TENDER IS THE NIGHT

Book 4 of the Project is Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Why I own this book: It’s a discarded Dakota County Library copy I picked up for 50 cents at one of their sales in high school or college.

Why I haven’t read it: As usual, laziness.

Why I kept it: Well, it’s hardcover, though the spine is a bit fractured. And I’ve read The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned and liked them. And also—hey, that makes three Minnesota-born writers in a row! Anyway, the book is good so far, sweet and sad, though written in an oblique way that sometimes makes me worry I don’t understand what’s really happening. Still, just when I’m starting to feel confused, F. Scott hits me in the gut with a his ability to sum up huge, true feelings in one clear and perfectly formed phrase, like “In the dead white hours in Zurich staring into a stranger’s pantry across the upshine of a street-lamp, he used to think that he wanted to be good, he wanted to be kind, he wanted to be brave and wise, but it was all pretty difficult. He wanted to be loved, too, if he could fit it in.”