Book Review on Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald

This 1934 novel had its beginnings much earlier in the life of the controversial author and his wife, Zelda Sayre. While This Side of Paradise, his first novel, captured the young love and longing of protagonist Amory Blaine, the story reaches its tumultuous end in the pages of Tender is the Night. It has been said over and over that Scott Fitzgerald’s writings were based on his own life, that he was the Amory and the Dick of his novels. He wrote about his crisis filled personal life, making it more crazed and unhappy. In capturing the sadness of his own life, he left readers with a bittersweet longing for the age that he had lived in and embodied in spirit.

Tender is the Night was the last published novel of the author. And it was written after a considerably long bout of un-productivity in his career. It tells the story of a couple, the Diver’s, falling out of love after years of being regarded as “two bodies, one soul”. It is a sad, sometimes infuriating tale. One can see that Dick needs Nicole quite as much as Nicole needs him. In the years since their extraordinary courtship, they have developed a joint personality that people outside of their marriage almost revere.

But, as is the case with most marriages, the outsiders find a way in. Just as simply as guests were invited into their reverie on the French Riviera. It was, alas, a paradise that got trampled upon. There are a string of uninteresting characters who like to bask in the glamour of the Divers, one among them being a misguided, passionate young actress. She was awed by the Divers, perhaps more by Dick than by Nicole. Nicole’s character development shows a stark dissimilarity between her condition before and after their marriage. Her mental disposition and the reason behind it shock the reader.

The story ends depressingly, with the duo being separated by their own volition. It was an inevitable end. I can’t say I enjoyed the story, or the writing. In spite of his fame and the posthumous hype about him, I find F. Scott Fitzgerald lacking in originality and sometimes frivolous. Of the three works of his that I have read, I must say that I admire The Great Gatsby the best. Tender is the Night will, unfortunately, not hold a tender place in my heart.