bored I fell in love with The Great Gatsby the first time I read it. I was 17. I loved Fitzgerald's stylised prose; I loved how it captured the spirit of the 1920s and how captivated and intrigued by the characters I was. So recently, I decided to try something else by Ftizgerald - namely, The Beautiful and the Damned. Initially, I was intrigued; the wild character of Gloria seems to resemble a '20s version of Holly Golightly kept me on tenterhooks. But I'm now a good halfway through and aside from much partying, pointless hystrionics and perhaps the occasional marital spat, not much has happened.
I'm not usually one for abandoning books - in fact, I'm a purist where literature is concerned - and I can count the number of books I haven't finished on one hand. But I'm feeling particularly disenchanted. Less beautiful and far more damned. So, what I need to know, Fellow Fitzgerald readers, is is it worth the wait?