Le doy cuatro estrellas porque me ha parecido un libro sumamente interesante que trata varios temas que sorprende que trate, dado que se publicó a principios de los años 30. 
Y es que Francis Scott Fitzgerald trata el tema de las enfermedades mentales como creo que no se había tratado antes y no sólo se queda ahí sino que aborda la cuestion del cuidador del enfermo, del familiar agotado y estresado.
Y todo sería ideal si no fuera porque el protagonista es muy protagonista. Todo gira alrededor de él, el mundo funciona o se desmorona en relación a él. Es un egocéntrico que no cree serlo, un egoista, un cínico y un hipócrita que se aprovecha de las mujeres. Y esto no es lo malo del caso. Hay muchos personajes así en la literatura, lo malo es que tengo la impresión de que Scott Fitzgerald intenta justificar y librar de todo cargo a su personaje masculino. Intenta por todos los medios hacer que nos caiga bien y que sintamos pena por él cuando las cosas se le hacen demasiado grandes. Y el lector no puede evitar ponerse del lado de este pobre hombre, pero hasta cierto punto. Puedes comprender a Dick, pero no justificarle, no excusarle. Para más inri la decadencia y los malos hábitos hacen caer a Dick a un pozo de patetismo y la autocompasión implícita me produce rechazo, debería sentir lástima por él (y esa es la intención) pero me sucede al contrario: "te está bien empleado y ojalá te ahogues".
Y teniendo en cuenta que se considera este libro el más autobiográfico de los que escribió, añadido a la fama de turbulenta de su relación con su mujer Zelda (de la que desconozco los detalles), una se pregunta si Francis trató a Zelda peor de lo que Dick trata a Nicole y escribió este libro dando su versión de lo que estaba pasando. Poniendose de bueno pero sin pasarse, no sea que vaya alguien a notar la falsedad.

Psychiatrist Weds Patient, Goes to Pot

If anyone ever paid close attention to the old literary dictum, "write what you know", it must have been F. Scott Fitzgerald. His novels bear a striking resemblance to his own life. TENDER IS THE NIGHT does not qualify as an exception---it contains alcoholism, mental illness, and the post WW I, Jazz Age American youth scene in Europe; the Riviera, Paris, Switzerland, and Italy, central themes in the legend of Fitzgerald himself. Not having read or heard much about this novel beforehand, at first I felt I was reading a second-rate "Hangin' with the Homies over There in Frantz" or maybe "Rosemary Crashes the In-Crowd". As the novel unfolded, though, I began to appreciate its wider vision and deeper concerns. By the end, I felt that here was another chapter of the Great American Novel, a single version of which may never exist and maybe cannot possibly exist, but which may be perceived as several books that comprise the Great American Story when taken as one. If the rise from poverty to wealth and power is one strand of the `American story', then surely the descent from wealth and respectability to the lower depths is another. While Dick Diver's crash is not as complete as Hurstwood's in "Sister Carrie", he certainly winds up expelled from the Promised Land, [barred from his former social world] practicing medicine in ever smaller New York towns, his European days of glory long disappeared.

Fitzgerald is able to paint a slowly-revealed picture of talent and wit being worn down and defeated. The forces that accomplish this are subtle and not easily named. Dick, the rising young star of psychoanalysis, marries a beautiful patient who suffers from childhood abuse by her own father. She is extremely wealthy to boot. Together they form the core of a shining group of wealthy but rather aimless expatriates in those halcyon days of the dollar after World War I. Great things are expected from Dick, but ever-increasing alcohol and dissipation rob him of his career. He pours his energy into caring for and curing Nicole, his wife. Slowly, dependence on her wealth, living the life of a sybarite, and his decreasing attention to work turn the tables. She becomes the strong one; he begins to decline, has inconclusive affairs, and the end is inevitable. The sense of loss is palpable. "Her eyes followed his figure until it became a dot and mingled with the other dots in the summer crowd." A number of interesting minor characters and excellent description of life at that time, in those places, of that class, bring the novel to an extremely high level, along with Fitzgerald's mastery of dialogue that reflects the times perfectly. TENDER IS THE NIGHT is not only a great novel, it is an unforgettable portrait of an era that has completely vanished, yet which, with the help of movies, we still feel almost able to touch.

