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	Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald Scribner, 1995 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 137 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character -- lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative -- Tender Is the Night, Mabel Dodge Luhan remarked, raised F. Scott Fitzgerald to the heights of "a modern Orpheus."

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The 2nd best of a talented author

Tender is the Night is a beautiful and sublte psychological novel of deterioration and wasted talent. It chronicles the gradual fall of Dick Diver (note the last name), the brilliant psychiatrist who wrecks himself trying to cure his insane wife, Nicole. Inevitably ever reader compares it to the Great Gatsby, which was arguably a better and very different book. While Gatsby was a faced-paced, tightly organized drama, Tender is a much slower book that leaves an impression on the reader by giving a lot of subtle impressions.

Even though it is not the Great Gatsby, Tender is an impressive book. The characters are especially convincing because they are so dynamic. They all change over the long course of the novel based on their interractions with one another. This is exactly what real people do. After reading this book you feel like you know and are in an emotional relationship with the characters, and that is the mark of a great personal novel. As with any Fitzgerald novel, the prose is beautiful. Fitzgerald fills the book with the rich imagery and flowing rythms of a very beautiful time and place- the French Riviera of the 1920s.

Tender is certainly not for all readers, and not even for all fans of the Great Gatsby. Whereas Gatsby felt at times like a detailed landscape, Tender is the Night is more like an abstract painting. Fitzgerald does not attempt to rationalize the improbable events in the book, and often uses almost surreal descriptions and occurences to create an atmosphere or reinforce an idea. It is almost like the Divers' reality is an extension of their imaginations.

Some readers also struggle with the structure of the book. The story begins with a long, romantic introduction to the Divers at the height of their marriage and the beginning of Dick's decline in 1925. In Book II, the story moves back to 1917 when Dick met Nicole, and moves through their early marriage into 1925. Book III continues the narrative through Dick's decline into the late 1920s.

Fitzgerald's non-linear structure is interesting, but he often fails to make it work. There are inconsistencies in the timing of the novel, and in Book III it is often difficult to know what year it is. This makes the rate of Dick's deterioration and the course of the Diver's marriage unnessecarily confusing.

Another problem is that Fitzgerald's portrait of the psychiatrist protagonist is somewhat marred by his almost silly English-major's view of the world. Fitzgerald was a talented writer who successfully communicated his deep understanding of people through Dr. Diver's professional knowledge of pyschology, which he uses to achieve social success. It is also interesting that the man who studies feelings is intensely self conscious about his own emotions and perceptions. However, it is necessary to remember that Dr. Diver is supposed to a be a pyschiatrist and neurologist, a medical doctor who takes a scientific approach to behavior. However, Dick acts like an English major. He educated himself by reading books, and most of his work consists of "spinning out his story". This is not at all how a technical person learns, or works. This is how a writer works. All Fitzgerald knew was literature, so that is really all he could write about. A doctor is really just an applied scientist, and scientists are natural problem solvers. Dick Diver does not act like a problem solver, does not take a rational view of the world, does not take a scientific approach to his work, and does not express curiosity in understanding how things work. He is not at all a convincing doctor, yet his career is supposed to be central to his character. This problem occurs again when Fitzgerald tries to emphasize Nicole's intelligence by talking about her interest in books. And Nicole's lover Tommy, a soldier of fortune, is a painter who does a lot of posing and really does not come across as a soldier. In the end everyone of his characters is really some kind of artist. He is not able to convincingly render any kinds of intelligence besides artistic creativity, and that often makes his work seem unconvincing and a little silly.

Despite its flaws, Tender is the work of a master. I read the book months ago, and looking back at it seems to get better and better. You'll feel like you personally know the characters, and the ending will haunt you. Fitzgerald's second rate work is better than 99% of the books out there.

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mastery of language

I think you need a quiet place and state of mind to really appreciate this book, because it is not only the stories of these characters but the way they are presented...so incredibly tragic, poetic and beautiful. The author did an incredible job in inviting readers into the labyrinth of hope, despair, conflicts, alienation of the characters so intimately. Great book.


More personal than The Great Gatsby

Tender Is the Night is the story of a very dysfunctional American couple, the Divers, slowly disintegrating in Europe. Much less economical and symbolic than The Great Gatsby, it is a personal work. There are some problems with this novel, such as the coincidental way in which characters meet each other again across Europe and the poor development of some of the important secondary characters. However, one is convincingly drawn in to the initial magic of the Divers' relationship and its gradual collapse.

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Sad tale of a broken marriage

Despite its sombre tone, I really enjoyed reading Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. At first, it appears that the novel will follow Rosemary Hoyt, a young American actress traveling abroad with her mother. Rosemary meets Dick and Nicole Diver, a young, affluent couple, on a beach in France, during her travels. She soon finds herself falling in love with Mr. Diver.

From there, however, the story takes an abrupt turn. We learn the history of the Diver couple. Dick is a psychoanalytic doctor, and his relationship with Nicole began as a clinical one. An impossibly rich young girl from America, she'd been committed to a mental facility in Europe after a disastrous turn in her relationship with her father. Dick happens upon her one day in the facility grounds, and the two begin talking and writing to one another. Later, Dick almost seems compelled to marry her in order to fully cure her of her illness.

At any rate, the remainder of the tale primarily follows Dick and Nicole (with brief re-appearances by Rosemary) as their marriage evolves and eventually disintegrates. It is a sad tale, indeed, and it definitely smacks of Fitzgerald's fascinations with social power and money. It also sadly rings with autobiographical elements in Fitzgerald's later life - adultery, mental illness, the feeling of failed potential.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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