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Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE TELEVISION DRAMA Z: THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING
With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler's New York Times bestseller Z brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.
I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer…and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed.
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.
What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.
Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too?
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Critic reviews
“Narrator Jenna Lamia's soft Southern accent and languid tone immediately set the mood for this first-person fictional account of Zelda's marriage with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the great American novelist…listeners will be fascinated by this well-researched story of the beautiful flapper and her famous husband during the Roaring Twenties.” —Audiofile Magazine
“Fowler's Zelda is all we would expect and more…once she meets the handsome Scott, her life takes off on an arc of indulgence and decadence that still causes us to shake our heads in wonder…soirées with Picasso and his mistress, with Cole Porter and his wife, with Gerald and Sara Murphy, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ezra Pound and Jean Cocteau. Scott's friendship with Hemingway verges on a love affair--at least it's close enough to one to make Zelda jealous. Ultimately, both of these tragic, pathetic and grand characters are torn apart by their inability to love or leave each other. Fowler has given us a lovely, sad and compulsively readable book.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Fowler's detailed and lyrical novel is enhanced by Lamia's exquisitely crafted voice…Lamia pays great attention to Fowler's prose, giving each sentence enough space to shine and capturing the emotional weight of the novel with changes in pitch, tone, and emphasis. She paces her reading at an indolent, rolling speed that quickly shifts into high gear as events demand in a delightful and entertaining performance of this best-seller.” —Booklist
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Los Angeles, present day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister's vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie.... Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and she lands a job on the film set of Gone with the Wind.
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Pass on this
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The Wife
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The moment Joan Castleman decides to leave her husband, they are 35,000 feet above the ocean on a flight to Helsinki. Joan's husband, Joseph, is one of America's preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award, and Joan, who has spent 40 years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
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Russian Winter
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In Russian Winter, the beautiful debut novel by critically acclaimed writer Daphne Kalotay, a famed ballerina’s jewelry auction in Boston reveals long-held secrets of love and family, friendship and rivalry, harkening back to Stalinist Russia. Called “tender, passionate, and moving” by Jenna Blum, the New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us, Russian Winter is a perfect choice for fans of the novels of Debra Dean (The Madonnas of Leningrad), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto), and Ian McEwan (Atonement).
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Read this review; Sophisticated and wonderful!
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By: Daphne Kalotay
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Grand Central
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Overall
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Performance
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On any particular day, thousands upon thousands of people pass through New York City's Grand Central Terminal, through the whispering gallery, beneath the ceiling of stars, and past the information booth and its beckoning four-faced clock, to whatever destination is calling them. It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.
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Grand Central: Memories
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Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, 21-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge
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This isn't my favorite but entertaining
- By Linda on 02-01-22
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American Rose
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With the critically acclaimed Sin in the Second City, best-selling author Karen Abbott “pioneered sizzle history” (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America’s coming-of-age - told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free.
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Well done biography of a complicated Icon
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Such a disappointment...
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
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Clara Callan
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Two sisters, small-town Ontario, 1934. Canadian author Richard Wright tells their story, from the ordinary to the extraoridinary with an eye for the commonplace and poignant sense of the larger undercurrents that change people's lives.
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charming intimate refreshing
- By L on 09-10-04
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Mata Hari's Last Dance
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Paris, 1917. The notorious dancer Mata Hari sits in a cold cell awaiting freedom...or death. Alone and despondent, she is as confused as the rest of the world about the charges she's been arrested on: treason leading to the deaths of thousands of French soldiers. As she waits for her fate to be decided, she relays the story of her life to a reporter who is allowed to visit her in prison.
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Throughly enjoyable
- By scalante on 09-07-16
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Boy, Snow, Bird
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In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty - the opposite of the life she' s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she' d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy' s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white.
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For Literary Lovers
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By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Last Summer
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Clarissa is almost 17 when the spell of her childhood is broken. It is 1914, the beginning of a blissful, golden summer - and the end of an era. Deyning Park is in its heyday, the large country house filled with the laughter and excitement of privileged youth preparing for a weekend party. When Clarissa meets Tom Cuthbert, home from university and staying with his mother, the housekeeper, she is dazzled.
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The Last Summer Delivers
- By Carmen dela Cruz on 05-22-16
By: Judith Kinghorn
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What listeners say about Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
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- Ray Stewart
- 04-07-16
Multitalented Woman
This story grew on me over time. In the beginning it seems too detailed, but the longer I listened to it, the more impressed I became with Zelda's spunk. I hope the real Zelda was as awesome a personality as the historical-fiction version.
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2 people found this helpful
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- lyl
- 12-16-13
An extraordinary life
Zelda and Scott lived.in a society newly created - the Jazz Age. It is hard for us now to understand how fast and furious the Victorian Age dissolved and its mores were shoved aside. They knew everyone in the literary world worth knowing and we get to have a glimpse of them. In addition, this is the story of a marriage, and some interesting facts about concepts of mental health at thar time. I would like to add that I thought the narrator was outstanding. Will look for her reading other books.
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- VERB
- 02-20-17
I loved this book so much!
Probably the only thing I like almost as much as the Victorian age is this time period. The Golden Age. I was spurred on to buy this book by the TV series. I love them both!
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-09-13
Z Best!
What made the experience of listening to Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald the most enjoyable?
The story is so real I felt I knew the Fitzgeralds; the narration was amazing. This is truly a love story that is heartbreaking.
What other book might you compare Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald to and why?
I would compare this to the movie, The Way We Were.
What does Jenna Lamia bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Ms. Lamia made me feel that I was hearing Zelda speak; she made Zelda come alive for me.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book; even the happiness in the Fitzgeralds' lives brought tears to my eyes. They were so in love but were just not good for each other.
