I read Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald spent nearly ten years of his life writing this novel and it shows. He does not waste a page. A tender moment when Dick Diver receives news of his father's death or a simple exchange between him and his young son while he shaves before dressing for work can be mined for insight. I was intrigued by Fitzgerald's use of rainstorms at two key moments: once when Dick and Nicole first kiss and again when Dick kisses his mistress Rosemary (the actress who shuns fame, yet whom everyone recognizes from her role in 'Daddy's Girl.')
Dr. Dick Diver and his wife Nicole are introduced among the carefree, affluent, idle and bored who laze in the sun, swim and attend parties at the Riviera. But Nicole is a recovering schizo and the good Doctor feels intensely inferior because it is his wife's wealth that bankrolls their extravagant lifestyle.
The secret of NIMH is revealed when the narrative flashes back to Dick and Nicole's first encounter. The nonlinear storytelling initially disorients but the novel hits its stride once the characters are familiar and the disjointed plot concatenates. The book is presented in three parts and the second might be the finest piece of writing ever put to paper.
Everyone believes Nicole is an eyelash away from another psychotic break but she flashes more moments of self-awareness than those close to her give her credit for and her redux coincides with her increasingly estranged husband's descent into bitterness and alcoholism.
Diver's heavy drinking and embarrassingly bad behavior (he starts a fight with a cabbie over fare and punches the plain clothes detective that arrests him) reach critical level when a patient being treated for alcoholism at his clinic complains about the 90-proof doctor. His partner ousts him and he retreats to the Riviera for a final rendezvous with Rosemary who has outgrown him. Nicole no longer needs him, either, so the diminished Diver wanders aimlessly and unsuccessfully, aged and alone.
