Jesse’s Reviews > Tales of the Jazz Age > Status Update
Jesse
is 10% done
“The Jelly-Bean”
Set in the same town where “The Ice Palace” began, this is in Fitzgerald’s tradition of “boy can’t marry a girl because of money”. Jim has had a boyhood crush on Nancy since old times, but he settled into the lower class in the town with virtually zero aspirations to mask his poor self-esteem. Until he reconnects with Nancy at a party, that is.
— Mar 06, 2026 08:43AM
Set in the same town where “The Ice Palace” began, this is in Fitzgerald’s tradition of “boy can’t marry a girl because of money”. Jim has had a boyhood crush on Nancy since old times, but he settled into the lower class in the town with virtually zero aspirations to mask his poor self-esteem. Until he reconnects with Nancy at a party, that is.
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Jesse
is 99% done
“Jemina, the Mountain Girl”
Another briefly absurd comedy written as a tall tale, this one banking on the antics of Kentucky hillbillies.
“We will die together,” he said. “If we had lived I would have taken you to the city and married you. With your ability to hold liquor, your social success would have been assured.”
— 8 hours, 43 min ago
Another briefly absurd comedy written as a tall tale, this one banking on the antics of Kentucky hillbillies.
“We will die together,” he said. “If we had lived I would have taken you to the city and married you. With your ability to hold liquor, your social success would have been assured.”
Jesse
is 97% done
“Mr. Icky”
An absurd comedic sketch involving a rural Irish man. I think. Fitzgerald’s fake-play directions are completely off the rails here and indicate that quaint randomness has long been a mainstay of humor.
“(It will be noticed that some of the characters have not spoken for some time. It will improve the technique if they can be rendering a spirited saxophone number.)”
— 9 hours, 6 min ago
An absurd comedic sketch involving a rural Irish man. I think. Fitzgerald’s fake-play directions are completely off the rails here and indicate that quaint randomness has long been a mainstay of humor.
“(It will be noticed that some of the characters have not spoken for some time. It will improve the technique if they can be rendering a spirited saxophone number.)”
Jesse
is 95% done
“The Lees of Happiness”
A Hallmark story about the Chorus girl and the short story author who marry and are passionately in love, and also Jeff is there and in an unhappy marriage, but then not-Fitzgerald has a stroke and declines swiftly at first and then slowly as his devoted wife cares for him. There isn’t a happy ending, just a bittersweet conclusion.
— 9 hours, 20 min ago
A Hallmark story about the Chorus girl and the short story author who marry and are passionately in love, and also Jeff is there and in an unhappy marriage, but then not-Fitzgerald has a stroke and declines swiftly at first and then slowly as his devoted wife cares for him. There isn’t a happy ending, just a bittersweet conclusion.
Jesse
is 86% done
““O Russett Witch!””
A man named Merlin runs into a mysterious profligate woman as he ages from 25 to 65. It starts out with him viewing her through their windows, but she is such a libertine that she is chill with him when she kind of not really confronts him at the bookstore where he works. In a fit of spontaneity, the two of them wreck up the place, after which time…passes.
— 12 hours, 30 min ago
A man named Merlin runs into a mysterious profligate woman as he ages from 25 to 65. It starts out with him viewing her through their windows, but she is such a libertine that she is chill with him when she kind of not really confronts him at the bookstore where he works. In a fit of spontaneity, the two of them wreck up the place, after which time…passes.
Jesse
is 74% done
“Tarquin of Cheapside”
Historical fiction set in London in the 1600s. The opening action, with two men chasing a third, is beautifully written. At the end of the story, we are asked to believe that the quarry is a young William Shakespeare and that his long poem, “The Rape of Lucrece”, is actually a spontaneously-written BOAST, which reframes Shakespeare as a detestable villain.
— 13 hours, 39 min ago
Historical fiction set in London in the 1600s. The opening action, with two men chasing a third, is beautifully written. At the end of the story, we are asked to believe that the quarry is a young William Shakespeare and that his long poem, “The Rape of Lucrece”, is actually a spontaneously-written BOAST, which reframes Shakespeare as a detestable villain.
Jesse
is 71% done
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Most of this story is an absurd comedy. Benjamin is literally born a 70 year old man. He ages in reverse, and Fitzgerald hits on how Ben’s desires and his caregivers’ expectations clash with his apparent age.
BUT THEN.