Time is our most valuable commodity. Had enough of this!, Dick is precisely one of those, Rosemary is leaving me with clammy hands of bored annoyance, and Nicole appears to be living on another planet.

Two reasons why the two stars,
Beautiful sounding title
The French Riviera

Two reasons that stopped me trowing this out the window in frustration,
It's a borrowed book (from a rather charming lady)
Wouldn't want to knock somebody out on the sidewalk, I am on the fourth floor!

«Κάνω σκοτεινές σκέψεις' και για πολύ καιρό
ήμουν κατά το ήμισυ ερωτευμένος με το μακάριο θάνατο.
Πολλές φορές τον αποκάλεσα εμπνευσμένη ρίμα
να πάρει με τον άνεμο την ήρεμη ανάσα μου,
Τώρα περισσότερο από ποτέ είναι ευκαιρία να φύγω
να πάψω τα μεσάνυχτα δίχως πόνο
ενώ εσύ θα αφήνεις την ψυχή σου να ταξιδεύει
μέσα σε τέτοια έκσταση!
Ακόμα θα μπορούσες να τραγουδάς, και εγώ έχω αυτιά επί ματαίω
Στην τρανότερη ελεγεία σου γίνε η κατάρα».

Το «Τρυφερή είναι η νύχτα» πήρε τον τίτλο του απο την «Ωδή στο αηδόνι», του Κήτς, το κύκνειο και πιο ωραίο άσμα του.

Σαν ταινία παλιά ξεδιπλώνεται και εξελίσσεται η ιστορία μιας ολόκληρης γενιάς. Η γενιά του μεσοπολέμου, ένας παλιός κόσμος που χάνεται μέσα στον κόσμο του υλικού δυναμισμού, της εκλεπτυσμένης βαρβαρότητας, της ανενδοίαστης επιδίωξης υλικών σκοπών και της χυδαίας επίδειξης πλαστών προσωπικοτήτων.

Στην ουσία ο συγγραφέας δημιουργεί ενα αυτοβιογραφικό μυθιστόρημα μεταμφιεσμένο και απολογητικό. Έργο δημιουργικής ωριμότητας που γίνεται σταδιακά ένας προσωπικός ξεπεσμός στολισμένος με πικραμένη περιφρόνηση.

Το 1919 ένας φιλόδοξος νεαρός Αμερικανός ο Ντικ Ντίβερ φθάνει στη Ζυρίχη ονειροπαρμένος και αποστρατευμένος. Έχοντας πάρει το δίπλωμα του ως ψυχίατρος έχει μεγάλη αξία και πολλά αξιοποιήσιμα προσόντα μπερδεμένα με χαμένες ρομαντικές ψευδαισθήσεις.

Ο ψυχίατρος, Δρ Ντίβερ ερωτεύεται παράφορα μια νεαρή τρόφιμο ψυχιατρικής κλινικής, τη Νικόλ Ουώρεν.

Η ιστορία μας αρχίζει με την ευεργετική επίδραση του γιατρού πάνω στην άρρωστη και τελειώνει με το κλείσιμο του φακέλου της ασθενούς Νικόλ Ουώρεν.

Ο Ντικ και η Νικόλ μετά απο δέκα χρόνια συζυγικού βίου έχουν δυο παιδιά, ανήκουν στην μεταπολεμική αριστοκρατία μιας ανέμελης, άπιστης και ευδαιμονικης γενιάς που παραπαίει, ενώ περιστοιχίζονται απο φίλους και γνωστούς κάθε ανθρώπινου είδους.

Άτομα που συναγωνίζονται στην επίδειξη πλούτου και εκκεντρικότητας. Αργόσχολοι και άστατοι, χαμένοι πνευματικά και ιδεολογικά, παλεύουν μέσα απο την παθητική σπατάλη των πάντων να ευτυχήσουν. Μέσα απο «άγρια γλέντια» και περιφρόνηση κάθε ηθικής ή πνευματικής αξίας προσαρμόζονται σε κάθε αλλαγή και προσκυνούν νέους θεούς με σκοπό την αποφυγή της καταδίκης σε αφανισμό.

