“Well, this side of Paradise! .... 

There’s little comfort in the wise.”

— Rupert Brooke in “Tiare Tahiti”

This Side of Paradise was a book a friend recommended to me. He told me it was a book that was there for him in his low points in life. I didn’t get to know this friend for long, but in sharing this book, I got to know a lot of about him. I am happy to have met him, and I am happy to have read this amazing recommendation.

I know many in the room are not fans of The Great Gatsby, and you might even say F. Scott Fitzgerald didn’t even write it; however, This Side of Paradise is an charmingly amateurish experimental novel. It was Fitzgerald’s first novel, and I think it may surpass The Great Gatsby. Don’t get me wrong: this Side of Paradise isn’t a higher form of literature compared to Fitzgerald’s work, but it is the most adolescent-connected novel.

In This Side of Paradise, you will not find a logical, planned-out novel. After all, F. Scott Fitzgerald began writing drafts of this novel when he was 21 years old because he didn’t think he’d return from the war. He finished the novel a few short years later, and he tried submitting it to Scribner’s and was rejected. The issue was that it wasn’t ‘complete.’ This is a glaring issue as—clearly—Fitzgerald wasn’t mature at that point in his life. 

In many ways, this works to the detriment of the writer. Ostensibly, this is an inconsistent, sporadic, incomplete novel. Despite this, one should be reminded this isn’t just any novel. It is a part of the bildungsroman literary genre (ie. the German term for coming-of-age novels or novels of psychological/moral development). In this regard, Fitzgerald created a fantastic, radiant example of the adolescent experience. 

In Part 1, the story is set in the confines of the university and about the ‘Lost Generation’ before the war, before they were ‘lost’. It is about student organizations, great and optimistic expectations, friendships, and generally youthful radiance. In Part 2, the story is out of the university and offers a perspective of life after the war and the loss of life. This part of the story is about losing, failure, feeling lost. Romantic failure, career failure, friendship failure, and self-failure. 

Fitzgerald purposefully writes appropriate for each part. He makes use of fragmentation and vignettes. He shares scenes of Amory’s development. He switches the format whenever needed. The novel is about failure, nostalgia, self-awareness, and relationships (platonic or romantic). It’s hard not to feel Amory’s distant longing for Rosalind and his loneliness when his friends have either passed away or moved on to real life. 

Amory can only return to his adolescence, in his mental image and physical, but he has to recognize he cannot return. All the dreams and passions he has had drifted into the vortex of growing up. He can only admit one thing: “I know myself” “but that is all.” There is nothing else one might know, and one may hope that we may be better or become our best.