THE GREAT GATSBY is one of those novels that haunts me, not
because like so many others that I loved it, but because I didn't love it.
In fact, it's the only novel ever assigned to me in my school career that I
was unable to finish. As an adult, I've rectified that situation but I
continue to search for the reason so many are enamored by F. Scott
Fitzgerald and his writings. Sally Koslow is the first author to help me
see the appeal in her book, ANOTHER
SIDE OF PARADISE.
I love exploring Sheilah Graham's early years, as she endured the
hardships of an orphanage. Her strength of character shines as she
reimagines herself into a Hollywood gossip columnist who ultimately
falls in love with and has an affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Starting life
out as Lily Shiel, Sheilah soaks in every bit of knowledge she can, first
from John Graham Gillam and later from F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's hard
not to admire her, despite her repeated infidelities as Koslow shows us
the inner grit it takes for her to rise above her poverty-stricken past.
Through Sheilah's eyes, we see F. Scott Fitzgerald after his fame has
waned. How heartbreaking it is to see such a well-known author of our
time relegated to anonymity when he enters several bookstores during
his own lifetime! Their torrid love affair has highs and lows, and the
specter of Zelda, Fitzgerald's wife, haunts them both. Koslow doesn't
flinch away from the harsher moments of their relationship, and
Fitzgerald's drinking scenes are hard to read.
ANOTHER SIDE OF PARADISE is a
fascinating historical fiction novel that draws the reader into the Golden
Age of Hollywood. I will probably still never love THE GREAT GATSBY
nor have the love for F. Scott Fitzgerald that so many others do, but
Koslow gives even readers like me a glimpse into his alluring appeal.
Koslow's meticulous research brings Sheilah Graham to vivid life and
makes ANOTHER SIDE OF
PARADISE an intriguing read.
The author of the acclaimed international bestseller The Late, Lamented Molly Marx imaginatively brings to life the shocking affair of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his longtime lover, Sheilah Graham, in this dazzling novel of romance, celebrity, and Gatsby-esque self-creation in 1930s Hollywood. In 1937 Hollywood, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s star is on the rise, while literary wonder boy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career is slowly drowning in booze. But the once-famous author, desperate to make money penning scripts for the silver screen, is charismatic enough to attract the gorgeous Miss Graham, a woman who exposes the secrets of others while carefully guarding her own. Like Scott’s hero Jay Gatsby, Graham has meticulously constructed a life far removed from the poverty of her childhood in London’s slums. And like Gatsby, the onetime guttersnipe learned early how to use her charms to become a hardworking success feted and feared by both the movie studios and their luminaries. A notorious drunk famously married to the doomed "crazy Zelda," Fitzgerald fell hard for his "Shielah" (he never learned to spell her name), a shrewd yet soft-hearted woman—both a fool for love and nobody’s fool—who would stay with him and help revive his career until his tragic death three years later. Working from diaries and other primary sources from the time, Sally Koslow revisits their scandalous love affair, bringing Graham and Scott gloriously alive in this compelling page-turner saturated with the color, glitter, magic, and passion of 1930s Hollywood and Sheilah’s dramatic transformation in London.
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