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The Crack-Up

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"The Crack-Up" was first published by New Directions in 1945 and is now being rediscovered by a new generation of readers. Compiled and edited by Edmund Wilson shortly after Fitzgerald's death, "The Crack-Up" tells the story of Fitzgerald's sudden descent at age thirty-nine from a life of success and glamor to one of emptiness and despair, and his determined recovery. This vigorous and revealing collection of essays and letters renders the tale of a man whose personality still charms us all and whose reckless gaiety and genious made him a living symbol and the Jazz Age. For those who grew up with "The Great Gatsby" or "Tender is the Night," this extraordinary autobiographical collection provides a unique personal blend of the romance and reality embodied by Fitzgerald's literature and his life.

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

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About the author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1,905 books23.7k followers
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age. He was married to Zelda Fitzgerald.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
Profile Image for Sara.
Author 1 book711 followers
October 15, 2021



Among F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final publications was a series of short articles done for Esquire Magazine in 1936. They are titled The Crack-Up and they deal primarily with his own sudden realization, at the age of 39 and only four years from his own death, that his life had, in his own eyes, been a failure.

There is a sense of sadness that runs through his always elegant prose that is heart-rending. Early in the essays he states

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

I could not help thinking that his brilliant writing, which he must surely have recognized as such, and his feelings of abject failure, were those “two opposed ideas” and that his great fear was that he would lose his “ability to function.”

As a general rule, I am more interested in what an author writes and the ideas and meanings I can come away with from his body of work than the author’s actual life. Fitzgerald is almost an exception to that rule. So much of what makes him a fascination is his own complicated and flawed life, his dealings with the madness of Zelda, his struggle to belong to a world he never feels quite comfortable in. He is Nick Carroway in so many ways, observing the glitz and glitter and often wondering just what he is doing in this place and time.

He speaks briefly about his own pursuit of Zelda as a young man who cannot support her family lifestyle and his change of fortune when he initially made good on his writing career.

The man with the jingle of money in his pocket who married the girl a year later would always cherish an abiding distrust, an animosity, toward the leisure class -- not the conviction of a revolutionist but the smoldering hatred of a peasant.

Even Scott realized in the end that his attempts to run with the “in-crowd” had tinted his life a different color than he had expected or wished. The essays are part and parcel of this realization, but, like all things Fitzgerald, there is a bit of duplicity there as well, a tiny indicator that the writer is still talking to you, not the man. Perhaps, by this juncture, the man is irretrievably lost.
Profile Image for John.
Author 2 books116 followers
October 5, 2007
This shows just how far Fitzgerald descended...his is a story of wasted talent...BUT (and this is what I like to focus on) it is also a story of how he began a slow, painstaking ascent...He realized how far he had fallen, and he decided to make the long, hard climb back up...Too bad his heart simply gave out on him...Had he lived longer, it would have been interesting to see what he produced...
Profile Image for Marco Tamborrino.
Author 5 books184 followers
February 25, 2012
Salvare o essere salvato, mai niente di meno.

La vita di uno dei più grandi scrittori americani ha avuto degli alti e bassi, un po' come le vite di tutti. Un forte momento di depressione ha spinto Fitzgerald a perdere se stesso dopo aver perso tutto il resto. Sto parlando del crollo morale di una persona, della perdita di ogni valore, di ogni atteggiamento. La conseguenza del troppo pensare.

"Va bene che la vita è tutta un processo di disgregamento, ma i colpi di portata micidiale - i colpacci improvvisi che arrivano, o sembrano arrivare, dall'esterno e che restano impressi, da addurre poi a discolpa, o che confesserai agli amici nei momenti di debolezza - quelli lasciano sempre qualche strascico. C'è un altro genere di colpi che arriva dall'interno, che avverti solo quando è troppo tardi per correre ai ripari, quando prendi coscienza senza appello che per certi aspetti non sarai più quello di un tempo. Il primo tipo di incrinatura sembra prodursi in fretta; il secondo si produce quasi a tua insaputa ma, d'un tratto, ne hai piena coscienza."

È interessante vedere come Fitzgerald parli dei suoi quarant'anni come l'età del crollo, dove cade pure "la certezza di avere un cuore". Il periodo in cui Zelda iniziava a dare segni di squilibrio mentale. Lo scrittore non riesce più ad avere contatti umani o quasi, si ritrova isolato dalla società e anche dal suo comportamento che ora rinnega. Lentamente si disgrega, perde fiducia in tutto, ed è convinto che questo sia dovuto alla sua condizione di adulto.

