Paradise

This blog of mine is not a book review, I promise. I read far too many books to have the small sampling here be a credit to the books that I digest, but, sometimes books are so powerful that I can't stop thinking about them and so I have to write about them.

I realized that This Side of Paradise was such a book when I was at a restaurant talking with Rebbie last night and I had my hands in the air in exclamation and admiration. Regrettably, I can not take that moment back but it doesn't diminish the love I have for the book.

I have known the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, for some time. Yes, I know that I don't technically "know" him but I'm relatively well versed in his work. For instance, my favorite quote is from his book The Great Gatsby where it closes saying, "And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

This Side of Paradise is currently one of my favorite books-of all time. I tried to start this book four years ago, at the beginning of what would be some of the most definitive years of my life. I couldn't get past page 60 (partly because the book was broken and the pages were falling out, but mostly because I couldn't relate to the context). I am so grateful I attempted again when I did.

The book is a recursive glance into the protagonist years as a college student and his transition on. What a fitting theme. It talks about lost love that can never be repeated, the friendships that come to define us but have faded, intellectual growth, questioning of systems, the mistakes of youth, and a love for the loss of innocence. The brilliance in the book though is showing that it is not the innocence that is missed, but the action of losing it.

I believe in the saying that the worst thing for a book is a plot--because it takes away from the art of writing. This novel does not have a strong plot/story line, with its skills lying in the realism of the writing as well as deep, humanistic themes. (So, you really have to give this book a chance, the ending is worth everything and more.)

I am so in love with the way that Fitzgerald writes that I can't stand the injustice that I am giving his novel by attempting to describe it in such incomparable terms.

I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would strongly recommend it to any recently graduated college student who can relate to the development of Amory Blaine.

To close, Fitzgerald wrote "His youth seemed never so vanished as now in the contrast between the utter loneliness of this visit and that riotous, joyful party of four years before."

A toast to the party of four years ago.