Listening to F. Scott

About 5 years ago, or so, I discovered the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not that I wasn't aware of the guy and his work before that, it's just that I discovered how much I enjoyed his short stories and novels which, subsequently, made him one of my favourite writers to date. There is just something about how he puts words to paper. You can tell that he's agonized over each and every word, phrase and paragraph. His prose has an almost lyrical quality to it and the stuff he writes about just plain interests me.

So, it should come as no surprise that when I saw an audiobook of the short stories of F. Scott as read by the likes of Robert Sean Leonard, Blythe Danner, Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher and others, I picked it up. I caught it during one of my library trips and figured it would be great for driving to and from work. I'd read some of the stories before so they would be a refresher, but there were some I hadn't, so it would be the best of both worlds.

Unfortunately, what I've discovered (and should have known having attempted audiobooks in the past) is that Fitzgerald's prose loses something for me when interpreted through someone else. Robert Sean Leonard's "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" and Danner's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", for example, were far less entertaining for me this time around compared to when I first read them. I don't know if it's the actors trying to act the characters and parts, or if there's something wrong with the cadence of it, but it just doesn't feel right.

I've heard three of the stories so far, with three yet to go, so I'm not going to give up on the tapes altogether. I mean, you never know, right? It could be the actors. If not, I'll just go and finish The Beautiful and the Damned when I'm done Hornby's About a Boy (which is fabulous, I might add).

mike