"Io avevo solo bisogno di pace assoluta per arrivare a capire come mai avessi maturato un atteggiamento triste nei confronti della tristezza, un atteggiamento malinconico nei confronti della malinconia e un atteggiamento tragico nei confronti della tragedia: come mai avessi finito per identificarmi con l'oggetto del mio orrore e della mia compassione."
Profile Image for Hank1972.
139 reviews48 followers
February 4, 2023
“Così continuiamo a remare, barche contro corrente, risospinti senza posa nel passato”(Jay Gatsby/Nick Carraway)

party
Il Grande Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann, il Party

L’età del jazz è terminata. Niente più feste sfarzose, balli sfrenati, bella vita, belle donne/uomini, sesso liberato, alcol e droghe.

I ragazzi che portano il sole, Scott e Zelda, non risplendono più. Niente più Parigi, niente più riviera francese, niente più sodalizio con la generazione perduta.

ballo
Il Grande Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann, Jay e Daisy

E’ il crollo. Socio-economico, con la grande crisi del ‘29. E personale. Il magnifico scrittore diventa un piatto vecchio e crepato. Non in grado di riconoscere più il suo io, dissociato da sé stesso. Non in grado di accettare un tempo diverso, un secondo tempo. Perso nella sterile ricerca di quel primo tempo in cui passato felice e futuro promettente si riunivano in un fantastico presente.

FSF si spoglia davanti a noi e si auto-psico-analizza, in modo freddo e preciso. Per un po’ funzionerà. La fine è nota, dopo poco, giovanissimo, il suo fisico, già molto provato, cede.


Postazione di Ottavio Fatica di altissima qualità. Per apprezzare al meglio è opportuno conoscere un po’ la bio di FSF e leggere il Grande Gatsby e Tenera è la notte.
Profile Image for Gabril.
823 reviews188 followers
June 2, 2021
Tre articoli che sono racconti schietti e spietati dal centro della crisi. Profonda e per certi versi irrimediabile.
Fitzgerald è, ancora una volta, in grado di farne grande scrittura. Di riflessione, di autoanalisi, di specchio senza vittimismo e senza compiacimento.
Parole che escono limpide e cristalline da un cuore di tenebra, perché “ in una vera notte oscura dell’anima sono sempre le tre del mattino, un giorno dopo l’altro.“
Profile Image for David Clark.
72 reviews7 followers
September 1, 2010
I couldn't agree more with the reviewer who observed she had not expected to care so much for the author. I started reading this volume as a long time but only luke-warm reader of Fitzgerald. This painful memoir of his depression and recovery was initially intellectually engaging but to my amazement became intimate and absorbing in ways Fitgerald's novels are not. In this book of short stories, letters, and misc. prose Fitzgerald turned his considerable talents towards examining, as Philip Lopate suggests, the character of the "I," and the reader is much the better for his efforts.
Profile Image for Leonardo Di Giorgio.
124 reviews261 followers
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May 24, 2023
Sono una settantina di pagine (compresa la postfazione di Ottavio Fatica) veramente belle, dense d'una lucidità sofferente, un uomo che guarda la crepa e attende il crollo, che volge gli occhi a quello che sarebbe potuto essere e che non sarà mai, un disumano e denutrito essere che agogna la solitudine.


