Following on from our Book Group’s choice for last month, “Mrs Palfrey” this month’s choice was “The Last Tycoon*” by F Scott Fitzgerald which was published posthumously in 1941. I absolutely loved Mrs Palfrey so this book had a lot to live up to.
The Last Tycoon
“The Last Tycoon” was Fitzgerald’s last novel and he died before he finished it. However, he left plenty of notes so his friend, Edmund Wilson, was able to publish it posthumously. When you read the notes, you can get an idea of how the finished book might have read.
The novel is based on Fitzgerald’s experiences of Hollywood in the 1930’s and how movies were made. Monroe Stahr, the lead character, is a film producer who was modelled on Irving Thalberg, a “Boy Wonder” of a producer at MGM who died at age 37. Stahr undergoes daily battles with other studio personnel, putting their backs up with his uncompromising attitude.
At the same time, he falls for a woman he can’t have and their subsequent affair. The story plays out against the backdrop of these two themes. Much of the novel is narrated by Cecilia Brady (the daughter of another movie producer) who is besotted with Stahr.
Plot and narrative
I found the plot difficult to follow, it seemed to have many different strands and it was sometimes hard to see how they all knitted together. Perhaps if the book had been finished it might have felt more coherent and rounded out but just having six chapters and a few pages of notes made it feel disorganised at times.
I also found the narrative quite choppy and muddled. Sometimes Cecelia narrates and sometimes Fitzgerald does. Why? Would this have been resolved if Fitzgerald had had the chance to finish the novel? Would the novel have been improved?
Film vs. book
“The Last Tycoon” seems to offer rich pickings for film and television. A 1976 film* based on Harold Pinter’s screenplay starred Robert de Niro and Theresa Russell. Amazon ran a successful pilot series and, apparently, the series will be picked up at a future date. I struggle to visualise Robert de Niro as Monroe Stahr though: for me, Errol Flynn would be pitch perfect casting!
Would I recommend it?
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to reading this book, although it’s a short one (196 pages in my copy). I struggled with “Tender is the Night” for A-level and more recently “The Great Gatsby“. Anyway… I tried to read the book but I found it difficult to get into and I’m afraid I didn’t like it. In fact, none of our Group did – one comment was, “the Kindle ran out of juice, thank God!” so it’s safe to say our discussion this month was short.
Apparently, Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure, so I wonder if he would have been happy to have his first draft and collection of notes published in this way, without the option to revise or edit it. Although many critics seem to believe it would have been Fitzgerald’s finest novel, I do wonder why it was published at all.
Have you read “The Last Tycoon”? What did you think? Have you read any other Fitzgerald books? Did you like them or not?
* This post features some affiliate links (please see my disclaimer).
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