West of Sunset (O'Nan) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[The] grim yet undeniably fascinating last act of Fitzgerald’s life is the subject of Stewart O’Nan’s gorgeous new novel.... West of Sunset is a pretty fine Hollywood novel, too, but it’s an even finer novel about a great writer’s determination to keep trying to do his best work.
Maureen Corrigan - Washington Post


A mesmerizing and haunting novel.... O’Nan’s prodigious power as a novelist asserts itself, which is to say you forget utterly that he’s behind the curtain and pulling a dazzling number of strings.... Above all, O’Nan delivers—whole-body—the sensation that you are deep inside a living, breathing, suffering consciousness.... Another triumph of the novel surfaces in O’Nan’s wily insinuation into Fitzgerald’s creative life, how it breathes through his everyday existence. Movingly and believingly, the manner in which a writer works—thinks, processes, assimilates, envies—is given life. And that is ultimately what makes the book so special.
Boston Globe


Just as O'Nan succeeded in drawing readers inside the heads of such ordinary people as the elderly widow Emily in Emily, Alone, or Manny DeLeon, the hapless chain-restaurant manager in Last Night at the Lobster, he inhabits Fitzgerald's very being and authentically depicts the writer's fluctuating mind-sets during the final years of his life…an intimate portrayal of a flawed man who never gave up.
Philadelphia Inquirer


There’s a certain romance to the tortured genius mythology, but Stewart O’Nan makes quick work of dispelling it in this beautifully written historical novel which follows Fitzgerald's stint as a screenwriter during the 1930s, captures that era of Hollywood well, offering juicy scenes with Humphrey Bogart, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, and other Fitzgerald friends and hangers-on, while lending witty dialogue to his affair with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, a doomed romance that's worthy of a classic film.
Entertainment Weekly


O’Nan, an accomplished, award-winning writer who has clearly done his biographical homework, polishes this saga to a seductive sheen, populates it with persuasive incarnations of Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, and others, and takes us to a very dark place indeed.
Elle


[E]arnest but only fitfully interesting.... The book inadvertently illustrates the truth of Fitzgerald’s famous dictum: "There are no second acts in American lives."... The book is thoroughly researched, featuring a huge supporting cast of famous players...but it feels more like a television docudrama than a fully realized novel.
Publishers Weekly


F. Scott Fitzgerald's final years, when he worked unhappily as a Hollywood screenwriter.... Fitzgerald comes across as a haunting, multifaceted, sympathetic character.... The slide into drugs, alcoholism, and the heart disease that shortened his life is tragic to behold; Fitzgerald fans will mourn his loss all over again. —Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Library Journal


It would appear to be a daunting task to write a biographical novel of one of our most iconic writers, yet O’Nan avoids every pitfall.... O’Nan renders a heartbreaking portrait of an artist soldiering on in the face of personal and professional ruin.... O’Nan’s convincing characterization of a man burdened by guilt and struggling to hold onto his dignity is, at once, a moving testament to grace under pressure and an intimate look at legend.
Booklist


[A] sympathetic portrayal of a troubled genius, a kind but deeply flawed man trying to stay on the wagon while keeping the peace between his unstable wife and their teenage daughter.... O'Nan has crafted an insightful glimpse into a sad period in Fitzgerald's life, as he fades into poverty, drunkenness and anonymity among a cast of notables, after his and Zelda's reign as America's literary golden couple and before his resurgence into universal acclaim.
Kirkus Reviews