Novels about F. Scott Fitzgerald

At the hey-day of his career, F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first celebrities of the twentieth century. It's therefore not surprising that he has become the subject of other works of fiction, most notably - in thinly disguised fashion - of his wife's only novel Save me the Waltz. I will add comments on Budd Schulberg's The Disenchanted as well as Sheilah Graham's Beloved Infidel as soon as I've read them.

Save me the Waltz

There are sentences in this book that remind the reader instantly of Scott Fitzgerald's prose. Yet, there can be no doubt that he contributed very little, if anything to his wife's first and only novel. Zelda wrote it within six weeks in early 1932, much to the chagrin of Scott who had been working on his forth novel Tender is the Night for several years at that point. He also objected to the fact that Zelda's story was primarily a thinly-veiled autobiographical account, but nevertheless he eventually praised his wife's work. And he was right to do so. Since even though Zelda's use of stilted language sometimes borders on the absurd, her story engrosses the reader as the deeply personal memoir of a woman who was not content to be merely the wife of a famous husband. If nothing else, the book gives testament to her independent spirit and helps the reader understand why - despite all the self-inflicted pain that their marriage had to endure - Scott and Zelda ultimately stayed true to each other until the bitter end.