Any additional comments?
I loved listening to this book.
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- Kendra
- 04-02-17
Brilliant
I'm slightly obsessed with the 1920s and The Great Gatsby, and I'd had this on my TBR list for at least a year. My only regret is that I didn't read it sooner. It's brilliant, simply put. The writing is wonderful, the story fascinating and the narrator perfect. I knew almost nothing about Zelda before so picked this up, which is a shame. What a remarkable person. Highly recommended.
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- Your Mom
- 07-05-24
Such a depressing life.
Great reader! Loved the writing. Such depressing people- their lives were train wrecks. It was nice to have a glimpse into what Zelda’s life could have been like, even though it was fictionalized.
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- Annie M.
- 04-24-13
Illuminating...and Depressing
What made the experience of listening to Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald the most enjoyable?
This is not a book that I'd characterize as "enjoyable." Athough ti will say, off the bat, it is very well-written, extensively researched, and well narrated.
I've been an ardent fan of both Fitzgeralds (I listen to Tim Robbins' beautiful narration of THE GREAT GATSBY at least once a year) since high school and have read almost everything each has written, including Scott's writer's notebooks. As a youth, I was entranced by the legendary love between Scott and Zelda. As I grew older and learned more, I became less enchanged with these icons of the Jass Age. "Z" pretty much made sure I'd never again hold these people in any kind of esteem--at least as people (as opposed to artists).
"Z" was exhaustively researched and it re-defines the common myth that Zelda was a self-centered, impetuous, mentally ill cyclone who took her husband along with her as she plummeted from Jazz Age darling to insitutionalized failure. This is the myth.
Fowler shows Zelda as the woman she actually was--artistic, beautiful, trend-setting, kind, and absolutely dominated by her pathologically insecure, relentlessly alcoholic husband. "Z" is also a reminder of how lucky I am to be a woman in today's world, as opposed to in Zelda's time, when a flapper could be independent and pursue dreams of her own--until she married, that is.
I now must confess I had a lot of trouble getting through this book, but not because it was poorly written or badly narrated. It was simply depressing. I'd put it down. And then find myself picking it back up, much like the old maxim about a train wreck you can't turn away from.
I was grateful to the author for the opilogue that allowed us to see Zelda find some recognition on her own through her paintings. If you are interested, there are several websites that showcase much of her art and one can see for oneself that she was, indeed, a talented woman.
Scott Fitzgerald comes out of this book as such a sorry human being. Talented, yes. But so driven toward his own place in literary history, he put his own name to short stories written exclusively by his wife. That is just one of the many terrible things he did to Zelda during their marriage. It was so sad to read about this stuff.
He's yet one more example that with great genius, often there comes great neuroses.
What did you like best about this story?
I like the fact that the legend of Scott and Zelda is put to rest and the truth is out. I am so glad to see Zelda get a hearing of sorts. I wonder what she might have achieved, had she been born in more liberated times--and had she been allowed to develop her many talents to their fullest.
Have you listened to any of Jenna Lamia’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I listened to Ms. Lamia's performance of THE HELP. Her narration of "Z" compares favorably. She has the Southern accent down pat. And she made me hate, despise, abhor Ernest Hemingway. Which is really saying a lot, if you know how much I love his work.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
As mentioned above, I found this a tough book to read, simply because it relentlessly showcases two amazingly gifted people--who disintegrate in slow motion. It's just so sad.
Any additional comments?
An interesting read, in light of Baz Lurhman's renditio of THE GREAT GATSBY, due in theatres May 10.
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21 people found this helpful
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- 04-03-16
Historical fiction at its best!
This novel, which focuses on the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, began as any typical historical fiction novel, introducing the reader to Zelda and her famous husband to-be, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I often listen to historical fiction when I jog at the gym to make the time pass. Since this novel was fairly standard, I decided it wasn't captivating enough to use as a workout book. So, I listened each night before bed. Eventually I came to realize that what I was reading was a thoughtful, fictionalized portrayal of a woman who was living a life that mirrors that of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's as relayed in The Yellow Wallpaper. This 1920-1940s glimpse into fame, love, frustration, and madness was deeply satisfying to read.
When Zelda was young, she viewed the world in an impractical manner, as many young people do. The author captures her transition from young naive girl to confused woman, always trying to navigate social rules, family ties, inner drives and impulses, love, the darkness within herself, and a desire to break free from it all. This book provides a very rich description of the obstacles that stood in her way, some of them self imposed and some of them barbaric external forces.
Zelda's life was inextricably tied to Ernest Hemingway and some other famous people from the 1920s literary, art, music, and feminist scenes. That served as an added bonus to make this novel even more captivating. I will think about this book for a long time to come.
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- Janet H. Maddox
- 07-08-13
Fascinating story, well performed.
In a year when there is much focus on Scot Fitzgerald and his Gatsby, this alternate view of him from Zelda's perspective enriches the discussion of his legacy. More than that, it provides a delightful experience on its on.
Zelda Fitzgerald is a fascinating person, one who should not be relegated to just a footnote to the life of her husband. Theirs is a tragic story, but an amazing tale of two talented, though less than stable, individuals who shared a love of life and of each other, but who neither had the strength to provide the emotional support the other desperately needed.
The narrator does an excellent portrayal of a south Alabama accent, evoking the time and place without falling into the common trap of overdoing it. Only one slip up in the pronunciation of the name of Zelda's high school, Lanier, named for poet Sidney Lanier and still in existence. Still, overall the performance is excellent, portraying Zelda as both a young and a mature woman, and making her believable in both.
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- Kit G
- 08-14-17
A story of insight & optimism
Sweet, lovely, and insightful into another era. What great and creative minds came from this optimistic time in U.S. and Western European history.
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