"Io avevo solo bisogno di pace assoluta per arrivare a capire come mai avessi finito per identificarmi con l'oggetto del mio orrore o della mia compassione."
Profile Image for Steve.
836 reviews253 followers
August 12, 2016
There's some beautiful writing here, especially in the first portion of the book, which is comprised of several essays by FSF. (Also, there's a wonderful poem by Edmund Wilson (I didn't know he wrote poetry) at the front of the book.) In the essays, FSF, while admitting that more distance was needed, shows a remarkable grasp of the Jazz age and what it meant -- and didn't mean. Oddly, I found this look back somewhat reminiscent of Keith Richards' recent book. FSF & Zelda were the Keith and Anita of their day, literary rock stars boozing it up and travelling hard. Occasionally some good writing broke through. I'm not a fan of FSF, partly due to the thinly cloaked subject matter of much his writing -- Himself and Z. To some extent, Hemingway was doing the same thing, but I think he pulled it off better, since the Self Pity is pretty much Zero. FSG wallows in it (which has me giving more weight to Hemingway's savage portrayal of FSF in A Moveable Feast). Oh, there's "honesty" in the sense that he's got himself pegged. "The Crack Up," the center piece essay, I found to be a sour and bitter goodbye from someone who hollowed himself out, and had consigned himself, prematurely, to a I-Don't-Give-Shit-Anymore existence. Truth be told, I think I enjoyed some of the other essays more, especially the ones coauthored with Zelda. The rest of the book is made up of a long section called the Notebooks (over a hundred pages). I only dipped in and out of that section since such literary scraps usually don't hold much interest to me. Same thing with the end section, which has a number of letters. I only read the ones that involved people I have interest in. I found it interesting that TS Eliot, in one letter, admitted to FSF that he had read The Great Gatsby 3 or 4 times. I think it's a good novel, but not that good. But I will concede, at the time it was written, it must have seemed the best novel of its time.
Profile Image for SCARABOOKS.
285 reviews230 followers
January 15, 2014
Sono tre articoli sulla depressione. Come tre racconti in sequenza. Brevi. Veri. Scritti daddìo (anche con apostrofo).

Un lettore pragmatico e superficiale potrebbe sintetizzare una trama. Del tipo: sentirsi come "un piatto crepato" e dopo aver scartato la soluzione di scappare nei mari del sud o in un altro Altrove ("La famosa «fuga», ovvero «piantare tutto in asso», è una gita in una trappola"), pensare di venirne fuori appendendo alla porta il cartello "cave canem".

Un lettore pignolo al contrario potrebbe esercitarsi a lungo. Per esempio sulla frase con cui l'autore ci dice che sta vivendo "una deflazione di tutti i miei valori". Per tentare di capire (senza riuscirci) se si stia parlando di economia, di filosofia o di psicologia. E per concludere che le grandi depressioni in qualsiasi campo se ne parli e in qualsiasi secolo le si collochino si somigliano in un modo che fa paura.
(Ci siamo lamentati per mezza vita dell'inflazione, dell'eccesso di denaro circolante e di ideali, più o meno buoni. Passeremo l'altra mezza a lamentarci della deflazione, cioè della sparizione - peraltro con una contemporaneità sospetta - di denaro e idee?).

