This Side of Paradise

Paperback, 186 pages

Published May 21, 2014 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

ISBN:
978-1-4996-3315-3
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4 stars (2 reviews)

The debut of an American original. Here is the accomplished first novel that catapulted F. Scott Fitzgerald to literary fame-at the age of 23. It follows the education-intellectual, spiritual, and sexual-of young Amory Blaine.

45 editions

To be young and reading in 1920

4 stars

I really like very much of this book. Similar to H.L. Mencken, I do think the first half far surpasses the second, but Chapter V goes a long way to redeeming that second half. It helps to put your mind back a century to when this was first published, and when you knew nothing of Fitzgerald, allowing yourself to view its freshness. For all its flaws it is a terrific debut novel and I would have loved being there for its initial impact.

Maybe each new young generation needs its novel, while it still thinks it is different and unique and not yet cynical and disillusioned as to what it is capable of becoming. Ultimately the strength of this novel is that questioning by Amory Blaine of what he can become. Like him or hate him, those are questions most of us wrestle within during those same years of our …

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4 stars