Tales of the Jazz Age (A Penguin Classics Hardcover)

This was a waste of ten dollars. the store should not list this as a book. It is a pamphlet that was 26 pages long. I wanted to read a novel after seeing the movie. I cannot believe that the store would rip off a good customer like that.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith, author; Edoardo Ballerina, narrator
Written in a lyrical prose, the fictitious lives of a 17th century artist and a 20th century art forger come to life. The author takes the reader back and forth in time to develop each setting and character, including the owner of the painting, as he points out the parallel challenges of their lives in a language that is poetic, haunting and hypnotic as read by the narrator, completely capturing the reader’s attention and appreciation.
In the fall of 1957 as Sputnik is launched, highly pedigreed and pampered Marty de Groot and his wife Rachel host a boisterous charity dinner. Sometime during that eventful night, the only surviving painting by Sara de Vos, that had been in his family for generations, is stolen and replaced with a copy. When several months later, he finally discovers the theft of what he called “a meticulous” reproduction, de Groot hires a private investigator to locate the painting and also places an advertisement offering a reward for its return. When the identity of the art forger, an Australian named Ellie Shipley, becomes known to him, he devises a plan to get the painting back from her and to report the criminals to the police for appropriate punishment. He assumes the name of Jake Alpert and pretends to hire her to help him choose Flemish art work for his collection. At an auction she attends with him, he instructs he on the art of bidding and is soon enchanted by her innocence, utter love and appreciation for the paintings, and her beautiful descriptions of the messages they impart to the eye of the observer. Soon, he begins to court her, although he is married and there are two decades between their ages. His purpose of capturing her and recapturing his painting becomes muddied with his admiration for her. Soon, the path of both of their lives is altered by their meeting. For the reader, in the end, there will be the question of right and wrong, and also whether or not the crime actually benefitted the participants or injured them as time passes.
In the spring of 1635, as the plague begins to rage in the Netherlands, Sara de Vos, her seven year old daughter Kathrijn, and her husband Barent, set out to see the whale that has washed up on the shore. It is a unique opportunity for a landscape artist, and he is eager to paint it. Sara is also an artist, but it is not an acceptable pastime for a woman except in the genre of still life. She assists her husband sketching and painting, but he does not permit her to sign her paintings. On their return home from their outing, they stop on the roadside to eat and a poorly dressed boy about the same age as Kathrijn, comes in contact with her. He seems to be ill and in a few days, so is Karhrijn. She succumbs to the plague, and Sara and Barent are stricken with grief. As more and more people are stricken and die, the market for art dries up. To avoid being sent to debtor’s prison, Barent abandons his wife, leaving her to deal with his debts to the man who had commissioned paintings from him which he failed to deliver. That man is Cornelis Groen. Sara begins to work for him in an attempt to repay the debt. How her life plays out afterward defines the painting that is forged and also the fate of the rest of her art work and life. One will be left to wonder if her husband’s betrayal ultimately hurt or enriched her future life.
As the story plays out, the characters are very well developed. They become real, although they are not, and the life for each character, in their own century, is authentically portrayed. The art world and the art work is discussed with such descriptive language that beautiful paintings soon appear in the mind’s eye of the reader, and it is easy to imagine the de Vos painting, as well as other art works, hanging in a home or in a museum, or even earlier, in the act of its being painted by the artist. As the painting called At The Edge of a Wood is taken and reemerges, as its theft is unraveled, the tale travels to the Netherlands with the artist, to Australia with the forger and to the United States with the privileged owner where it had hung for decades in the bedroom of a fashionable penthouse in Manhattan.
I listened to the audio and had to turn to a print copy to clear up my confusion. In the reading, the time line and location sometimes became confused since chapters did not alternate between characters and time or place with a set pattern. It was, therefore, occasionally difficult to discern whose life was being detailed, Ellie’s or Sara’s. For that reason, the print version is preferred, even though the audio was read well, with a resonant and lyrical presentation appropriate to the narrative.

First off, let me say that I adore Fitzgerald’s writing. I thought Gatsby was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. However, I didn’t like this book. At all. The characters had no character! A moment that this really annoyed me was at the very beginning when the father is shown his son and he is an old man. Wouldn’t you be a little bit dubious? Instead, he carries it as if it is an inconvenience and goes out to buy him clothes? I just thought that was way too unrealistic. I get that it is a short story so can’t go into a whole chapter of realistic character development and emotion and disbelief but I couldn’t move past it.

