Resolution.

I resolve to update this blog no less than every third day. I am resolute.

I've had a copy of Tender Is the Night sitting around for quite some time and never delved into it. I don't know why, since The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorites and I swoon over Fitzgerald's prose.

I finally started reading Tender Is the Night, and I find that the story speaks to me and the position in which I find myself currently in a very direct and startling way, which is exactly what happened when I read Gatsby for the first time as an adult.

(I firmly believe that any teen-age assigned reading of that book doesn't count -- one must have experienced adult love and loss in order to understand what is going on in Gatsby. That's not to belittle the reality of youthful love and loss -- those are just as poignant, but in a totally different way.)

Now, since both The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night deal to a greater or lesser extent with adultery, let me point out that I am not cheating, nor would I ever. I don't respect that kind of behavior in anybody, and would especially not respect it in myself. It's more the unique perspectives the characters in both books have on relationships that affect me so deeply -- that, and Fitzgerald's moving, delicate, incisive prose.

Have you ever had the experience of picking up a book that was just right for your emotional situation? What was it about the book that spoke to you?