First Audiobook of the Year

 Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler 

Things I knew about the Fitzgerald's before reading this book: that Scott wrote "Great Gatsby" and that Hemingway was a misogynist, a cheater, and not near as good of a writer as he considered himself to be. I had no idea about anything else about them. And while this was historical fiction I am guessing that a good portion of it is more historical than fiction, including the dates and locations. The conversations, are where I am guessing most of the fiction comes into play. I cannot look at Scott and Zelda and their marriage as a product of their times because Zelda herself did not look at them as a product of their times. Despite the fact that she doesn't necessarily see herself as a feminist, she had some very progressive feminist ideals. And wow, Scott was so weak willed it's not surprising that he flitted from one thing to another and spent extravagantly. Frankly, I am disgusted that people like Hemingway and Scott are lauded as great American writers when they were such horrible people. Zelda deserved better. I'm glad the book didn't focus entirely on her time in the hospitals, and it's wonderful that we have made such strides in the care of mental health. Her death could have been prevented. His was the result of his lifestyle. This was interesting and renewed my hatred for Hemingway. It also made me upset that "Gatsby" is still one of the books that we require high school students to read; he doesn't deserve the notoriety but Zelda does.