Δυστυχία και μοναξιά στολίζονται με λαμέ μίνι φορέματα και μακιγιάζ, φωτίζονται απο αστραφτερά ηλεκτρικά φώτα, χορεύουν σε τζαζ ρυθμούς και ζαλίζονται απο τον ίλιγγο του αυτοκινήτου και του αεροπλάνου.

Ο Δρ Ντίβερ σταδιακά αλλάζει, υποφέρει, απογοητεύεται. Καταλαβαίνει πως όλα είναι μια απλή σύμπτωση. Προσπαθεί να ενταχθεί στο πλαίσιο που τον θέλει προσαρμοσμένο να υποδύεται. Να κάνει ευτυχισμένους τους άλλους με κάθε τίμημα, ώστε να μη γίνεται δυσάρεστος, απομένοντας έρημος και στερημένος απο πόρους ζωής.

Βιώνει με περιφρόνηση και πίκρα την εμπειρία της επιδίωξης έξω απο συμπτώσεις.
Όταν κατανοεί πλήρως πως ζει αντλώντας πόρους ζωής απο το γύρω κόσμο, πως υπάρχει, όσο μπορεί να αφομοιώνει σωματικά την τροφή που βρίσκει γύρω του για τα ψυχικά και πνευματικά του όργανα αποφασίζει να αποτραβηχτεί.

Επιλέγει να «πεθάνει» αρνούμενος να απορροφήσει, μέσα απο τη ζωή που τον προσπερνάει αδιάφορη και ανελέητη, ουσίες που θα μπορούσαν να γίνουν πηγές ενέργειας και συνέχισης.

Όμως αυτός ο κόσμος που περιφρονεί είναι ο μόνος που θα μπορούσε να ζήσει, διότι τον δημιούργησε ο ίδιος στα χρόνια της πρώτης ανδρικής του νιότης.
Οικειοθελώς αποσπάται απο τα δημιουργήματα του και χάνει τον ίδιο του τον εαυτό.

(Book 638 from 1001 books) - Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender Is the Night, is the fourth and final novel, completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in Scribner's Magazine, between January and April 1934, in four issues.

Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple, who take a villa, in the South of France, and surround themselves, with a circle of friends, mainly Americans.

Also staying at the resort are Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, and her mother. Rosemary becomes infatuated with Dick, and becomes close to Nicole.

Dick toys with the idea of having an affair with Rosemary. Rosemary senses something is wrong with the couple, which is brought to light when one of the guests at a party reports having seen something strange, in the bathroom.

Tommy Barban, another guest, comes loyally to the defense of the Divers. The action involves various other friends, including the Norths, where a frequent occurrence is the drunken behavior of Abe North.

The story becomes complicated, when Jules Peterson, a black man, is murdered and ends up in Rosemary's bed, in a situation which could destroy Rosemary's career.

Dick moves the blood-soaked body to cover up any implied relationship, between Rosemary and Peterson. It is revealed that, as a promising young doctor, and psychiatrist, Dick had taken on a patient with an especially complex case of neuroses.

This patient is Nicole, whose sexual abuse, by her father is suggested as the cause of her breakdown. As her treatment progresses, she becomes infatuated with Dick, who in turn develops Florence Nightingale syndrome.

He eventually determines to marry Nicole, in part, as a means of providing her with lasting emotional stability. Strong objections are raised by Nicole's sister, who believes Dick is marrying Nicole because of her status as an heiress. Dick is offered a partnership in a Swiss clinic, and Nicole pays for the entire clinic.

After his father's death Dick travels to America and then Rome in hopes to see Rosemary. They start a brief affair, which ends abruptly and painfully. Dick gets into an altercation with the police, and Nicole's sister helps him to get out of jail.

Dick doesn't see how he can be the same person after such a humiliation. He gradually develops a drinking problem. After this becomes an issue with the patients, Dick's ownership share of the clinic is bought out by American investors following his partner's suggestion.

Dick and Nicole's marriage breaks down when he becomes increasingly alcoholic and pines for Rosemary, who is now a successful Hollywood star.

Nicole becomes increasingly aware of her independence. She distances herself from Dick as his confidence and friendliness turn into sarcasm and rudeness towards everyone.