The description of Benjamin from aging backward from about five to his end WRECKED ME. It wasn’t maudlin, it was simple and beautiful and I’m sad
— 15 hours, 49 min ago
Most of this story is an absurd comedy. Benjamin is literally born a 70 year old man. He ages in reverse, and Fitzgerald hits on how Ben’s desires and his caregivers’ expectations clash with his apparent age.
BUT THEN.
The description of Benjamin from aging backward from about five to his end WRECKED ME. It wasn’t maudlin, it was simple and beautiful and I’m sad
Jesse
is 61% done
“The Diamond As Big As the Ritz”
I expected, idk, some story about a ring with a large diamond. What I got was a screwball fantasy with a literal hotel-sized diamond via the wild excesses of the wealthy (and in this case southern) leg of George Washington’s descendants. This story’s tone whiplash after everything goes down, with the suddenly philosophical and worldly MC, is pretty jarring.
— 16 hours, 24 min ago
I expected, idk, some story about a ring with a large diamond. What I got was a screwball fantasy with a literal hotel-sized diamond via the wild excesses of the wealthy (and in this case southern) leg of George Washington’s descendants. This story’s tone whiplash after everything goes down, with the suddenly philosophical and worldly MC, is pretty jarring.
Jesse
is 46% done
“Porcelain and Pink”
Posed as a scandalous sitcom sketch where one sister is playing irreverently in the bathtub while the other wants to clean up before her date. At some point, the date-night sister’s beau shows up and he holds a conversation with the bather, not knowing that it’s the other sister (the story lays on thick that he can see the upper walls through a thin window but nothing else).
— Mar 06, 2026 01:36PM
Posed as a scandalous sitcom sketch where one sister is playing irreverently in the bathtub while the other wants to clean up before her date. At some point, the date-night sister’s beau shows up and he holds a conversation with the bather, not knowing that it’s the other sister (the story lays on thick that he can see the upper walls through a thin window but nothing else).
Jesse
is 42% done
“May Day”
This is a broad overview of Fitzgerald’s perception of New York during May Day. F. Scott follows several different interlinking threads of raucous behavior, including an anti-socialist demonstration at a left-wing newspaper office; the incredible drunken duo of Mr. In and Mr. Out; the post-party atmosphere at a diner; and the very pathetic suicide of a morose young man.
— Mar 06, 2026 12:54PM
This is a broad overview of Fitzgerald’s perception of New York during May Day. F. Scott follows several different interlinking threads of raucous behavior, including an anti-socialist demonstration at a left-wing newspaper office; the incredible drunken duo of Mr. In and Mr. Out; the post-party atmosphere at a diner; and the very pathetic suicide of a morose young man.
Jesse
is 21% done
“The Camel’s Back”
Parker loves Betty, and she loves him, but she doesn’t want to commit to a marriage. After the blow-up break-up, Parker gets drunk and decides to go to a circus-themed party. He ends up renting a camel costume, but he has to hire out his taxi driver as the back half. What ensues is for the most part charmingly madcap. The Camel in the Tate estate is my favorite part by far.
— Mar 06, 2026 09:59AM
Parker loves Betty, and she loves him, but she doesn’t want to commit to a marriage. After the blow-up break-up, Parker gets drunk and decides to go to a circus-themed party. He ends up renting a camel costume, but he has to hire out his taxi driver as the back half. What ensues is for the most part charmingly madcap. The Camel in the Tate estate is my favorite part by far.
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rated it 4 stars
Mar 06, 2026 08:46AM
Jim is a sympathetic character and has Fitzgerald’s imbued sense of feeling doomed to circumstances. In another story he might have fully turned over his new leaf and somehow come to win Nancy… but Nancy ends up marrying her beau on a drunken lark and both of their schemes are dashed to pieces.
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Fitzgerald has a fascination with women who embody the “masculine” type insofar as what they demand out of the world. Nancy follows one of the logical ends of this lifestyle: she plays too hard and is subsequently burned, committed to the married life she had been avoiding.
This is an interesting sort of feminism where Fitzgerald sees these women as vibrant, adventurous figures who are pulled down out of their prime into becoming wives and mothers. It is a perennially youthful sentiment that dehumanizes women who inhabit domestic roles. I mean, not to imply that being a married woman and mother was an empowering and wonderfully emotionally fulfilling gender role in the time in which Fitzgerald grew up and was a young man.
