Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

By: Therese Anne Fowler

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE TELEVISION DRAMA Z: THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING

With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler's New York Times bestseller Z brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.

I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer…and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed.

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too?

©2013 Therese Anne Fowler (P)2013 Macmillan

Critic reviews

“Narrator Jenna Lamia's soft Southern accent and languid tone immediately set the mood for this first-person fictional account of Zelda's marriage with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the great American novelist…listeners will be fascinated by this well-researched story of the beautiful flapper and her famous husband during the Roaring Twenties.” —Audiofile Magazine

“Fowler's Zelda is all we would expect and more…once she meets the handsome Scott, her life takes off on an arc of indulgence and decadence that still causes us to shake our heads in wonder…soirées with Picasso and his mistress, with Cole Porter and his wife, with Gerald and Sara Murphy, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ezra Pound and Jean Cocteau. Scott's friendship with Hemingway verges on a love affair--at least it's close enough to one to make Zelda jealous. Ultimately, both of these tragic, pathetic and grand characters are torn apart by their inability to love or leave each other. Fowler has given us a lovely, sad and compulsively readable book.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Fowler's detailed and lyrical novel is enhanced by Lamia's exquisitely crafted voice…Lamia pays great attention to Fowler's prose, giving each sentence enough space to shine and capturing the emotional weight of the novel with changes in pitch, tone, and emphasis. She paces her reading at an indolent, rolling speed that quickly shifts into high gear as events demand in a delightful and entertaining performance of this best-seller.” —Booklist

Page-Turning Classic

Wonderful insight into the real 1920s and 1930s. Both feminists and literary nerds will love this! I must say, I now want to re-read many of Fitzgerald's books to see if I can tell who really wrote certain parts. Zelda is a charismatic and lovely person, who's real flaws and talents kept me turning each page.

The performance made me feel like Zelda was really talking to me. I cannot get over how wonderful the story was present, both in the writing and in the performance.

characters of character-creators come to life

Not a student of the jazz age or even early 20th century literature, I was fascinated by the colorful lives of the many individuals in Zelda's circle, most especially her own and F. Scott. An entertaining blend of history, literature, and the trappings of mental illness, the narration captured the superficial but creative and captivating mind of Zelda Fitzgerald. Makes me want to return to the Great Gatsby and other short stories. Maybe even introduce myself to Ernest Hemingway. Who knew of the intersection between these famous figures?

Zelda

loved reading about such a fascinating woman and what a crazy life she led.

Wow, this was great!

This was a great audiobook about the Fitzgerald's. Initially I didn't have high hopes, but this turned out to be a very well-written book. Jenna did an amazing job with the narrative! Her voice was so calming, and she did a terrific job with the voice inflections!

I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in their lives!

amazing!!;

This story is fantastic! Performance was phenomenal and captivating! All the glitz and glamour of the 20's.

Incredible

This was absolutely incredible! I loved the narrator and thoroughly enjoyed the history told from Zelda’s point of view. Among the parties, 20s-30s settings in various places around the world, and literary and marital rollercoasters, there’s a well crafted current of the feminist movement woven throughout the story of their lives. It is in context with the times and fascinating to see Zelda’s struggle to be more than just a supportive wife and a mother. She was a truly phenomenal person on so many levels. I will absolutely recommend this to everyone and I’ll be listening again as well as buying the book.

One of my favorites!!!

The performance was engaging and the writing was superb! I’ve recommended it to several friends already!

So tragic and beautiful

A lot of it was a little long winded, naming names I didn't recognize but it was an enjoyable read. I never knew how tragic her story was. just wanted to punch Scott the whole time ugh

new hero unlocked

I really didn't know much about Zelda and Scott for that matter and selected this book on a bit of a whim. The story is beautifully built, tragic and heart wrenching.

Attraction to the disillusioning 20's comes alive!

Fowler's story told from Zelda Fitzgerald's first-person perspective is captivating but made even more so by Jenna Lamia's reading. I could not stop listening. I was enchanted by Zelda's "southern gentility" (made perfect by Lamia's interpretation of Zelda) and for the first time sympathized with a typically misunderstood character in the drama that is F. Scott Fitzgerald's life. Zelda's "villianized" character in literary history finds a little redemption in Fowler's story that certainly sympathizes with its female protagonist. As a listener, I was helplessly drawn into the glitz and glamour of the "Jazz Age" as Zelda and Scott must have been -- even as I knew what the ending of the 20's would bring. A convincing, throbbing portrayal of the woman and the times. A must-read, a must-listen!