His constant unhappiness over what he could have been fuels his alcoholism, and Dick becomes increasingly embarrassing in social and familial situations. Nicole enters into an affair with Tommy Barban. Nicole divorces Dick and marries Barban. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفدهم ماه نوامبر سال 2011میلادی

عنوان: لطیف است شب؛ نویسنده: فرانسیس اسکات فیتزجرالد؛ مترجم: اکرم پدرام نیا؛ تهران، نشر قطره، هنوز، 1388، در 491ص؛ شابک 9789643419646؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، میلکان، 1393؛ در 370 ص؛ شابک 9786007443378؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

رمان «لطیف است شب»، داستان روانپزشک جذابی ست، به نام «د��ک دایور»، که همسری زیبا، و ثروتمند، ولی روانپریش، به نام «نیکول» دارد؛ ورود «دیک» به رمان، در فصل نخست، و در ساحل رویایی «ریوریرای فرانسه»، رخ می‌دهد؛ نویسنده ی «گتسبی بزرگ»، باز هم میدرخشند

این‌ها نخستین تصاویری هستند، که از جغرافیای اروپا، بر صفحه نقش می‌بندند: نقل از متن کتاب: (بر کرانه‌ ی دلپذیر ریویرای فرانسه...؛ هتل و ساحل درخشان آن، که به جانمازی آجری رنگ میمانست...؛ در تمام منطقه، فقط همین ساحل در حرکت و جنب و جوش بود...)؛ پایان نقل

شخصیت «دیک» با پیشروی داستان، به دلیل بیماری همسرش، دچار تزلزل می‌شود؛ جرقه‌ ی فرود از فراز او، با دل‌دادگی «رزماری» ستاره نوپای هالیوودی به وی، با آغاز دوباره ی حملات روان‌ پریشانه‌ ی «نیکول»، آغاز می‌شود؛ اگر ابتدای رمان، یعنی سواحل دریا را، مقایسه کنیم با خطوط پایانی داستان، شخصیت «دیک» انگار دیگر شده است، و ایش��ن دیگر آن مرد موفق همیشگی نیست: «از شهری به شهر دیگر...»؛ و این جمله‌ ی پایانی کتاب است، و انگار نقطه‌ ی پایان «دیک دایور» باشد، و البته که در فروترین فرود؛ آزاد منشی «دیک»، که با آن موج‌های روان و آرام دریا، بر فراز بود و معنی می‌یافت، حالا جایش را به درماندگی داده، و فرود از فراز به سرانجام رسیده است؛ «لطیف است شب» که عنوان شاعرانه‌ ای هم هست، عنوانش را از شعر «کیتس» برگرفته: «بر بال‌های نامرئی شعر / ذهن کـُـندم چه گیج است و عقب / در کنار تو چه لطیف است شب / ماه ملکه کامیاب نشسته بر تخت / و پریانِ ستاره، گرد او پر طرب / ولی اینجا تاریک است شب.»؛

کتاب جزو صد رمان برتر سده ی بیستم میلادی است؛ «ارنست همینگوی» بارها «لطیف است شب» را بهترین اثر دوست صمیمی‌ خویش، «اسکات» نامیده است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 02/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 26/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

September 2021 reread

n  

He had lost himself - he could not tell the hour when, or the day or the week, the month or the year... Yet he had been swallowed up like a gigolo, and somehow permitted his arsenal to be locked up in the Warren safety-deposit vaults.

n
This is such a rich, dense and diffuse book that it's hard to do a quick 'what it's about' statement without simplifying and reducing and, in the process, erasing what makes it so marvellous. It is about idealism, especially in relation to love and the consequent disillusion, as so many of FSF's books are. But it's also about what happens to a good, potentially brilliant, man who makes a wrong choice because of his own vulnerability to beauty and because he wants to be loved - but who ends up selling his soul to an icon of capitalist wealth.

The toxic marriage of the Divers is reflected in that of the comically awful McKiscos, and Dick's gradual slide from bonhomie into full-blown alcoholism is forecast by the fate of his friend, Abe North. Power shifts within these marriages and it is usually the women who survive - perhaps a marker of FSF's own bitterness?

But there are also interesting political narratives: Dick identifies WW1 as a key moment for the death of two empires and the potential emergence of the US as a world power - only the book seems to show the terrible debasement of American cultural potential (and is Dick himself a kind of personification of America's destiny?) from the 'glamour' of Hollywood which is built on a 12-year old girl being pushed into an acting career by her ambitious mother, to the spectacle of the shooting of 'The Grandeur that was Rome' using a fake set despite actually being in the authentic Rome.

