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

loved it

loved it. enjoyed the performance as much as the story. would recommend ro my friends.

Enthralling!

First of all, the performance is excellent. I was draw in completely and thought she did a terrific job. I will look for more readings by Jenna Lamia.

This is such an enchanting story. I love these slightly fictionalized biographies and find everything to do with this time period to be fascinating. I thought it was just terrific. Didn't want it to end.

Scott Fitzgerald is an ASS

and I mean to use all caps. There are so many times in this novel when I was urging Zelda to leave Scott, or yelling at Scott for holding her back or "changing his mind". what an ass.

Fakest of Southern accents ruins delightful novel

Would you listen to Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald again? Why?

No. I would love to read the novel, but Lamia's horrible fake southern accent ruined this audiobook for me. Born and raised in the south, I've heard every kind of drawl imaginable, but hers is decidedly bad. From the repeated mispronunciation of Sidney Lanier's name to the often Irish-sounding effect of trying to hard to fake the dialect, all of Zelda's narrative was like nails on a chalkboard to a Southerner.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald?

Zelda not being able to recall whether she'd actually gone swimming in the fountain!

What didn’t you like about Jenna Lamia’s performance?

They should have hired a true southerner to perform this role if they wanted to achieve a deep southern drawl. Lamia's is obviously and painfully false and overwrought.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The real story of the first American flapper.

Mundane

Would you try another book from Therese Anne Fowler and/or Jenna Lamia?

Maybe.

Would you recommend Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald to your friends? Why or why not?

I would warn my friends away from this book. I always enjoy a fictional autobiography, but this book took interesting people and creative genius and turned into a mundane melodrama.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Narration was fine. Maybe a tad shrill.

Could you see Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

A movie about Scott and Zelda bickering? No thanks.

WONDERFUL!

If you could sum up Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald in three words, what would they be?

glamorous, worldly, tragic

What was one of the most memorable moments of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald?

There's simply no way I could pick one...seriously.

Any additional comments?

Jenna Lamia blew me away! Will look for her as much as the titles! This book was almost exhausting. It was as if I was following Zelda and Scott step for step. What a ride! I hate the lack of a happy ending...a happy 'anything', in the lives of this couple...but it was compelling.

What tragic lives these 2 had!

I have always been enamored by the 1920s. Little did I know, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were responsible for shaping the "Jazz Age" into what it was!

Their lives were filled with partying, drinking, and erratic behavior. F. Scott was always trying to reach that ever elusive fame and Zelda was always chasing her purpose in life. They were really toxic for one another. Both had addictive personalities! Zelda was better off without him!

I can see how she was Daisy Buchanan and he would be Gatsby. He was always trying to prove himself to her as this magnificent writer. Both struggled with identity.

When you read this book, you will not like F. Scott nor Ernest Hemingway. It will be a little difficult to keep up with the friends in their ever-growing circle. They were well-known back in the 20s & 30s but people nowadays wouldn't know who they are so it was hard for me to picture them.

It was a good book!

Different than I thought

Everytime someone writes a book about Zelda, it is a little different. The perspective of this book comes from her. I wonder if the writer had her Journals? Well written and the Audible format was great for this book.

Could have been so much more.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not to just any friend, but I would recommend it to someone with interest in Paris, Jazz Age, Fitzgerald and/or Southern Lit. I never saw Zelda's charisma until Hemingway arrives. In fact Zelda's character is only relative to the men she meets.

What was most disappointing about Therese Anne Fowler’s story?

The Fitzgerald-Hemingway relationship. I realize that it is first person narrative, which is Zelda and she had her sanity issues so you never know how faithful the narrative is, but in the afterward the author seems to exonerate her from this condition. The author's implication that there was more than just friendship between the authors seemed a bit OTT.

Which character – as performed by Jenna Lamia – was your favorite?

Zelda first and Hemingway second. Fitzgerald a distant last.

Could you see Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Zelda- Emma Stone
Hemingway- James Franco
Fitz- Ryan Gosling
Hadley- Mireille Enos

Any additional comments?

Most of my comments might seem negative, but I looked forward to listening to this novel every day. The author writes very well. The characterizations needed a little bit more attention in my opinion.

I loved it

What made the experience of listening to Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald the most enjoyable?

Narrator was just as good as the story

What did you like best about this story?

The life she had

Which character – as performed by Jenna Lamia – was your favorite?

Zelda

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The love they never lost