Call Me Zelda
-
-
4.0 • 47 Ratings
-
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
“[A] haunting and beautifully atmospheric novel...brilliantly brings Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald to life in all their doomed beauty, with compelling and unforgettable results.”—Alex George, author of Setting Free the Kites
From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.
When Zelda is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, vacillating between lucidity and madness in her struggle to forge an identity separate from her husband, the famous writer, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Held captive by her own tragic past, Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she becomes privy to Zelda’s most intimate confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius. But in taking ever greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she intended...
READERS GUIDE INCLUDED
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Robuck, who first explored the lives and loves of authors in Hemingway's Girl, now turns to the tumultuous, codependent relationship of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's 1932, and Anna Howard, a nurse who lost her husband and daughter in the Great War, is assigned to work with Zelda when she's committed to Baltimore's Phipps Psychiatric Clinic. Soon she's drawn into Zelda's charismatic but deeply unstable orbit, going so far as to quit her job to become Zelda's private nurse when she leaves Phipps. Anna's relationship with the Fitzgeralds is fraught and all-consuming, causing her to turn away from her own family and friends even as it seems to help her find a way back to herself. Robuck effectively captures the Fitzgeralds' turbulent marriage, as well as their inability to function personally or professionally beyond their jazz age heyday and into the Depression era. What is less convincing is Anna's motivations for being so immediately and utterly drawn to the couple. Neither this nor Anna's eventual recovery in which her relationship to the Fitzgeralds helps her return to healthy life are as well articulated as is the portrayal of the Fitzgeralds' rocky romance.
Customer Reviews
Absolutely fabulous
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. A wonderful piece of work.
Worst book on this planet
No sparknotes...I'm screwed