There are pointed comments on American letters ('McKisco was having a vogue. His novels were pastiches of the work of the best people of his time, a feat not to be disparaged, and in addition he possessed a gift for softening and debasing what he borrowed, so that many readers were charmed by the ease with which they could follow him' - ouch!), and on American money ('the Americans would play their trump card, the announcement of colossal gifts and endowments, of great new plants and training schools, and in the presence of the figures the Europeans would blanch and walk timidly'). And Dick himself is essentially bought by the Warrens who see him as an asset to be managed for their maximum benefit ('...whatever Dick's previous record was, they now possessed a moral superiority over him for as long as he proved of any use'), just as Rosemary's loving mother invests in putting her on stage as a child in order to get the returns later.

But because this is FSF, it's never quite this reductive: Nicole, especially, is a shifting character who moves from youthful vulnerability as a response to traumatic abuse, to something much harder and slicker and shows herself adept at wielding the power that is her legacy from her stupendously wealthy Chicago family. In fact, it's the women in the book - Nicole, Rosemary, Mary North - who are shown to be the survivors, who step up and forward, who abandon their American husbands and lovers for 'foreign' men: French Tommy Barban, the Valentino-alike Italian actor, and the 'Kabyle-Berber-Sabaean-Hindu' Conte di Minghetti who 'was not quite light enough to travel in a Pullman south of Mason-Dixon' but who displaces Abe North and gives Mary a social cachet and money to rival the Divers.

There is a tremendous focus on acting and performance ('Oh, we're such actors - you and I'; 'She ought to be in the cinema... that's where all American women would be happy') and a disturbing dynamic of older men with younger, even child-like, women from the title of Rosemary's film, 'Daddy's Girl', to Nicole's past which seems to set a pattern for her first marriage.

Amidst all this, is a harrowing portrait of a toxic love that still leaves behind an aching melancholy and regret: 'It was lonely and sad to be so empty-hearted toward each other'.

------------------------------------------
Greater than Gatsby

Gatsby may be Fitzgerald's great popular success, but I've always preferred this book. Opening on the just-emerging French Riviera, Dick and Nicole Diver are the perfect couple: beautiful, charming, wealthy and in love. But the flawless surface hides its secrets well - and beneath the glamour lies something tainted and corrupt...

This is less tight as a novel than Gatsby, but is more tragic and harrowing. Fitzgerald clearly struggled with the book, attempting to re-order the chronology before he died. In places brutal and savage, this is also desperately sad with a wistful and poignant fragility that is made all the clearer through the parallels with the Fitzgeralds' own lives.

Subtle and elusive, this remains for me Fitzgerald's best work.

