F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Tender Is The Night. Before reading the story I knew that this was the last book he published while alive and that it was the most autobiographical of all his novels. After a while I figured out that the character, Dr. Dick Diver, was close to F. Scott's personality. That made the story so sweet and tender and so sad. As Dick, a young psychiatrist, cares for his mentally ill wife, Nicole (much like F. Scott cared for Zelda), he looses himself. As she gets stronger, he becomes weaker. The Divers, with their two children, live in Europe. They travel from city to city living off her family wealth. They spend time on the French Riviera. There is one scene where Dick gets into a brawl with a taxi driver in Rome. He is brought to the police station to settle the matter. He becomes so drunkenly abusive he gets beaten and thrown into jail. The scene is written so vividly and with such detail, I accurately guessed that F. Scott had the same thing happen to him. Tender Is The Night is on the list of the 100 greatest American novels. I agree. And it just goes to prove that you can be rich, you can be famous, you can have enough money to drink champagne on the French Riviera while a governess takes care of your children while being more miserable than I am (who is not rich, is not famous, had to raise her own children, and cannot afford to go to the French Riviera).
2 comments:
You could, however, afford to send your offspring #2 to the french riviera, which she very much appreciated. And she would gladly go along when you decide to go. :)
Oh, I wouldn't want to do that. You might end up over-indulged and decadent like Dr. Driver.
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