Tender is the Night

"You never know just how much space you occupy in other people's lives"

- Tender is the Night


So, first of all, the book I was reading for my ISU is Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I think I kind of regret taking so long to read this book - I think spreading out my reading so much made me lose interest in it for a while. The book is divided up into three parts - book I, book II, and book III. The first thing I noticed when reading this book was Fitzgerald's powerful writing style - his uses very "big" (what a crappy adjective) words and shapes them into elaborate sentences. However, his words definetly have a beauty to them. This is not always good, however, because sometimes its hard to find the point of the sentence or what he's really trying to say when its marred by such poetic sentences. But yet, there is a real sense of beauty to his writing - as me and Z both agreed on, even if it does tend to distract you from the plot.

When I first starting reading I didn't think the first "part" was anything spectacular - until the end, where the plot finally started to pick up. That's not to say it was boring - but it just seemed somewhat typical of a plot line. However, I had no clue where it was going to go next. So then I moved onto the second part. The beginning of the second part was pretty interesting (however the book doesn't go in chronological order...which was kinda weird) as it revealed a lot about the back story of the characters and how they...fell in love. Another thing I liked about Fitzgerald was how he can describe like being in love really nicely - even taking a paragraph to explain how these two people made out or had sex. But its not vulgar or anything...its just significant. You just have to really go "wow" and read some of his sentences again.

The last part was when it really started to pick up though. If you have the patience to get there, I think its well worth it. By this time you know about how all the main characters are and what they've been doing. In fact, even the end of the second part is very interesting and sad...as many important events start to occur. But yeah, the final part was really interesting to me. Not only was it depressing as hell it made me really reflect on like...all the themes of the novel and what everything meant.

So lets talk about what I can relate this book to. Its obviously related to Gatsby as it has MANY of the same themes. In fact, its almost a more...elaborate/darker/more realistic version of Gatsby. Gatsby was very short and sweet to read...this book requires patience as it spends alot of time introducing and developing characters. Even though I kind of found it hard to keep track of all the characters and names...but that's a problem I always have. But it definitely has the themes of like...social status and people hiding behind their "money" (like Tom and Daisy) and the whole upper class society being corrupt. I think its also similar to Cuckoo's Nest and even Bell Jar (Desda!) as it deals with metal disorders and mental institutions and all that stuff.

In fact, one of the things I really loved about this book was how much it DID have in it. Sometimes when a book has too many themes, it seems like not of them are well done or thoroughly explored. But in this book, Fitzgergald did an excellent job of really incorporating all these themes into one novel. So...what is the plot, really? I think to put it briefly: high class society, mental institutions, relationships, deteriorating marriages, and affairs. It's definitely a romance novel - but a dark one that really makes you think about what it means to care about someone. But a very important theme of the book is based around how like...in order for one person in a relationship/situation to get better, the other person must get worse. Which is kinda sad, but could be true.

One of the main themes in the novel I liked was about balance in a relationship. It basically throws the idea out there that in order for one partner in a relationship to get better (in this case, quite literally) the other one has to get worse. It also explores themes like what it really means to fall in love for the moment, and what its like when you know you're not in love with a person anymore. But it also explores obligations, affairs, and freedom in a relationship kinda sense too. I don't know...there's just really so much to talk about. I also liked how the ending wasn't as crazy as Gatsby - no one gets shot in their pool and there's no huge car crash at the end. Instead...its just very sombre. Its what you knew was going to happen all along, but when it does happen you end up just thinking...."wow isn't that sad and realistic?" "Was that really the right choice?". You can't help feeling simultaneously happy, sad and contemplative. And I just really liked the book because in the main relationship throughout the novel can be related to so many situations that we all have in life - staying in a relationship because you care and want to help someone, what do you do when you know there's nothing between you two anymore, what happens when you find you're interested in someone else. I know I'm really focusing on the relationship part but there's a lot of other themes too - freedom, whats wrong in society eyes or not, the importance of money and status etc etc. Its definitely a novel that made me think though. And I like that. Though the only thing I disliked was that there were some parts were it got kind of bland for about 20 pages or so.

Desda was talking a while ago about what makes things "literature". I would definetly say that this book is - its one of those books that really made me reflect and think back on the message that it sent out. Even if it was a depressing one, it was very realistically and poetically delivered. I really love how the characters truly changed through the course of the novel - and at the end, you can't really be sure if you're happy or sad with how things have changed in their lives. I think that this is really similar to real life - there's not really a definitive feeling of like happiness or sadness when a major change in a relationship occurs - there's just this shade of gray in between them both. And you aren't sure whether things are better or worse when its over but you know you have to move on because it was coming to that all along. I'll say it again - this book really makes you question what it means to care about someone, what being "needed" in a relationship means and what...having freedom and being your own person means in the context of a relationship.

I think the last positive influence the book has had on me was that it made me actually want to read literature again. I just spent like 20 mins making a list of books I want to try reading. Maybe I"ll get around to it...one day....