zany, zesty zelda

I haven't read a work of historical fiction quite like this novel. At times I forgot I was reading about the life and accomplishments of a woman who actually walked this earth and made literary history alongside her infamous author husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald. So many elements of Zelda's life, though, were larger than life, from her decision to marry a struggling artist determined to make the world know his name, to traipsing around New York City and Paris's party scenes. This is a beautifully laid out story told in a witty and creative voice that I'd like to believe Zelda would be happy to have portray her through this literary medium. Zelda felt perfectly human to me throughout this narrative as she experienced the ups and downs of a marriage constantly in the media's spotlight. Eventually raising a child, attempting to pursue her own callings toward literature and modernist painting, and pushing her body and mind to the limit to try her hand at professional ballet dancing only increased my inclination to offer Zelda my sympathy as well as admiration. This novel also has strong but subtle feminist messages, as Zelda fights for her right to "exist independently in the world" while also juggling her love for a husband that proved to provide her more pain than happiness as he struggled with his own vendettas and lofty dreams of becoming immortalized within the American literary tradition. I learned a great deal about this fantastic historical figure and force of a woman who, ultimately, was an incredible fighter. She fought against voices telling her she couldn't do what she wanted to do, against a society that frowned upon her exercising the wonderful facets of her imagination, and even her own mind as she struggled with incorrectly diagnosed forms of anxiety and mental illness. I reached the end of this novel with a profound sense of nostalgia and felt like I'd known Zelda for years; I definitely recommend this book to anyone searching for an excuse to read more about the sparkling, disillusioned Jazz Age through the eyes of a remarkable female figure.




Some of my favorite quotes from Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald:

"If only people could travel as easily as words. Wouldn't that be something? If only we could be so easily revised."

"He's such an extraordinarily brilliant person that it would be terrible if he let himself do nothing in the end."

"I've come to wonder whether artists in particular seek out hard times the way flowers turn their faces toward the sun."

"The scent of lavender floated up the hillside from where it grew among the rocks at the sea's edge."

"That's why novelists are so essential: we record everything we see, we dissect and analyze and reproduce the essence of what matters, for posterity."

"...if I wasn't writing, I didn't exist."

"Scott, for all his shortcomings, owned my heart."

"Women are formed for love, yes, but also for purpose..."

"Yet you've continued to write and to face down the devils, to surmount your fear. To my mind, that makes you strong and heroic and true."

"A roomful of dancing, sweating, laughing people is a beautiful thing."

"Now, I saw how a woman might sometimes want to steer her own course rather than trail her husband like a favored dog."

"'When are you going to understand that what I want is for you to get your priorities straight?'
Translation: Worshipping me should be your only desire.
I said, 'When are you going to become someone who deserves to be my priority?'"

"To right myself, I would write myself."

"I was fighting for my right to exist independently in the world, to realize myself, to steer my own boat if I felt like it." 

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