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I love how perfectly Fitzgerald crafts and imparts an imaginative moment or character. The 120+ pages of notes in this collection are a treat, though it's best to read them in 20 page increments to give each "bullet point" opportunity to set in without being obscured by the multitude. I found myself wishing at many points that Fitzgerald had developed *this situation* or *that character* in a full-length work (whether novel, short story or play). His creative well seemed to be bottomless and the incredible number of notes made me think that there actually could be value in carrying around a moleskine notebook to record otherwise-fleeting thoughts. Ugh, I can't believe I wrote that. But what have I missed in my own life (intellectual and otherwise) by failing to record something in the moment, either to stand alone in its entirety or to be called forth for deeper reflection later? I'm certainly no Fitzgerald, and never attempt at anything remotely creative in the fictional literary sense (I suck, trust me on this), but this collection demonstrates the value of little, passing thoughts. In addition, it rounded out Fitzgerald the man in a way that strict biographies, his oeuvre, letters and literary criticism can't quite manage on their own. The notes reveal his creative imagination in its rawest form as well as snippets of his emotional and intellectual life and development.

The essays and letters are very poignant, as well, revealing a man very insecure, delicate and uncertain (yet certain in his writerly expertise). And it should be mentioned that he was quite a snob and held some gross views on women and minorities. As much as I despise that part of him, I still love his fiction and view him in an unabashedly romanticized light as THE larger-than-life figure in the Jazz Age. And in my head he will always look like a blonde Loki with a middle part, thanks to Avengers, Thor and Midnight in Paris. Yum.

First finished: May 1, 2007 (Though I may not have officially "finished" it -- I wasn't responsible for writing a review of it in grad school, so who knows how much I read! Just enough to talk about it intelligibly?)