Helpful Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald has achieved far greater success in the second "Jazz Age," nearly ten years after his death, than in the first, during which he did most of his writing. Both the young, who had never heard of him until last year, and the middle-aged, who should have read his novels the first time around, are devouring as much Fitzgerald as they can find.

It is very fortunate for Arthur Mizener that this revival has preceded the appearance of his highly literary biography of the writer. For "The Far Side of Paradise" could never gain popularity on its own merits.

Mizener has a limited objective: to relate Fitzgerald's life to his writing. The book, as a result, wavers at the border between criticism and biography. As criticism it is inadequate, for its standards are too biographical; as biography it suffers equally, for its focus is too literary.

The impartiality of critical analysis is absent, for Mizener treats Fitzgerald's writing too much as behavior and too little as literature. And the dialogue and minute personal details necessary to produce a well-rounded biography are too often replaced by detailed analysis of the novelist's literary production and correspondence.

It is as a companion to Fitzgerald's writings that "The Far Side of Paradise" is most worthwhile. For one who has read little or no Fitzgerald, the book is neither interesting nor instructive. But if it is read in conjunction with "This Side of Paradise," "Tender is the Night," "The Last Tycoon," and a few of Fitzgerald's magnificent short stories, the result is a true biography.

Mizener excels in distilling the truly autobiographical ingredients out of Fitzgerald's highly autobiographical characters. He points out convincingly where the author reports his own emotions and the events of his own life, and where he pursues fears and uncertainties beyond his actual experience.

Although neither Fitzgerald's extra-ordinary life nor his literary accomplishment receives full treatment, the relation between the two is made quite clear. "The Far Side of Paradise" performs a valuable and quite original service as a guide to the author and his novels.