheer gratuitousness and abruptness of Zelda's death only underscores the sadness of it all.

The book has two phases. The first reads like a documentary version of The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald's novel of an imploding society couple. In fact, Milford quotes a letter by F. Scott lamenting that he wrote it so young because the parts that weren't autobiographical when he wrote it became so (with the implication that he could have done parts better). Because Milford's biography has to adhere the archival record and can't cut loose with the exuberance of the Fitzgerald novel, it feels prodding in comparison, of interest mainly for showing how creative F. Scott was even with autobiographical materials.

The second half describes Zelda's descent into schizophrenia. This part doesn't feel particularly coherent at times, but then again, coherence is an awfully high standard to ask for a history of someone with a very poor grip on reality (especially when, as I suspect, the records available to work from weren't as thorough as a researcher might like). This is the part that becomes relentlessly sad. But it's also the part in which Zelda starts to become a sympathetic character. In her early years, she feels like she was crafted out a list of symptoms of histrionic personality disorder (shallow, attention-seeking, hyper-sexual, trouble reasoning -- basically a female version of a sociopath). But as her world goes to pieces, she becomes engaged in a battle to maintain a scrap of dignity and that's very touching.

Overall, I'm very glad that I read this, but I do feel it could have been done better. The writing is workman-like, but no more. For the most part, Milford sticks to the record so closely that it becomes a little maddening. There's no attempt to make sense of Zelda's personality disorders. Milford simply matter of factly states that this particular doctor diagnosed Zelda with schizophrenia and that that guest at the Fitzgerald house found her views erratic. Also, the literary analysis doesn't have any panache: it largely summarizes Zelda's writings in such a way that you feel like you have no need -- or desire -- to go read them yourself and then draws fairly safe conclusions from them. In other words, this really feels like it was someone's dissertation.

And I have to say that Zelda remains very elusive. For the first half of her life, she comes across as a very dumb dumb blonde. But then a letter or something she says is quoted, and those few words soar. So then what was Zelda? An idiot savante coquette? It's not really clear.

I am still reading this because it is important supplemental reading to all of of Scott's works and hers. It was a tragic blend of fantasy and reality , ending or course with her tortuous death and his untimely death in Hollywood. Who needs a soap opera? Excellent usage of personal letters , and linkages to Scot's works.

E am a huge F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald fan, but you can usually only find books that are mostly about Scott. This one about Zelda gives you such insight into her personality and her mental illnesses, as well as her relationship with Scott. It's also a great read for anyone who loves the 1920s and 1930s.