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The Beautiful and Damned
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
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Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
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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.
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Great! From the first page to the last.....
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Publisher's summary
Published in 1922, it chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, Harvard-educated aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful wife, Gloria, as they wait to inherit his grandfather's fortune. A devastating satire of the nouveaux rich and New York's nightlife, of reckless ambition and squandered talent, it is also a shattering portrait of a marriage fueled by alcohol and wasted by wealth. The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "was all true."
Lyrical, romantic, yet cruelly incisive, it signaled a new stage in Fitzgerald's career. With The Beautiful and Damned, H.L. Mencken commented in The Smart Set, "Fitzgerald ceases to be a wunderkind, and begins to come into his maturity.
Featured Article: 35+ Quotes About Books That Truly Speak to Bibliophiles
Novels, memoirs, short stories, essay compilations, and more continue to shape who we are and how we view the world, no matter what format—physical book, ebook, or audiobook—we use to absorb and enjoy them. Books are pathways into different worlds and different lives, and one can never be truly bored with a good book. Celebrate your literary love with these quotes about books that will inspire you to dive into your next story.
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- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's haunting tale about a naïve young woman's sea voyage from London to a small resort on the South American coast. In symbolic, lyrical, and intoxicating prose, her outward journey begins to mirror her internal voyage into adulthood as she searches for her personal identity, grapples with love, and learns how to face life intellectually and emotionally. Its wit and exquisiteness, and its profound depth and insight into humanity, will capture the imagination of the listener.
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Lovely
- By Edith on 05-24-19
By: Virginia Woolf
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The Custom of the Country
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Edith Wharton stands among the finest writers of early 20th-century America. In The Custom of the Country, Wharton’s scathing social commentary is on full display through the beautiful and manipulative Undine Spragg. When Undine convinces her nouveau riche parents to move to New York, she quickly injects herself into high society. But even a well-to-do husband isn’t enough for Undine, whose overwhelming lust for wealth proves to be her undoing.
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Cannot recommend a better narrator!
- By Esther on 07-29-12
By: Edith Wharton
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The Forsyte Chronicles, Vol. 1: The Forsyte Saga
- By: John Galsworthy
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 38 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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John Galsworthy's magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. As the disintegrating values of the Victorian era progress to World War I and the political uncertainty of the 1930s, the family's material and emotional struggles are set within the dwindling status of the affluent middle-classes.
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Tiring
- By marsha nunley on 04-29-21
By: John Galsworthy
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Crome Yellow
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the greatest prose writers and social commentators of the 20th century, Aldous Huxley here introduces us to a delightfully cynical, comic, and severe group of artists and intellectuals engaged in the most free-thinking and modern kind of talk imaginable. Poetry, occultism, ancestral history, and Italian primitive painting are just a few of the subjects competing for discussion among the amiable cast of eccentrics drawn together at Crome, an intensely English country manor.
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Bloomsbury in a blender, 1922
- By Adeliese Baumann on 01-02-17
By: Aldous Huxley
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Cloudy Jewel
- By: Grace Livingston Hill
- Narrated by: Paula Faye Leinweber
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Cloud had a gentle, caring spirit, devoting her life to her Lord Jesus and caring for others, including her invalid mother. After her mother's death she was faced with a bleak life of poverty until an unexpected visit from her wealthy niece and nephew completely changed her life. They were off to college and wanted "Cloudy Jewel", their childhood nickname for Julia, to come and be their mother and chaperone. Thus started a new adventure for all three, full of love and happiness.
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Beautiful Book about Faith and Homemaking
- By Clarinetgal on 06-11-19
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Aunt Crete's Emancipation
- By: Grace Livingston Hill
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Aunt Crete has spent a lifetime of toil catering to the needs of her family, especially her waspish sister, Carrie, and social-climbing niece, Louella. When a telegram from a nephew from out west announces his imminent arrival, mother and daughter hasten a trip to the shore to escape the "country cousin" who they are sure will shame them.
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Cute Story with a Great Moral
- By Stephanie Aguilar on 08-03-16
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Maurice
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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'Ah for darkness...not the darkness of a house which coops up a man among furniture, but the darkness where he can be free!' Maurice Hall knows he must choose between living life in the shadows or denying himself a chance at love and fulfilment. Aware of his attraction to the same sex, in a time where it was considered unlawful and immoral to have homosexual desires, Maurice must decide whether to battle or submit to a prejudiced 20th-century English society.
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Finally!!! It's past time!
- By Christopher P. on 11-18-10
By: E. M. Forster
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The Crime at Black Dudley
- An Albert Campion Mystery
- By: Margery Allingham
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When George Abbershaw is invited to Black Dudley Manor for the weekend, he has only one thing on his mind - proposing to Meggie Oliphant. Unfortunately for George, things don't quite go according to plan. A harmless game turns decidedly deadly and suspicions of murder take precedence over matrimony. Trapped in a remote country house with a murderer, George can see no way out. But Albert Campion can.
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I LIKE this narrator quite a lot!!!!
