Read this last month and found I kept postponing the moment I had to review it because I didn't know what to write about it. Let me start by saying that there are two editions of Tender Is the Night: the book was originally published as a narrative with a non-linear sequence of events, but an edition issued after Fitzgerald's death was restructured - based on the writer's own notes - so that the events are recounted in the order in which they happen. The one I read was the latter. I don't know whether it is because of this re-arranging of events in a chronological order that I found the first third-or-so of the book particularly tiresome. The plot wasn't going anywhere, the characters were not particularly engaging at best - downright dull at worst - and I was particularly annoyed with Fitzgerald's writing style. I felt that he kept hinting at some life-altering truth beneath his words but he just won't get it out in the open and be done with it. He kept tantalizing the reader: overanalyzing, it seemed, the surface of the matter when he could have gotten to its rotten core in no time.

Having decided I will not give up on the novel yet, I persevered until it started to grow on me. Not in the sense of some sort of love or emotional bond being born, but in the sense of a delicate, deeper sense of appreciation. Having finished the book and looking back on it...I never did get to love the Divers. But had I given up on it halfway through I would still think, for example, that Dick Diver is a boring stereotype. Now I know him to be none other than Dick Diver: ambitious psychiatrist, drunkard, troublemaker, self-obsessed, disturbed, pitiable, enviable, talented, kind, mean, manipulative, money-loving, selfless, caring, insightful - and a hundred other things at once. I know Nicole to be Nicole and Rosemary to be Rosemary. And I do feel I'm a slightly better person for having gotten to know them; for experiencing the complex relationships, the subtle characterizations, the conflicting feelings, the underlying melancholy of the book. I still don't love any of the characters; but wouldn't dream of saying they are dull. I still don't like Fitzgerald's writing style; but wouldn't dream of saying it is bad. I'm still not sure I like this book; but wouldn't dream of saying I wish I hadn't read it. ( )

I've tried to tackle this text twice now - once with the audiobook and once with the text itself - and could not make it more than halfway through before giving up. The classic Fitzgerald lifestyle and characters that are so enthralling and rich in The Great Gatsby fall flat here, and the story is so belabored with thick prose that it was tedious trying to make some forward progress. I was hoping for more. ( )

.This novel explores the disintegration of a young American psychiatrist, Dick Diver. He’s bright, aspiring, idealistic, but makes the fatal mistake of falling for a patient, Nicole, and then marrying her. While he has a very positive effect on her mental health, he becomes the rock on which she is balanced, and he loses himself in the process. As she ascends he descends.
Overall, a disappointment. The structure is odd. It seems to start in the middle, and this reduced my prospects of identifying with Dick - or caring about his disintegration. At times the prose is obscure and over dramatic. I think perhaps Fitzgerald wrestled too long with this book and lost his way. He wanted to write another mighty book; he tried a variety of characters and structures and in the end the result is a somewhat scattered and incoherent novel. ( )

I gave this book a solid try - I really did. It's been on my shelf for ages, and I've never seemed to get past the first ten pages or so. This time, I really endeavored through, only to find that not one of the characters was compelling enough to make me want to see what happened to them. The style, while highly praised to me, just grated on my nerves after several pages and I found myself hesitant to read on.

Ultimately, even the ending isn't satisfying as the 'main character' ends up in ruin while other characters had a standard, uneventful existence at the end. ( )

I debated rating this book higher and it may well deserve to rate higher as once I got through the first third of the book, I found it quite engaging. However, the first part of the book, I found the story and characters off putting enough to put it down and not touch again for a year. It may well be that high school English teahers were haunting me with their whispers of finding themes and symbols in a story that I was looking so hard for deeper meaning in every word that I was missing the story. I couldn't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. I must admit though, that once I did pick up the book again I found myself quickly involved with the story and caring about characters that I had previouly dismissed as unlikable.
In the end I am glad I picked up this book once again and gave it a second chance. ( )