This Side of Paradise
“Fitzgerald’s debut novel is well performed by a placid, measured Adam Sims…Sims’s voice is elegant and professional throughout the audiobook…The hero’s lengthy musings on life, art, politics, and the like can be ponderous, even when shared by Sims. But the tone of the Jazz Age permeates the work, and Sims does a fine job with the lively conversations and wide array of characters. The novel is no Gatsby, but Sims makes it worth a listen.”
AudioFile
First published in 1920, This Side of Paradise proved to be a bestselling novel in Fitzgerald’s own lifetime.
The book follows the early life and education of Amory Blaine and is, in fact, a thinly disguised account of Fitzgerald’s own experience as an undergraduate at Princeton and as an aspiring writer. Brilliantly original in its experimental narrative, it comprises a series of contrasting styles and structures.
The novel formed the launchpad for Fitzgerald’s career as a novelist and was received with enthusiasm on its publication, with the Chicago Daily News titling its review “Whew! How That Boy Can Write!”
Praise