Ως σκορόφιδον που σέβεται το λογοτεχνικό του υπόστρωμα, θα έπρεπε να εστιάσω στο μεγάλο αυτό μετρ της αμερικανικής λογοτεχνίας, στον best – sellerίστα του 20ου αιώνα, στο δημιουργό του «Υπέροχου Γκάτσμπυ», σε αυτόν που στο τελευταίο του έργο, στο «Τρυφερή είναι η νύχτα», έβγαλε όλο τον «πόνο» της χαμένης του γενιάς, της γενιάς του Μεσοπολέμου, όλο τον «πόνο» της προσωπικής του δύσκολης σχέσης με την ψυχασθενή γυναίκα του τη Ζέλντα, όλο τον «πόνο» του για το προσωπικό του πάθος, το αλκοόλ… Πόνοι και πάθη που πέρασε στους ήρωες του βιβλίου του, τον φέρελπι ψυχίατρο Ντικ Ντάιβερ, την πλούσια ‘ψυχασθενή’ γυναίκα του τη Νικόλ, τη νεαρή σταρλετίτσα του Χόλιγουντ τη Ρόζμαρι…
Επειδή όμως, ο καθένας παίρνει από κάθε βιβλίο, μόνο όσα κατά βάθος έχει ζήσει… το βιβλίο αυτό με ταξίδεψε ξανά στα μέρη όπου αλώνισα την τρυφηλή μου νεότητα…
Ως άλλος Ζάχος Χατζηφωτίου στα νιάτα του, άντε ας κάνω ένα σκόντο, ως άλλος Ζαμπούνης, βρέθηκα να σεργιανίζω ξανά σε μέρη κι εποχές που φαντάζουν εξωπραγματικά και μυθιστορηματικά, που ωστόσο όμως είναι η πραγματικότητα για κάποιους εστέτ μιας περασμένης εποχής όπως η αφεντιά μου.
Η ιστορία διαδραματίζεται αμέσως μετά το ‘Μεγάλο πόλεμο’ όπου οι ήρωες θέλουν ν’αφήσουν πίσω κάθε λογής απώλεια και να αναπληρώσουν με dolce vita τη ζωή που έχασαν ή που τρέμουν να μην χάσουν… Σε μια εποχή όπου το χρήμα, η αμερικάνικη νοοτροπία του “live fast” και η νέα μόδα των αέναων διακοπών αρχίζει ν’ανθίζει…
Ο Φιτζέραλντ περιγράφει παραστατικά και μελαγχολικά όλη τη νωχελική καθημερινότητα αυτής της πλούσιας γενιάς που βυθίζεται μέσα στη ‘μαστούρα’ του χρήματος. Απουσιάζουν εντελώς από το κάδρο οι πληβείοι όχι γιατί οι βασικοί ήρωες τους φθονούν απλώς γιατί αγνοούν την ύπαρξη τους …
Τρυφηλή λοιπόν η νεότης του σκορόφιδου και να ‘μαι πλέον να τα ζω όλα ξανά από την αρχή… Μπιρίμπα κάτω από μια σκιά στην Κυανή Ακτή, βόλτα αγκαζέ με νεαρές σταρλετίτσες στην Κρουαζέτ των Καννών, κοκτέιλ στο καζίνο του Μόντε Κάρλο, δείπνο στο Εξέλσιορ του Παρισιού, μια βόλτα γύρω από τη λίμνη της Ζυρίχης, μουσικό κονσέρτο στο Σάλτσμπουργκ, σκι στο Γκστάαντ, ακόμα και ‘τσιλιμπούρδισμα’ στο Beaulieu - sur - mer. Κι όλα αυτά πριν ο απλός λαός τα ανακαλύψει και γίνουμε εστέτ και λαουτζίκος ένα και το αυτό…
Όμως επειδή και οι καλύτερες οικογένειες έχουν τα προβληματάκια τους, οι σχέσεις δοκιμάζονται, ένα τρίο μαγειρεύεται στον αέρα, γονεϊκές αμαρτίες που σε κυνηγούν μια ζωή…
Σ’όλο το βιβλίο άνθρωποι πάνε κι έρχονται, μπαίνουν και βγαίνουν στην παρέα. Κάποια στιγμή έχασα το μπούσουλα με το ποιος είναι ποιος, η Μπέιμπι, η αδελφή της Νικόλ που στην αρχή είναι αρραβωνιασμένη και μετά δεν ξέρω πως εξαφανίστηκε ο αρραβωνιάρης, δυο παιδιά που ανάθεμα κι αν κατάλαβα γιατί έπρεπε να υπάρχουν και να ανακαλύπτω τελικά πως καμιά φορά (μόνο;) ο γιατρός είναι πιο άρρωστος από τον ασθενή… Για μένα η Νικόλ μια χαρά ήταν, ο Ντικ χρειαζόταν τον ψυχίατρό του…
Μια μετάφραση εξαιρετική που μας μπάζει σε όλο αυτό το παρακμιακό κλίμα και μαρτυρεί το λεξιλόγιο της εποχής που γράφτηκε το έργο (1934 εάν δεν με απατά η μνήμη μου)… Αξίζει να το διαβάσετε οι νέοι για να ανακαλύψετε λέξεις που κάποτε υπήρχαν στο καθημερινό λεξιλόγιο και τώρα μουχλιάζουν στο χρονοντούλαπο της ιστορίας, όπως πενιουάρ και κλάξον… Αχ! Αυτό το πενιουάρ μου θύμισε την αριστοκράτισσα γιαγιά μου!
Ο Φιτζέραλντ έδωσε διάφορες μορφές στο βιβλίο προτού καταλήξει τελικά στη γραμμική μορφή της ιστορίας. Ωστόσο, θα συμφωνήσω με το Χέμινγουεϊ πως εγώ προτιμούσα το ‘μπρος – πίσω’ για να υπάρχει κι ένα μίνι σασπένς. Τελικά το διάβασα και έτσι και γιουβέτσι…
Δεν είναι το κλασικό αριστούργημα που περιμένεις, (έτσι κι αλλιώς και οι κριτικές διίστανται…) είναι ένα όμως ένας πολύτιμος λίθος της παγκόσμιας λογοτεχνίας ιδίως αν καταφέρεις να μπεις στην εποχή στην οποία γράφτηκε…
Ένα 7/10 από μένα γιατί ήταν ένα μυθιστόρημα αργό (πιο αργό από την καθυστέρηση ορισμένες φορές) κι αυτό μου θύμισε πως η βραδύτητα είναι προσόν των γηρατειών και ουχί των νιάτων και ποιος θέλει να ‘δεχθεί πως ο χρόνος περνάει και από πάνω του’;
http://skorofido.blogspot.gr/2016/05/...