Alla fine della giostra, "Un critico maldisposto potrebbe liquidare il tutto come il piagnisteo di un bambino viziato". Così si dice nella postfazione. Epperò ci si risponde; e come meglio non si potrebbe: "questo vale per quasi tutta la poesia".
Profile Image for Hella.
658 reviews85 followers
May 29, 2021
Nel 1936 vennero pubblicati sulla rivista Esquire i tre articoli che compongono questo libriccino. Fitzgerald li aveva scritti durante un periodo di intensa depressione, risultato del crac di Wall Street e della malattia della moglie Zelda, a cui nel 1930 venne diagnosticata la schizofrenia e da quell'anno passerà da una clinica all'altra.
L'età del jazz è finita, Fitzgerald vive una crisi familiare e personale. Gli articoli pubblicati da Esquire sono, come disse Fernanda Pivano, un documento sincero e un grido disperato. Fitzgerald non racconta più le brillanti serate della coppia che era al massimo dello splendore, ma racconta la sua depressione, il suo aver fallito, il suo crollo e accettato, la sua intenzione di risalire la china e ritornare alla normalità. Purtroppo, il mondo non era pronto a vedere il suo eroe scendere dalle vette e il suo mondo, il mondo letterario, tra cui Hemingway che tanto Fitzgerald aveva aiutato all'inizio della sua carriera e che riteneva un amico, si indignò e lo accusò di aver fatto una figura patetica mostrando al mondo il suo crollo.
Fitzgerald morirà poi quattro anni dopo, in stato di povertà, dopo un momento, con il lavoro a Hollywood come sceneggiatore, in cui sembrava essersi ripreso anche economicamente ed era più sereno.
I tre articoli sono incredibilmente sinceri, scritti con uno stile più maturo, con grande profondità d'animo e mente. Chiunque abbia affrontato un momento no può rivedersi in queste parole e ricevere aiuto dalla sua sincerità.
Se Fitzgerald viene visto come il simbolo dell'età del jazz, un uomo dedito solo alle feste, un debole schiavo dell'alcool, queste pagine dimostrano che in realtà sapeva essere più onesto e migliore di tutti i "tosti" scrittori del periodo messi insieme.
Profile Image for Tim.
229 reviews108 followers
June 2, 2016
In these highly personal and moving essays Fitzgerald’s theme is disillusionment. As someone who enjoyed immense fame and success at an early age but then lived to see a day when all his books were out of print he has a very topsy turvy personal experience of the losing of illusions to draw on. Fitzgerald isn’t really known for his wisdom or his intellectual rigour but these essays reveal a mind which is more than capable of seeing and organising the bigger picture. Much of what he writes in these essays has been quoted, the most famous of which is probably this - Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation -- the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true. Life was something you dominated if you were any good. Life yielded easily to intelligence and effort, or to what proportion could be mustered of both. It seemed a romantic business to be a successful literary man -- you were not ever going to be as famous as a movie star but what note you had was probably longer-lived; you were never going to have the power of a man of strong political or religious convictions but you were certainly more independent. Of course within the practice of your trade you were forever unsatisfied -- but I, for one, would not have chosen any other.”
A fabulous quick read and highly recommended.
Profile Image for Anastasia.
465 reviews52 followers
March 2, 2024
Είναι ό, τι καλύτερο έχω διαβάσει τα τελευταία χρόνια.
Κι αν ο υπέροχος Γκατσμπυ με ενθουσίασε, Το Ράγισμα μου χάρισε σπάνιες στιγμές ευδαιμονίας (ναι, μέσα από ένα σπαρακτικό και τραγικό αφήγημα) όπου εκείνο το λεπτό νήμα ανάμεσα στον συγγραφέα και τον αναγνώστη κρατά ενωμένους αυτούς τους 2 ανά τα χρόνια, εις τους αιώνες των αιώνων.... Όσοι έχετε διαβάσει ένα βιβλίο που βρίσκει τον πυρήνα του είναι σας, θα με κατανοήσετε....
Το Ράγισμα σου ραγίζει την καρδιά και ταυτόχρονα σε απογειώνει, ο Φιτζέραλντ μιλά και συνομιλά σε πρώτο πρόσωπο, ακουμπώντας τον θησαυρό της ψυχής του στην καρδιά του αναγνώστη, σε ενεστώτα χρόνο, σα να μην γράφτηκε το 1936.
Μια μοναδική-σπάνια θα πω-συνάντηση που σφραγίζει την αγάπη που έχει κάποιος για την λογοτεχνία.
(αφού το τελείωσα, το άκουσα καπάκι για 2η φορά...δεν το έχω κάνει ποτέ για κανένα βιβλίο)
Profile Image for Irina Constantin.
142 reviews95 followers
March 10, 2021
O carte de un verde crud, verde visceral, potrivită pentru o primăvara a deznadejdii și a supliciului vehement...Fitzgerald taie în carne vie, montează o scenetă a renegării absolute a eului personal, ultima cartea a clasicului înainte de moarte, nu ai cum să nu o refractezi adânc...
Profile Image for Maura Gancitano.
Author 18 books2,840 followers
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September 22, 2022
Si tratta di un testo breve dello stesso Fitzgerald,
scritto intorno ai quarant'anni e molto
criticato da amici e colleghi del tempo.
Qui indica le ragioni per cui ha compiuto certe scelte da giovane (nello studio e nel lavoro) e parla in sostanza di quella sensazione di crollo di ogni certezza che è stata sua compagna per tutta la vita.
Bello.
Profile Image for Peter Landau.
975 reviews58 followers
March 21, 2017
You got to give it to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many did. He was the hipster of his generation, maybe the first of the many annoying youth movements to piss off 20th century old people, and he got criticized for it since the publication of his bestselling THIS SIDE OF PARADISE to damning opinion pieces printed before the ink dried on his obituary.

Dead at 44 and washed up years before that on the shores of Hollywood, he deserves a bit more credit than as merely the poster child for the Roaring 20s. He might prefer Gertrude Stein’s famous moniker, as a member of the Lost Generation. That seems more fitting to me after reading THE CRACK-UP, a collection of later essays, notebooks, letters, articles, reminiscences and poems by or about Fitzgerald.

The book is edited by Fitzgerald’s old friend Edmund Wilson, who deserves much credit too for kind of inventing a new form of literature that took Fitzgerald’s first-person literary confessional (itself ahead of its time) and created a collage portrait of the man, almost cubist in its varying perspectives.