- By Meep on 11-16-13
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Something Fresh
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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As Wodehouse himself once noted, "Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice." On this particular occasion, there are two imposters, both intent on a dangerous enterprise. Lord Emsworth's secretary, the Efficient Baxter, is on the alert and determined to discover what is afoot - despite the distractions caused by the Honorable Freddie Threepwood's hapless affair of the heart.
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Not terrible - but not a must-have, either
- By SGW555 on 10-18-07
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Last Tycoon, edited by the renowned literary critic Edmund Wilson, was first published a year after Fitzgerald's death and includes the author's notes and outline for his unfinished literary masterpiece. It is the story of the young Hollywood mogul Monroe Stahr, who was inspired by the life of boy-genius Irving Thalberg, and is an exposé of the studio system in its heyday.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald was a masterful writer, with his stories effortlessly touching people’s hearts and reflecting powerful themes and ideas that ring true to this day. A symbol of the rich and vibrant “jazz era”, his books have only grown more popular with time, being adapted into countless films and plays. Now, this collection reveals Fitzgerald’s work in all its glory, unveiling three literary legends that form the foundation of this incredible author’s popularity.
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Terrible narration. Sample before you purchase by
- By Nelson Bruggeman on 12-02-22
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple who rent a villa in the South of France and surround themselves with a coterie of American expatriates. Rosemary Hoyt, a 17-year-old actress, and her mother are staying at a nearby resort. Rosemary becomes infatuated with Dick and becomes close to Nicole.
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great experience
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The Great Gatsby
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jay Gatsby is still in love with Daisy, whom he met during the war when he was penniless. Having made himself wealthy through illegal means, he now lives in a mansion across the bay from the home of Daisy Buchanan, who has since married for money. Holding on to his illusion of Daisy as perfect, he seeks to impress her with his wealth, and uses his new neighbor, Nick Carraway (our narrator), to reach her.
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Always a great read!
- By victor on 02-19-21
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This Side of Paradise
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Overall
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Performance
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s pseudo- autobiographical first novel. It describes life at Princeton among the glittering, bored, and disillusioned “lost generation” of post World War1 America. Published in 1920, when he was just 23, the novel was an overnight success and propelled Fitzgerald to instant stardom as spokesman of the Jazz Age.
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A Joy-Ride through Pompous Asseville
- By Elizabeth on 04-22-12
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The Rich Boy
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F. Scott Fitzgerald published this captivating short story in 1926, a year after The Great Gatsby. One of his most famous short stories, Fitzgerald wrote “The Rich Boy” about one of his friends in the guise of a wealthy, old-money protagonist, Anson Hunter, and the effects of wealth on his character and thus with women, love, and life. It originally appeared in two parts, in the January and February 1926 issues of Redbook. “The Rich Boy” is a masterpiece of twentieth-century American fiction.
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Tales of the Jazz Age (AmazonClassics Edition)
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After the success of This Side of Paradise, it was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s popular short fiction that helped maintain the luxury and celebrity to which he and his wife, Zelda, had grown accustomed. Reflections of that blithe and glittering lifestyle, these eleven stories reveal a man both beguiled by and critical of the American postwar generation he defined. Fitzgerald’s tales capture the inauguration of the age in all its hysteria, revelry, and tragedy - the same world he would later revisit in his renowned The Great Gatsby.
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The Beautiful and Damned
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the early 20th century, Anthony Patch, a socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune, finds himself falling madly in love with another socialite. Self-absorbed and vain, Gloria Gilbert jumps at the chance to marry Anthony, and the pair embark on a downward spiral that illustrates their selfishness and leaves them both unfulfilled.
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Araby
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A teenage boy falls in love with his friend's sister and must finagle a trip to a bazaar at nearby Araby to win her heart. But will it be that easy?
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Beautiful
- By jdk on 10-30-20
By: James Joyce
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This Side of Paradise
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Wolfram Kandinsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Amory Blaine, a handsome, wealthy, spoiled and snobbish young man from the Midwest, attends Princeton University and acquires a refined sense of the proper "social" values. Lacking all sense of purpose, he interests himself in literary cults, vaguely "liberal" student activities, and a series of flirtations with some rather predatory young ladies. Perhaps This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel - succeeds because of its vibrant quality of youthfulness.
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Posh
- By Oscara on 08-19-17
What listeners say about The Beautiful and Damned
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Emily
- 01-20-05
i loved it
I really enjoyed this reading - the narrators' camellion voice captures the various characters tones imaginetively and distinctively. The novel is a tale of love, of history, of woe and immorality. There is no true hero to the story, but nonetheless leaves the listener enamoroured with anthony and gloria's helplessness and deterioration. You hate them for their snobbery, idolize their lavishness, balame them for their fate, and pity them for their eventual destruction.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 12-20-04
Thick description of ennui
Fitzgerald's ability to describe the tedium of life is outstanding. This is thick description at it's best. Fitzgerald's novel gives the reader a semiautobiographical account of madness with a style that reveals what most of us would not see in the course of everyday life. He allows me the pleasure of reading with a knowing smile the plight of people struggling to "have fun". He does not miss a thing. The desciption is so good and so thick at times I felt the tedium myself and needed to read something else as a break. You return to the book as a moth to a flame.