Even throughout the rest of the book when I was supposed to sympathise with Benjamin, I couldn’t bring myself to. Only perhaps at the end when he is a baby did it garner some reaction from me which is why my rating isn’t one star. The ending was quite well done.
An interesting concept which maybe should have been better developed as a full length novel.
I hope this is the last Fitzgerald book that I don’t like and enjoy the rest of them.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author who wrote the well-known novel The Great Gatsby, also wrote many short stories. This collection, originally published in 1922, contains a variety of his stories that were published in literary magazines before that. I will mention a few of them which I found to be the best or most interesting. Keep in mind that whether you'll like a short story depends greatly on your own tastes; this review is merely my own opinion.

The Jelly-Bean: A fun and entertaining story about a lazy young man. Short and lighthearted, but with a thoughtful climax and conclusion.

The Camel's Back: Also fun and lighthearted.

May Day: The most serious of the stories in the collection, I found it to be an interesting slice of life. It follows a number of people and shows how their lives intersect over the course of a day. Although it is clearly in Fitzgerald's style, it reminded me of some of James Joyce's stories in Dubliners.

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz: Technically a fantasy story, but one that Fitzgerald tries hard to seem realistic.

The Lees of Happiness: A sad, sentimental story that is somehow able to stick in one's mind.

The other stories in the collection are "Porcelain and Pink", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (which is what the recent movie is based on), "Tarquin of Cheapside", "O Russet Witch!", "Mr. Icky", and "Jemina, the Mountain Girl". In my opinion, these remaining stories vary from unusual to boring.

Overall though, I liked the collection. If you like Fitzgerald's writing, then you'll probably enjoy these stories as well. Another short story collection of Fitzgerald that might be worth looking into if you like these is his collection from 1920, Flappers and Philosophers.

I am not a huge fan of short stories, because it never fails that by the time I find myself invested in them I have reached the last page. Same can be said for `The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', a rather delightful little story that is engaging, interesting and very rewarding. Yes, this is a short story, so I'm going to say this straight off; you may not want to invest your money in this version. I actually purchased another version from the store that has a few short stories for less money, so try you hand at that collection instead of this singular novel.

But, I wanted to take the time to review the story, because that's what these reviews are all about right, the work itself and not the packaging.

`The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is a peculiar tale of a man born at the end of his life and has the rare opportunity of growing young, living his life in reverse as it were. F. Scott Fitzgerald states at the beginning of this story that it was inspired by a statement made by Mark Twain, that the best things in life happen at the beginning and the worst at the end. With `The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' Fitzgerald plays the cynic, exploring how living life in reverse can be seemingly beneficial yet ultimately devastating.

Benjamin is born a brittle old man with a cane (not literally, but he needs one) and a full mind, and as the year's progress his relationships with those around him shift for various reasons. First he is at odds with his devastated parents who are ashamed of him, but as he grows to meet his father in age they become like brothers. He meets and falls in love with the young Hildegarde, who is attracted to the `older' Benjamin, only to marry her, grow younger than her, and drift apart from her. He takes over his fathers business and prospers because of his newfound energy, yet his youth begins to destroy him as his own son becomes his elder and is thus ashamed of the very sight of his father.

There is a moment within `The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' where the elderly Benjamin (in mind, not in physicality) is attending kindergarten and is lamenting over the fact that the other children can talk about what they want to be when they grow up, a prospect that Benjamin will never see.

This to me captures the very point of this story.

Yes, this is a short story of a few pages and it moves rather quickly through Benjamin's life, but it is also written with such rich detail that one never feels jaded. I do wish that this had been written as a full length novel, for it surely has the potential to be one of the most refreshing and moving pieces of literature ever written. It is wildly original (although Fitzgerald himself has mentioned that he has read this prose elsewhere) and it is absurdly poignant. Yes, `The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' has such a deep-rooted importance, for when you strip away the preposterousness of the prose there is a moral that is so humanly real we can feel it in the very pit of us.

We have all heard the phrase `the grass is greener on the other side' and this novel is the perfect answer back to that statement, for it proves that we shouldn't always be wishing for something we don't quite understand, because once we have it we may realize it is far from desired.