Not all of it works, at least not in parts. The notebook section is long and fragmented, by design, and a bit hit or miss. The opening salvo of essays are good, but for me the prose could be precious and overdone. The letters are fascinating, and the ending of the book, with its praise of the publication of THE GREAT GATSBY from Stein, T.S. Eliot and others, followed by post-mortem musings, is depressing.

But the whole thing comes together as unique, and that sticks with me. It makes me want to pick up some of his books. I’m curious about THE LAST TYCOON, the unfinished final novel. But I need a break from Fitzgerald. Too much bellyaching and opinions. Maybe I should investigate Wilson instead.
84 reviews2 followers
October 15, 2009
This is a collection of autobiographical writings of Fitzgerald -- essays, letters, excerpts from his notebooks -- and it shows a man's downfall, a crisis with which I had not been expecting to care about as much as I ended up caring about it, and to my surprise, Fitzgerald pulling himself up out of the darkness and making a fresh start. It's so strange -- you expect him to be this tragic hero, but in the end he was trying to get back to normalcy and he had just a normal, run of the mill heart attack. I did not expect to like my hero. I had expected to find a man in these pages who was charming and clever, but who lacked a certain amount of character, someone who was selfish. But what I found was a man who loved his friends and was loved by them -- and I can tell the difference between people paying lip service and people loving -- a man who wrote these heart-breakingly sweet letters to his daughter, instructing her in the art of letters, a man who was an extremely hard worker, meticulous, who held himself to extremely high standards and who was not just clever but smart and very, very well read. I like my hero. I like him very much
Profile Image for Suni.
489 reviews42 followers
June 9, 2017
Tre articoli pubblicati su Esquire tra il febbraio e l'aprile del 1936, in cui FSF "confessa" ai lettori il crollo che ha subito la sua vita a partire dall'anno precedente.
Si paragona a un piatto rotto, la cui crepa si è formata lentamente, per un disfacimento interno che lui non è riuscito a percepire fino a che non è stato troppo tardi.
Fino al '35 aveva vissuto alti e bassi (alcuni ben noti), ma non aveva mai sentito venir meno l'ottimismo per cui il suo lavoro lo avrebbe fatto proseguire in un percorso che credeva simile alla traiettoria di una freccia scagliata con incredibile forza.
Invece poi tutto è crollato, è subentrata una grande stanchezza, e, quando il fisico si è infine ripreso, lo Scott che è emerso da questo abisso era un uomo diverso, un uomo che si è guardato dentro e non si è ritrovato, un uomo che ha deciso di smettere di recitare un ruolo («Mi accorsi che da molto tempo non mi piacevano più né le persone né le cose, ma mi limitavo a proseguire nella solita stenta messinscena.»).
La conclusione, amara, è un proposito ancora più drastico: «Dovevo continuare a essere uno scrittore perché quello e non altro era il mio modo di vivere, ma avrei desistito da ogni tentativo di essere una persona: di essere gentile, giusto o generoso. [...] Nondimeno mi adopererò per essere un animale corretto e, se mi getterete un osso con un po’ di carne da azzannare, potrei anche leccarvi la mano.».

PS: in fondo, a mo' di postfazione, c'è un saggio di Ottavio Fatica (il traduttore) che avrei tanto voluto apprezzare ma che ho trovato illeggibile.
Profile Image for Steven R. Kraaijeveld.
511 reviews1,844 followers
September 23, 2021
"—Waste and horror—what I might have been and done that is lost, spent, gone, dissipated, unrecapturable. I could have acted thus, refrained from this, been bold where I was timid, cautious where I was rash.
I need not have hurt her like that.
Nor said this to him.
Nor broken myself trying to break what was unbreakable.
The horror has come now like a storm—what if this night prefigured the night after death—what if all thereafter was an eternal quivering on the edge of an abyss, with everything base and vicious in oneself urging one forward and the baseness and viciousness of the world just ahead. No choice, no road, no hope—only the endless repetition of the sordid and the semi-tragic.
(67)
I left myself The Crack-Up—the last work by Scott Fitzgerald that I had not yet read—for a long time, not quite ready to be finished with him, so to speak. And, in fact, reading the pieces collected and edited by Edmund Wilson in The Crack-Up only reopened the delicate wound that I think everyone who loves that beautiful and tragic man has somewhere within. It is easily touched and agitated—there is just something so moving about the man, his life, and his writing (all entangled).

