This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise

By F. Scott Fitzerald

It's hard to describe the mixture of emotion and thought that I had while reading this book, but I am going to try anyway. The actual story is narrowly thin (a rich young kid goes to school at Princeton and endures through unsuccessful romances) but the depth of character is what fills the 200+ pages. I connected well with the poignant and deeply felt emotion that Fitzgerald writes into Amory Blaine (the main character). However, at other times I could not connect with Fitzgerald's writing because the writing of Amory was sometimes extraneous making him come across as removed from reality. That being said, I think Fitzgerald is an excellent writer and I particularly enjoyed his descriptive use of language. On the other hand, I did get a little bit sick of all the poetry stanzas (at this point in my life, I don't like poetry) and I also was tired of the many references to other writers/poets that I didn't understand.

Overall, this is one of those books where only a certain type of people will thoroughly enjoy it. I can see people being easily bored at lack of plot and maybe even lack of purpose, as well as being annoyed with Amory's self-conceited personality. Overall, I enjoyed aspects of the writing but at times I was a little bored.