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15 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Caro
- 10-11-09
Every bit as good as Gatsby
So excellent. I read this book years ago, but didn't think what I now realize: It is every bit as good as the great American novel (and social commentary) we have in Gatsby.
At first I was unsure of the reader William Dufris because his voices were not the ones I had in my head, especially for Gloria. But eventually I gave myself over to his version and found them brilliant, even down to giving her a midwestern flavor.
The one thing I did find grating was the shrill little kid screeching "Audible for Kids." Please remove that from the audio. Not to mention that this novel is not "for kids."
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12 people found this helpful
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- the little hill
- 11-24-13
What a difference a great reader makes
I'd tried to listen to this book from a different reader once before - couldn't get through the first few chapters as a result, and I just recall hating the book as a result. So I gave it another try with this new reader. Dufris has some odd voices, but the Anthony Patch character, and his acting through this complex part, really made Fitzgerald's prose sing. I am new to Fitzgerald, recently having read new bios on Zelda, so I've been more keenly interested in his works. Dufris seemed to be in tune with the characters, flow, style that Fitzgerald imbued his piece with. Great book, great performance, worth the time. Entertaining.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Adam Metz
- 10-01-08
Surprisingly good narration
It's tough to capture all of Fitzgerald's nuances, especially in this novel, his second book (the one before Gatsby), but this narrator does it. This book contains some of Fitzgerald's finest conversational dialogue, and you can really feel Fitzgerald's relationship with Zelda, who was only about 22 at the time of writing.
The beginning also really captures a few elements of Fitzgerald's childhood (better profiled in This Side of Paradise). For any serious scholar of the '20s, this is a must-read, and big fans of Gatsby will not be dissapointed, especially at the intimate explorations of Fitzgerald's relationships, and the birth of post-modern conversation.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Everett Leiter
- 02-08-06
Not a favorite of mine
This is not the Great Gatsby, which is an engrossing and timeless novel. This one by Fitzgerald did not hold my attention as well, and I found it a bit tedious. This is a story about irresponsible party-goers with alcoholism problems. I plodded through the novel, with many parts quite enjoyable. The reader is excellent. As a New Yorker, I did enjoy the depiction of New York life in the 1910's. It is recognizable as a modern New York City, although obviously much has changed. Much earlier than that (say, Edith Wharton's House of Mirth) and it feels like a different time.
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6 people found this helpful
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Story
- Tad Davis
- 01-04-19
Wonderful
William Dufris gives a wonderful, and to my mind almost perfect, reading of this tragic, and to my mind almost perfect, novel by F Scott Fitzgerald. Every character has a distinctive voice, and coming to the recording as I did with no prior knowledge of the novel, each voice seemed to fit like a glove.
The style of the novel is similar to that of This Side of Paradise. There is a mixture of straight narrative with scripted dialogue, the narrative switching point of view and going from past to present tense as the story requires. The dialogue is razor sharp and utterly convincing.
Is it autobiographical? I don't know enough about Fitzgerald to say. It seems to me it would be hard for someone to consume the gargantuan quantities of alcohol described in the book and still be able to create a work of art of such depth.
I took the novel on as an “assignment” (I often give myself reading assignments), but I found myself captivated by the characters and the world they were trying to inhabit - and by William Dufris’ voice.
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5 people found this helpful
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- clday
- 06-12-17
life of leisure is stressful!
I'd read "the Great Gatsby " but nothing else that F Scott Fitzgerald had written. Different story but a similar theme...money doesn't make you happy.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-07-17
Interesting story - not a great narrator
Where does The Beautiful and Damned rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I don't listen to very much fiction, so it's kind of hard to compare, but I enjoyed it.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Beautiful and Damned?
I don't want to give away the plot.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
He tries to make the characters distinguishable, but uses cartoonish, exaggerated tones and accents. Some do not make sense, like a deep south uneducated accent in a crowd of people that are mostly supposed to have gone to an elite school together. Poor characterization of Gloria, who he makes sound stupid while the text says something about how most men she met were her intellectual inferiors or something to that effect. She is immature, but she is not stupid. She is also carrying a heavy burden in the relationship in the story and the vocal interpretation of her dialogue minimizes that while Fitzgerald draws attention to it. He loses the nuance of Fitzgerald, which is the thing I chose the book for.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
Any additional comments?
I wish I had listened to the samples for the best narration.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
You're buying a name
I've made it a point to read Scott Fitzgerald's earlier works and, while I found This Side of Paradise somewhat interesting, Beautiful and Damned is flat out boring. It reminds me of "The Good Life," by Jay Mcinerny, (Who has been compared to Fitz before)- where it inserts you into the boring lives of people with too much money, too much alcohol, and not much interesting to say. I think this might have been exciting 80 years ago. Fitz didn't really perfect his art until Great Gatsby. While 'Paradise,' is still somewhat entertaining for nostalgia sake, they should let this one go out of print. I've read some of the other reviews and I don't know how anyone managed to care about any of the cardboard characters. If it was written by a less-famous author, no one on here would have given it a read in the first place. Only the name brand made anyone 'pretend' to like it.
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