I finished this, finally, dead on the sofa with a hangover. It took me 10 days to read this, which was way longer than I had anticipated, but there we are. Strangely, I read the first 100 pages rather quickly and was looking at this being better than The Great Gatsby and possibly getting 5 stars.

The reading slowed down for me massively. I have set things to read in class and I've read some other things during it too, like Siddhartha. This is by no measure a bad book, or not even an okay book, it's very good. Fitzgerald has a way with words, and a way with writing romance without it being boring or strained or cliched. There's some good quotes in here, some fantastic descriptions too. The characters are flawed, doomed by their own natures, it's typical stuff; but it's not old or boring. I suppose that makes it a classic. I can't remember which writer, but someone said something like: a classic is a book that hasn't finished saying what it's got to say. I'm paraphrasing, but I agree with the statement entirely. So, there's a lot of truth in this book, a lot of feeling that I can relate to, which is always fascinating. Just little things like:

''New friends,' he said, as if were an important point, 'can often have a better time together than old friends.''

Or, this quote, I adore and connect with:

'You know how conversations are in cars late at night, some people murmuring and some not caring, giving up after the party, or bored or asleep.'

How true, Fitzgerald. I can feel that mood. Even walking home after a party that sense of giving up, not caring, falling asleep on your feet. I had some of that last night and now I feel pants.

Of course, there's a lot of tragedy in this. There are affairs, broken hearts, lies and secrets. And old Fitzgerald has wrapped it all up warmly in the glamour and the riches... but the darkness is there.

I'll end on this little quote:

'He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanised.'
(I've English-ified that word, of course from the text it's spelt 'dehumanized' but both me and my spell check consider that incorrect. Sorry.)

On the whole, a good book. Is it better than Gatsby? I don't know. Gatsby needs a re-read...

This was Fitzgerald's last book, the one after The Great Gatsby. It is extremely well-written and equally extremely depressing. There is murder and incest and the hapless Dick aimlessly looking for meaning in life and never quite finding it. It is definitely worth reading after you have finished Gatsby, but not recommended if you are already feeling blue because it will definitely not cheer you up. The language is superb though and therefore I gave it 4 stars.

