"The Hotel Child"

from: The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli (Scribners, 1989) Pages 598-615

Hôtel Hotel Des Trois Couronnes

I decided to go ahead and read another short story last night. "The Hotel Child" was published in January 1931 (Saturday Evening Post) and is another Tender cluster story dealing with Americans living in Europe.

This time F. Scott told his agent that, "Practically the whole damn thing is true, bizarre as it seems." One of the things critics baulk at his writing about is how things aren't "creative" enough because F. Scott draws so much from his own life and the lives around him.

I'm sorry, critics. That's how "we" do. (Notice I called myself a writer). Most fiction is really faction (fiction based on facts, thank you very much Laura Zigman). Maybe it's not cleverly disguised enough for you, but that's how it works.

So the story revolves around a radiantly beautiful Jewess who is celebrating her 18th birthday in a grand hotel. We find out that this has been her existence for the last four years as she as been traveling with her mother and brother throughout various countries.

"Watching the dancing there would be a gallery of Englishwomen of a certain age, with neckbands, dyed hair and faces powered pinkish gray; a gallery of American women of a certain age, with snowy-white transformations, black dresses and lips of cherry red."

Now the story wasn't that fascinating for me. I loved reading the original Rosemary (from Tender is the Night) or her counterpart--whatever you'd like to call it.

Fifi is pursued by many men, she keeps getting kicked out of the hotel bar because of her age, and wants to go to Paris to study at the Sorbonne.

"Didn't evening sometimes end on a high note and not fade out vaguely in bars? After ten o'clock every night she felt she was the only real being in a colony of ghosts, that she was surrounded by utterly intangible figures who retreated whenever she stretched out her hand."

Wow! The passage above has inspired me to write a short story, all on its own!

Alcohol mentioned: Spanish wine & whisky-and-soda

There is a suspicious Count, money goes missing, someone sets the hotel bar on fire, and a funny saying is repeated several times--it's a quick read but falls flat for me by the end. I would rank it last of the four I have read thus far.

~~J

"The Bridal Party"

from: The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald

edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli (Scribners, 1989) Pages 561-576

(awesome example of a Bridal Party circa 1930, not related to this story whatsoever, but I think they are beautiful and lovely just the same)

Originally published in the Saturday Evening Post (9 August, 1930) this story follows Michael Curly as he gets a combination engagement/wedding announcement at his hotel desk in Paris from his former gal, Caroline.

"I wanted you to be the first to know." Uh-oh.

Michael not only feels "afraid" but his stomach is "hollow" from the news, so he goes for a walk around the city, trying to get rid of his feelings but "...the fear stayed with him, and after a while he recognized it as the fear that now he would never be happy."

We get to read a very brief history of their relationship, but it is all "telling" (to use a modern term)--there is no "showing" or no "flashback"--the story remains in the present and is told in a linear fashion.

Michael did lose "her, slowly, tragically, uselessly, because he had no money and could make no money..." At least this is what Michael thinks, it all had to do with money--but we find out that may not have been the case as the story goes on.

My favorite passage may be the description of HOW Michael felt as he left New York for Paris when the two broke up:

"Since his only support was that she loved him, he leaned weakly on that; the support broke, but still he held on to it and was carried out to sea and washed up on the French coast with its broken pieces still in his hand."

I love the metaphor and the imagery here--my own little heart floated out while I was reading along.

As luck would have it, we meet the happy couple on the street--as Michael is wandering around trying to cope with his emotions--I wanted to run away as it happened, knowing it was an awkward scene. F. Scott wrote this so well!

"This agony. Previews of Hamilton Rutherfold flashed before his eyes--a quick series of pictures, sentences." As his name suggests, of course Michael's rival is a wealthy, successful man and Michael feels that he pales in comparison.

The story goes along in three distinct sections--Michael comes up with a plan to stop the impending wedding. There are a couple confrontations--nothing violent, but the tension drips from the page.

There is drinking: "they drunk cocktails before meals like Americans, wines and brandies like Frenchmen, beer like Germans, whisky-and-soda like the English...this preposterous melange, that was like some gigantic cocktail in a nightmare, served only to make them temporarily less conscious of the mistakes of the night before."

--------------------

Personal Reflection: As reading, I started thinking about my ex-fiance' and the constant fantasy of HOW I'd react when I found out he was going to marry another. The "fantasy" never happened, because I found out years later than he had indeed married.

In the first year or so after the break-up though, it was constantly on my mind. The last time I really thought about it was during various episodes of Sex and the City--or over the summer when I saw 500 Days of Summer. The theme is universal--always glad to know you're not the only one, so to speak!

~~J