The idea behind "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a very simple one -- what if a human being were born an old man, and aged backwards towards babyhood? It's an unusually whimsical idea for the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this short story explores it very well, with poignancy and a measure of humor.

In 19th-century Baltimore, Roger Button was horrified when he saw his newborn son -- a newborn son who is actually a wizened old man who speak, walk and is fully self-aware. Though Benjamin is dressed and treated as much like a child as possible, he has the sensibilities and habits of an elderly man. And by the time he's twelve, he finds that his aging is REVERSING rather than progressing.

As his life goes on, Benjamin must deal with the problems of trying to live a semi-normal life -- trying to enroll in college, working for his father, falling in love and marrying. But as his body de-ages, his mind does as well, and in his twilight years he begins to do all the things that young men of the time did, until his bizarre lifespan reaches its unnatural conclusion.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one of those short stories that really leaves you wishing it were a full-length novel, just because the whole idea is so rich. While you more or less know how things will go for Benjamin Button, the pleasure is following his life as he changes and evolves, and how the world deals with a man who's aging backwards.

In particular, Fitzgerald seems to be taking some jabs at people who are so blinkered that the bizarre doesn't even reach them. Benjamin's wife and kid resent his de-aging, but they insist that the whole thing is a "joke" or his attempt to be "different from everyone else." His fusty son Roscoe is the worst ("It seemed to him that his father, in refusing to look sixty, had not behaved like a 'red-blooded he-man'").

Fitzgerald's writing is also sublimely atmospheric ("the eastern sky was suddenly cracked with light") with lush descriptions of everything about the world that Benjamin experiences ("her feet were glittering buttons at the hem of her bustled dress"). He also fills it with a sense of sorrow and lingering pain, since despite the outward success of his life, Benjamin is doomed to never live it normally.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed a curious story -- strange, insightful and sometimes barbed in tone, but always amazingly written.

I read the book after watching the movie and generally, I always read the book first if it came out first. And Fitzgerald definitely came out before movies and films :)!

Loved both but especially the book. I found it amusing that Fitzgerald was almost mocking little Benjamin whose entire dilemma he had created in his imagination.... And it is a very deeply reflective book - I don't know why but I kept thinking about my own life and what it would feel like to age backwards ...

The writing is exquisite - it's a classic - and it's a very short read that has you hustling along with Benjamin as he ages backwards and grows younger and younger when his lover is growing older and older. Somewhere along the way, they cross paths in age and it's a remarkable period of time for both of them .... until reality of this bizarre circumstance takes over and pulls them apart.

It's a brilliant little classic that I'd read again if I saw it sitting on a shelf somewhere .... read your classics! It keeps your mind young and sharp and your vocabulary in check!

The idea behind "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a very simple one -- what if a human being were born an old man, and aged backwards towards babyhood? It's an unusually whimsical idea for the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this short story explores it very well, with poignancy and a measure of humor.

In 19th-century Baltimore, Roger Button was horrified when he saw his newborn son -- a newborn son who is actually a wizened old man who speak, walk and is fully self-aware. Though Benjamin is dressed and treated as much like a child as possible, he has the sensibilities and habits of an elderly man. And by the time he's twelve, he finds that his aging is REVERSING rather than progressing.

As his life goes on, Benjamin must deal with the problems of trying to live a semi-normal life -- trying to enroll in college, working for his father, falling in love and marrying. But as his body de-ages, his mind does as well, and in his twilight years he begins to do all the things that young men of the time did, until his bizarre lifespan reaches its unnatural conclusion.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one of those short stories that really leaves you wishing it were a full-length novel, just because the whole idea is so rich. While you more or less know how things will go for Benjamin Button, the pleasure is following his life as he changes and evolves, and how the world deals with a man who's aging backwards.

In particular, Fitzgerald seems to be taking some jabs at people who are so blinkered that the bizarre doesn't even reach them. Benjamin's wife and kid resent his de-aging, but they insist that the whole thing is a "joke" or his attempt to be "different from everyone else." His fusty son Roscoe is the worst ("It seemed to him that his father, in refusing to look sixty, had not behaved like a 'red-blooded he-man'").

Fitzgerald's writing is also sublimely atmospheric ("the eastern sky was suddenly cracked with light") with lush descriptions of everything about the world that Benjamin experiences ("her feet were glittering buttons at the hem of her bustled dress"). He also fills it with a sense of sorrow and lingering pain, since despite the outward success of his life, Benjamin is doomed to never live it normally.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed a curious story -- strange, insightful and sometimes barbed in tone, but always amazingly written.