I had actually already read a number of the pieces included in The Crack-UpEchoes of the Jazz Age, My Lost City, "Show Mr. and Mrs. F. to Number—", and Early Success are included in another edition published by New Directions, The Jazz Age: Essays. Nevertheless, there was more than enough in the collection to fascinate; first and foremost, the titular The Crack-Up, which is Fitzgerald's own account of his breakdown, but also the selection of notebooks and letters as well as a number of interesting essays about Fitzgerald by his contemporaries.

To quote from Fitzgerald's short story The Ice Palace:
"I can't tell you how real it is to me, darling—if you don't know.
Profile Image for Jana Light.
Author 1 book52 followers
January 6, 2013
I love how perfectly Fitzgerald crafts and imparts an imaginative moment or character. The 120+ pages of notes in this collection are a treat, though it's best to read them in 20 page increments to give each "bullet point" opportunity to set in without being obscured by the multitude. I found myself wishing at many points that Fitzgerald had developed *this situation* or *that character* in a full-length work (whether novel, short story or play). His creative well seemed to be bottomless and the incredible number of notes made me think that there actually could be value in carrying around a moleskine notebook to record otherwise-fleeting thoughts. Ugh, I can't believe I wrote that. But what have I missed in my own life (intellectual and otherwise) by failing to record something in the moment, either to stand alone in its entirety or to be called forth for deeper reflection later? I'm certainly no Fitzgerald, and never attempt at anything remotely creative in the fictional literary sense (I suck, trust me on this), but this collection demonstrates the value of little, passing thoughts. In addition, it rounded out Fitzgerald the man in a way that strict biographies, his oeuvre, letters and literary criticism can't quite manage on their own. The notes reveal his creative imagination in its rawest form as well as snippets of his emotional and intellectual life and development.

The essays and letters are very poignant, as well, revealing a man very insecure, delicate and uncertain (yet certain in his writerly expertise). And it should be mentioned that he was quite a snob and held some gross views on women and minorities. As much as I despise that part of him, I still love his fiction and view him in an unabashedly romanticized light as THE larger-than-life figure in the Jazz Age. And in my head he will always look like a blonde Loki with a middle part, thanks to Avengers, Thor and Midnight in Paris. Yum.

First finished: May 1, 2007 (Though I may not have officially "finished" it -- I wasn't responsible for writing a review of it in grad school, so who knows how much I read! Just enough to talk about it intelligibly?)
Profile Image for Laura Corna.
182 reviews2 followers
January 12, 2019
Quattro stelle per i tre brani di F.S.Fitzgerald. Parla di se stesso, della depressione che lo ha colto, della disillusione: una sincerità disarmante e commovente.

Per quanto riguarda le note al testo: potevano essere messe in modo tradizionale, con dei numerini dal brano alla relativa nota perchè scritte così in fondo tutte insieme sono piuttosto inutili (specialmente se si sta usando un e-reader).

La critica finale è scritta in maniera criptica, infarcita di termini arcaici con frasi dalla struttura bizzarra che bisogna rileggere più volte per capire qual è il soggetto, quale il complemento oggetto, se ce ne sono... Insomma sembra scritta per NON farsi capire. Quindi poteva tenersela sul suo comodino, che una "roba" incomprensibile ai lettori non serve.
Profile Image for Markus.
648 reviews84 followers
July 31, 2016
Of the sixteen short stories in this book, the first few are probably reflecting young Fitzgerald's experiences in first loves, all very pleasant reading.
Then comes the Travel period, which reminds me a lot of Hemingway's "A movable feast", in which the Fitzgerald couple where partly involved.
With "The crack up" comes the explanation of the authors tragic and sad ending.
Profile Image for Tanya.
1 review
December 10, 2008
I love that I can pick up this book, flip it to any random page and enjoy what I read.
Profile Image for Jim Puskas.
Author 1 book130 followers
June 30, 2022
I’m afraid this book is one that will greatly appeal to those who are solid FSF fans but will leave the rest of us shaking our heads. The title piece would, unless one cared deeply about FSF’s life and works, amount to an unremarkable account of a man having had a mid-life crisis. The collection of Notes and Letters (many of them co-written by Zelda) take up over half of the volume. They’re a mixed bag at best.
As to the half-dozen essays that form the meat of the book, I found most of the content to be too inwardly focused for my liking. There’s not nearly enough about that otherwise fascinating world that Fitzgerald inhabited: the New York City of the 1920s and 30s. So, for me the best piece by far is “My Lost City”, where he focuses on that very special place and time.
Profile Image for Claudia Șerbănescu.
471 reviews83 followers
October 31, 2022
Am citit cartea pentru partea sa epistolară care se “lega” firesc de volumul anterior, “Dragă Scott, scumpă Zelda”, în care este publicată o parte consistentă din scrisorile schimbate de cei doi soți pe parcursul relației lor zbuciumate. Astfel, cred că este pentru prima dată când abordez o carte de la pagina 334, citesc până la 374, apoi revin la 285 și de aici, la 11. 🤷🏻‍♀️Totuși, nu reușesc să mă apropii mai mult de literatura acestui autor, deși periodic sunt atrasă către scrierile sale. 🤔
Profile Image for Konstantinos.
98 reviews15 followers
November 22, 2021
Εκνευρίστηκα που έδωσα 5€ για 64 σελίδες; Ναι.

