Reviews for Interventionism

The average rating for Interventionism based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-06-01 00:00:00 James Greenhow Essays, some provocative, all enlightening and thought-provoking, on Fitzgerald in general and on �Gatsby� and �Tender is the Night.� A good companion to the actual works.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-02 00:00:00 Gilbert Kairu Having re-read many of Fitzgeralds's short stories recently (in part to make sure that I hadn't missed any), I thought that I'd turn to a collection of criticism for some perspective. He wrote five novels ("The Last Tycoon" was the fifth, incomplete at his death in 1940) but almost 200 short stories. Short-story writing helped him pay of significant debts in the years before his death, when he was living in Hollywood. This collection was written for students but it is valuable in identifying key historians (especially Arthur Mizener), critics and period background. It also gives any reader a chance to judge critics, even if they contend (as John Aldridge does) that Fitzgerald and his contemporaries won't survive as great authors. One of the best articles for perspective on why Fitzgerald couldn't make it as a screenwriter in Hollywood is written by Aaron Latham. Fitzgerald collaborated with Bill Warren, a teenager who had produced musicals, but still couldn't change his writing style. "I always thought that dialogue was very well contained if you used 'he said,' 'she said,'" Warren explains. "Scott would write, 'he expostulated,' 'he ejaculated,' "Ah," he complained.'" Fitzgerald himself, in one of his stories about Hollywood titled "Financing Finnegan," would write: "It was only when I met some poor devil of a screenwriter who had been trying to make a logical story out of one of his books that I realized he had his enemies. 'It's all beautiful when you read it,' this man said disgustedly, 'but when you write it down plain it's like a week in the nuthouse.'" The collection also voices the characterization of Fitzgerald as a masochist and Ernest Hemingway as sadist in their relationship, something expressed by not just by biographer Andre Le Vot but by many critics.