The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and six other stories by Scott Fitzgerald

Having seen the film this year, I was wondering what the book was like.

In fact, apart from the  birth as an old man ( but in the book, it looks more like a real old man) and the death as a baby, in between, there is nothing in common. In the book, Benjamin Button has an almost normal life : he gets married, he has a child, he works...Nothing to do with the adventurous life on the screen!

As for the other stories... impossible to feel any sympathy or empathy with the heroes...We always have the feeling that they watch their own life through a window...as if their life was the life of someone else...

A very strange impression.

The style is flamboyant, but it is not enough to create an impression of well being when you read it!
You feel akward...it's always on the verge of science fiction, but it's as if the writer had never been able to go any further in that direction.

Comments

[Kevin]

I do agree with you so much about the original story of Benjamin Button and the film of the same name. I actually remember reading a story, it was real science fiction, a very long time ago that was much closer to the film than Fitzgerald's short story. I cannot remember who wrote it. Probably Frederic Pohl or Henry Kuttner as it feels like their style.

We were forced to read Fitzgerald when I did American Studies at University so very long ago. I hated his writing style then and I still find it quite difficult. I do not like Fitzgerald, it's just personal, he bores me.