This Side of Paradise

Everyone knows The Great Gatsby is the prettiest and best book ever written, but it's the only one by Fitzgerald I had read until this week. I've been saving him up, and I just spent two more of his four completed novels. The elitism and social climbing were off-putting through Tender is the Night and on until the second half of This Side of Paradise, where the protagonist's evolution picked up and he ended, unexpectedly, as a dharma bum, speaking compellingly for the spirit of an entire generation, not just a privileged piece of it. I don't recall being so pleasantly surprised by a book. Glad I forced my way through it. Why Paris has been on my mind, and a lovely way to end the early "retirement" of looking for the right job before getting back to work!