When I told her that I was reading Tender is the Night, Kelli warned me that it was 'terrible'. She'd abandoned it because of it's 'old-fashioned' writing. At that point, I was about 20 pages in, and I told her that I thought it was great so far. And I did end up liking it, but it sure wasn't the story I thought I was getting when I started reading it.
I enjoy Fitzgerald's writing; his descriptive passages are so evocative that they seem like pictures instead of words. I could almost feel the oppressive stillness of the night in this description, "It was a limpid black night, hung as in a basket from a single dull star." I also like his au courant syntax. Young people's feelings of rootlessness and restlessness in post WWI Europe are pefectly captured in his writing.
Tender is the Night opens in the summer of 1925 with Rosemary, a young American actress, arriving at a Mediterranean resort and meeting the Divers, Dick and Nicole. Impressionable and unexperienced, Rosemary soon finds herself falling in love with the carefree, fun-loving, patrician Divers, especially Dick. Over the next 129 pages, Fitzgerald develops a Rosemary into a very likable protagonist, and develops the relationship between Dick and her to the point of crisis - Dick is also in love with Rosemary, but will he betray Nicole?
On page 130, Fitzgerald throws us a huge curveball. Suddenly we're in Zurich in the spring of 1917, and we're learning how Dick and Nicole met. At this point, I presumed that this back story was needed to further build the dilemma that Dick was facing. But I was wrong. Turns out, this story isn't about Rosemary, it's about Dick and Nicole. Rosemary was a device Fitzgerald used to introduce the appearance of the Divers before explaining the reality of the Divers. And it turns out, Dick isn't such a nice guy. And it turns out, Nicole is anything but carefree.
I had a really hard time readjusting my perspective when the story changed. I had far too much invested in Rosemary to easily give up on her story. And maybe that's why I came to so dislike Dick. Although Dick appears to be a charming, loving guy, he turns out to be an ethically challenged parasite who is using Nicole for her money and as a cover for his lack of career advancement. As time goes on, Dick is less and less able to maintain his charming facade. By the end of the novel, he has been shunned by his former circle of friends, as he so richly deserves.
Rosemary returns in a supporting role near the end of the book, and - perhaps because she's so closely associated with Dick, or perhaps because she's no longer an innocent - she is far less likable.
The book has a big surprise, which I haven't revealed here. It's that surprise (hint - it involves Nicole) that ultimately redeems this book and makes it worth the read.
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