Our Darling Girl - A Book Review of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.”
~Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald has been glamorized in American history since her debut appearances in New York City, March 1920. Bobbed hair, cupid bow lips, and a sultry smile. What else do we really know about her that makes her so alluring? Half of me wonders if she hasn’t stood the test of time due her sexy name, Zelda. How many people do you know with a Z starting name?
Zoro
Zendaya
Zaccheus
The mysterious and curious man in the tree.
Amazon Prime released an original series in 2015 called “Z: The Beginning of Everything” starring Christina Ricci as Zelda Fitzgerald. I wasn’t out looking for a new fascination, instead the show piqued my interest. I love literature’s backstories. What goes into the making of great authors and poets. While great fun for a television series, I completed the ten part series wanting much more than was offered. The script made the Fitzgeralds seem larger than life, impractical, and sort of like a flash flame. And here we are over one hundred years later, still thinking about them. There had to be more substance, right?
After finishing the ten episodes show, I sought out a few of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books and a biography or two to understand a little more. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler was the inspiration for the show, and while squarely historical fiction, it felt like a good place to start.
Fowler set out to uncover a more intimate portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife and lifelong love, Zelda. While Fitzgerald has been heralded one of America’s greatest writers, and most of us read a novel or two in school, his worthiness was more than put to the test in Z.
After looking to multiple sources, I have begun to imagine that watching the young Fitzgeralds in the 1920s and 30s must have been like watching the Kardashians today. The garish display of wealth and immaturity is tough to look away from. You’ve got to properly suspended any and all belief in their lifestyle being attainable, or real, in order to be dazzled with the rest of them.
And isn’t that exactly what The Great Gatsby does for millions of readers, and narrator Nick Carraway?
On brand with many other historical novels trending in the market right now, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, is exploratory in nature. Readers and authors are trying to discover the truth behind every great piece of literature. And it was time The Great Gatsby went on trial.
While Fowler’s Z has been out for ten years, it doesn’t feel it. Many new historical fictions contain the themes of true authorship and overlooked women. Thinking of The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott and Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Pattie Callahan, Z matches in style and stride. And I imagine will still feel relevant many more years in the future.
History recognizes Zelda as an outstanding author and creator in her own right. Because of her short life and gap years in sanitoriums where she was forbidden to write, many questions remain about where the lines between husband and wife crossed after things went to print. The Amazon show, “Z: The Beginning of Everything”, is much more suggestive that Fitzgerald absorbed Zelda’s writings for his own publications after years of manipulation and gaslighting. Fowler paints a more complicated picture of the couple. The toxic traits of both causing suffering for one another.
And while understanding and crediting true authorship is important, I don’t know if flaying people’s flaws for entertainment is the best way about it.
The New York Times reviewer Penelope Green was less than appreciative of this fictional portrayal in her review in article “Beautiful and Damned.”
“Fowler has determinedly imagined her own dialogue and written her own versions of Zelda’s letters, and the voice she has given her is that of a perky helpmeet to her husband: a can-do girl saddled with a hopeless drunk, jollying him along, deflecting his alcoholic rage and attendant social embarrassments with quips delivered over her shoulder as she leads him away from the bar or the dinner table.”
The audiobook, for this novel, is an excellent choice. At first, I was a bit put off by the reader, Jenna Lamia, because her voice feels young and unpolished. As I continued to listen, though, I realized how perfect the casting for this story was. And as I thought about Zelda and Fitzgerald’s massive amounts of talent, their failings were encapsulated in immaturity from their immediate fame.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald is entertainment. Especially for those who love time pieces and book connections. Fowler does not miss a single connection the Fitzgeralds had, name-dropping Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway, and Edith Wharton freely. The prose is beautiful and sparkly, like I imagine conversing with Zelda was. While I may have a sour taste in my mouth about the destructive natures of Scott and Zelda, I would still recommend this book.
I’ve collected a few of my favorite resources for you from this brief fascination of mine. If you go searching on the other side of paradise, leave me a comment below on what you enjoyed reading!
