West of Sunset

Reviews

“A rich, sometimes heartbreaking journey through the disintegration of an American legend.”

“An achingly nuanced love story and one of the best biographical novels to come along in years. O’Nan’s great achievement here is in so convincingly inhabiting the character of Scott Fitzgerald and of the people surrounding him during his descent into the clarifying depths of 1930s Hollywood.”

“O’Nan—the king of the quotidian—has changed his brush stroke and given us a picture of another American master, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the last years of his life…An amazing book.”

“O’Nan, an accomplished, award-winning writer who has clearly done his biographical homework, polishes this saga to a seductive sheen, populates it with persuasive incarnations of Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, and others, and takes us to a very dark place indeed.”

“O’Nan is an incredibly versatile and charming writer. This novel, which imagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s troubled time in Hollywood (with cameos by Dorothy Parker, Bogie, and Hemingway), takes up (like much of O’Nan’s work) that essential conundrum of grace struggling with paucity. One brilliant American writer meditating on another—what’s not to love?”

“[A] beautifully written historical novel…which follows Fitzgerald’s stint as a screenwriter during the 1930s, captures that era of Hollywood well, offering juicy scenes with Humphrey Bogart, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, and other Fitzgerald friends and hangers-on, while lending witty dialogue to his affair with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, a doomed romance that’s worthy of a classic film.”

“[The] grim yet undeniably fascinating last act of Fitzgerald’s life is the subject of Stewart O’Nan’s gorgeous new novel, West of Sunset…West of Sunset is a pretty fine Hollywood novel, too, but it’s an even finer novel about a great writer’s determination to keep trying to do his best work.”

“Mesmerizing and haunting…The strings O’Nan pulls so deftly are really the mark of a consummate pro, along the lines of Fitzgerald himself…lovingly and believably, the manner in which a writer works—thinks, processes, assimilates, envies—is given life.”

“Nan, in understated prose, renders a heartbreaking portrait of an artist soldiering on in the face of personal and professional ruin…O’Nan’s convincing characterization of a man burdened by guilt and struggling to hold onto his dignity is, at once, a moving testament to grace under pressure and an intimate look at a legend.”

“Christopher Lane’s narration of this fascinating audiobook is elegant and engrossing. His sonorous voice is ideal for O’Nan’s rich imagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in Hollywood. With kindness and compassion, Lane entreats the listener to empathize with Fitzgerald as he copes with personal and professional trials…Lane’s performance is as effective as O’Nan’s storytelling. Conversations with notables such as Hemingway and Bogart come across as believable, and descriptions of setting and character quirks are vivid and three-dimensional. This audiobook is outstanding—one that might inspire you to visit the work of the great Fitzgerald himself once again. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”

“O’Nan taps into primary-source material on Fitzgerald to craft a realistic piece of historical fiction…Fitzgerald comes across as a haunting, multifaceted, sympathetic character…The slide into drugs, alcoholism, and the heart disease that shortened his life is tragic to behold; Fitzgerald fans will mourn his loss all over again.”

“O’Nan places Scott back at center stage, with a sympathetic portrayal of a troubled genius, a kind but deeply flawed man trying to stay on the wagon while keeping the peace between his unstable wife and their teenage daughter…O’Nan has masterfully re-created the feel and ambience of the Hollywood studio system in the late 1930s…An insightful glimpse into a sad period in Fitzgerald’s life.”

“I’ll direct my enthusiasm for West of Sunset to writers who revere Fitzgerald’s short story ‘Babylon Revisited.’ Stewart O’Nan captures Fitzgerald’s mood of spiritual reflection, without trying to imitate Fitzgerald’s voice. This book is an inoculation against self-pity. It’s not a mock Fitzgerald novel but an original portrait of a writer struggling to keep his dignity while trying to make a living. I don’t doubt the biographical details, but it’s a waste of the book to check it against fidelity to fact; if Fitzgerald wasn’t friendly with Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot in 1939, he is now. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in years and it deserves a cheering crowd.”

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