Mentre leggevo i commenti scritti da altri su questo libro, mi sono imbattuta in uno che dice che Tenera è la notte è un libro maschilista. Al che mi sono domandata se ci fosse stato qualcosa che mi è sfuggito, perché al contrario di quel lettore quello che ho percepito dalla lettura del romanzo è la crisi del personaggio maschile, la parabola di decadenza che Dick Diver affronta, da uomo di mondo ammirato, esponente di spicco del jet set che si sposta dalla villeggiatura invernale a Saint Moritz a quella estiva a Saint Tropez abituato a vivere tra lussuosi alberghi, eleganti yacht e ville sul mare, tra feste, cocktails, cene e abiti scintillanti, a solitario uomo di mezza età, in profonda crisi personale e professionale in compagnia del suo bicchiere di gin. E’ Dick l’unico personaggio che provoca una tiepida simpatia per l’altruismo e la generosità che sono alla base del suo carattere, e ci riesce, più che con mezzi suoi propri, per quanto è antipatica la figura di sua moglie Nicole Warren, una ereditiera milionaria di Chicago che guarda tutti dall’alto in basso –per non dire della sorella Baby Warren, zitella milionaria che paga gli uomini per seguirla nei suoi giri del mondo, purchè siano purosangue inglesi-, trascorre la vita a spendere in ogni modo possibile i milioni lasciatile dal padre, causa delle sofferenze dell’amata figlia. Senza andare oltre nella trama, per non togliere il piacere della lettura a chi legge il commento, ribadisco che, secondo me, la figura che alla fine, nel crollo totale di un mondo e di un matrimonio che ha basi morbose, ne esce meglio è Nicole, che ha sposato Dick, giovane psichiatra americano venuto a specializzarsi in Europa, proveniente da una famiglia modesta del sud degli Stati Uniti, perché ….. ecco, il senso del romanzo è questo, lo studio di un mondo dorato in superficie che nasconde l’immondizia sociale di una ristretta cerchia di persone chiuse ai cambiamenti, immobili come tante statue di basso valore ricoperte d’oro tra lussi e preziosi, così come il matrimonio tra Nicole e Dick, fondato sulla ricerca spasmodica e ossessiva della felicità attraverso la bella vita, che ricopre con una patina di bellezza, eleganza e savoir faire le macerie di un sentimento privo di fondamenta solide.
Da ultimo voglio spiegare perché 4 stelle al romanzo. Prima di tutto perché la prima parte non mi è piaciuta, mi ha annoiato, in quanto Fitzgerald non è un costruttore di trame di ampio respiro,è più un creatore di atmosfere attraverso la precisione dei particolari, e la storia non è decollata fino a quando non si è concentrata sui due personaggi principali, Nicole e Dick. Inoltre la lussureggiante scrittura di Fitzgerald, fatta di un linguaggio figurato pieno di giri di parole e di (belle e liriche) metafore, scrittura che tanto mi è piaciuta nei racconti che ho letto da poco, ha appesantito la mia lettura, costringendomi a rileggere più volte lo stesso pensiero per andare oltre le figure retoriche.

It took Fitzgerald so long to write this novel that it’s inevitably flawed. It seems to me he began with a view to distancing himself from himself and Dick Diver was conceived as a fictional character modelled on someone Fitzgerald knew. However as the novel progresses Diver becomes more and more Fitzgerald himself and the novel becomes ever more autobiographical. This is what ultimately gives it its beautiful heartbreaking quality – it’s the fictionalised story of Fitzgerald’s marriage to Zelda. Though Gatsby is undoubtedly a much better novel in terms of construction and economy Tender has an emotional power Gatsby lacks. It’s a novel that captures poignantly the diminishing returns of youthful optimism and vitality, of young love, and as such one of the most beautifully sad novels I have ever read. One’s heart goes out to poor Dick Diver.

Not sure why I found this, a novel I've always held up as a great disappointment, suddenly piquing at me like a specter. Or actually, I do: I began to wonder if this was a text I encountered at the wrong point of my life. And that turned out to be exactly the case, as it really does require a certain maturity & enough life experience to understand the specific type of grief one feels for a paradise lost.

If recent revisits to formative texts n  This Side of Paradisen & n  The Great Gatsbyn was to experience something of n  Babylon Revisitedn's reckoning with the loss one's youth, then this reading of Tender is the Night felt like laughing with a teenage nemesis over a shared recognition that you'll make quite excellent friends now.

Which is not to say that this novel isn't profoundly flawed; one viscerally feels Fitzgerald's strain & eventual defeat in molding this material into the perfected forms of his best work. Long passages are gloopy, characterization are often shaky, the narrative constantly seems to lose the thread. I was profoundly uninvested in the extended mid-novel flashback into Dick Diver's past. But all these technical problems cobweb across some of the most sublimely gorgeous individual lines & paragraphs to be found in ALL literature (there were moments I gasped).

Somehow there's a profound beauty in this novel's defectiveness, the gaps somehow gesturing toward something ineffable—& ultimately profound.

Rating bumped from two stars to four.

"Then he put in a call for Nicole in Zürich, remembering so many things as he waited, and wishing he had always been as good as he had intended to be."