Εκνευρίστηκα όταν είδα ότι είναι κομμάτι από άλλο, μεγαλύτερο βιβλίο του Φιτζέραλντ; Ναι.

Ήθελα να το διαβάσω ξανά με το που το έκλεισα και να πάω να πάρω το μεγαλύτερο βιβλίο που έχει περισσότερα κείμενα; ΝΑΙ
Profile Image for Julie.
106 reviews
December 29, 2009
This should be offered for reading as a companion along side The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald comes across in this book as a man who lived his art as if he were agonizing over having painted himself into his own canvas. And in the Crack Up he later reached out to pen an afterward to the Great Gatsby from the momentum of his own life in dissarray. Though common knowledge that Fitzgerald is an estimable American author, The Crack Up, lets his audiences see his interior world in a more wretched state. Here Fitz leaves us with a missive of more personal importance. Along the way he also teaches about the Fitzgeraldian technique of perception where we see how the author wrestles with his own perceptual process and creative impulses. It is through his creative process we see the beast that it is for him. At points he wrangles eloquently with that wooly mammoth of American life - time-honored obscene wealth and its virtuous twin, creative abundance. For Fitzgerlad, this American abundance was his life's topic as much as it was his life's work. And yet, his early monetary success would ultimately be an unstable recompense for his vision that could not shield him from experiencing spiritual destitution.
Profile Image for Myrto.
119 reviews39 followers
March 15, 2022
βάζω τα ακατάλληλα πλέον πιάτα να στεγνώσουν πάνω στην πετσέτα της γιαγιάς Καλλιόπης με το ελαφάκι και τον λεκέ από χλωρίνη. σκέφτομαι τις συνδέσεις. σκέφτομαι το κείμενο του κύριου Φιτζέραλντ που το διάβασα δύο φορές στην ταραχώδη-γεμάτη-κενά-αέρος πτήση της επιστροφής.
Profile Image for skein.
514 reviews31 followers
June 11, 2010
Not having read much Fitgerald -- some few stories and The Last Tycoon in a fit of teenager penance, of which I remember nothing but that I understood nothing and enjoyed it immensely -- I hadn't notions. Beautiful prose, some natterings about the Jazz Age, love lost, tragedy, alcoholism: yes. I certainly did not expect to like the man or actually give a shit about his problems. He crept on me like a ghost.

The letters to friends and daughter are as brilliant as the budget-list (gin, paper, clothes for Baby) -- in the sense of giving light: he exhorts Frances to do her schoolwork, to worry about cleanliness and courage and horsemanship and to become anything other than a writer.

... I cannot finish, it needs digesting.
Profile Image for Barbaraw - su anobii aussi.
241 reviews31 followers
January 21, 2018
Penna amara

Sono così poche le pagine di questo libro - o piuttosto di questi tre articoletti strappati alla penna amara di Fitzgerald - che si leggono in poco più di mezz'oretta. Ma ciò non toglie nulla all'eleganza di questo autore che descrive qui il proprio crollo con fredda poesia. Lui è il "piatto crepato" del secondo articolo, il fragile, l'uomo colpito che più non si rialza ma si accinge a capire la sua caduta, ed a spiegarcela.
"Io avevo solo bisogno di pace assoluta per arrivare a capire come mai avessi maturato un atteggiamento triste nei confronti della tristezza, un atteggiamento malinconico nei confronti della malinconia, e un atteggiamento tragico nei confronti della tragedia."
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