The idea behind "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a very simple one -- what if a human being were born an old man, and aged backwards towards babyhood? It's an unusually whimsical idea for the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this short story explores it very well, with poignancy and a measure of humor.

In 19th-century Baltimore, Roger Button was horrified when he saw his newborn son -- a newborn son who is actually a wizened old man who speak, walk and is fully self-aware. Though Benjamin is dressed and treated as much like a child as possible, he has the sensibilities and habits of an elderly man. And by the time he's twelve, he finds that his aging is REVERSING rather than progressing.

As his life goes on, Benjamin must deal with the problems of trying to live a semi-normal life -- trying to enroll in college, working for his father, falling in love and marrying. But as his body de-ages, his mind does as well, and in his twilight years he begins to do all the things that young men of the time did, until his bizarre lifespan reaches its unnatural conclusion.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one of those short stories that really leaves you wishing it were a full-length novel, just because the whole idea is so rich. While you more or less know how things will go for Benjamin Button, the pleasure is following his life as he changes and evolves, and how the world deals with a man who's aging backwards.

In particular, Fitzgerald seems to be taking some jabs at people who are so blinkered that the bizarre doesn't even reach them. Benjamin's wife and kid resent his de-aging, but they insist that the whole thing is a "joke" or his attempt to be "different from everyone else." His fusty son Roscoe is the worst ("It seemed to him that his father, in refusing to look sixty, had not behaved like a 'red-blooded he-man'").

Fitzgerald's writing is also sublimely atmospheric ("the eastern sky was suddenly cracked with light") with lush descriptions of everything about the world that Benjamin experiences ("her feet were glittering buttons at the hem of her bustled dress"). He also fills it with a sense of sorrow and lingering pain, since despite the outward success of his life, Benjamin is doomed to never live it normally.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed a curious story -- strange, insightful and sometimes barbed in tone, but always amazingly written.

The idea behind "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a very simple one -- what if a human being were born an old man, and aged backwards towards babyhood? It's an unusually whimsical idea for the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this short story explores it very well, with poignancy and a measure of humor.

In 19th-century Baltimore, Roger Button was horrified when he saw his newborn son -- a newborn son who is actually a wizened old man who speak, walk and is fully self-aware. Though Benjamin is dressed and treated as much like a child as possible, he has the sensibilities and habits of an elderly man. And by the time he's twelve, he finds that his aging is REVERSING rather than progressing.

As his life goes on, Benjamin must deal with the problems of trying to live a semi-normal life -- trying to enroll in college, working for his father, falling in love and marrying. But as his body de-ages, his mind does as well, and in his twilight years he begins to do all the things that young men of the time did, until his bizarre lifespan reaches its unnatural conclusion.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one of those short stories that really leaves you wishing it were a full-length novel, just because the whole idea is so rich. While you more or less know how things will go for Benjamin Button, the pleasure is following his life as he changes and evolves, and how the world deals with a man who's aging backwards.

In particular, Fitzgerald seems to be taking some jabs at people who are so blinkered that the bizarre doesn't even reach them. Benjamin's wife and kid resent his de-aging, but they insist that the whole thing is a "joke" or his attempt to be "different from everyone else." His fusty son Roscoe is the worst ("It seemed to him that his father, in refusing to look sixty, had not behaved like a 'red-blooded he-man'").

Fitzgerald's writing is also sublimely atmospheric ("the eastern sky was suddenly cracked with light") with lush descriptions of everything about the world that Benjamin experiences ("her feet were glittering buttons at the hem of her bustled dress"). He also fills it with a sense of sorrow and lingering pain, since despite the outward success of his life, Benjamin is doomed to never live it normally.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed a curious story -- strange, insightful and sometimes barbed in tone, but always amazingly written.

I had always thought that I had read nearly all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories. It wasn't until the recent film came out that I realised I was wrong. In this collection of seven pieces, The Cut-glass Bowl and May Day are relatively well known but Benjaim Button, O Russet Witch! and The Four Fists were entirely new to me.

There is a heavy vein of irony running throughout Fitzgerald's work. In BB, his family and friends treat his rapidly-shrinking age as if he were persisting in performing a slightly bizarre party-trick of which they were starting to tire.

I particularly like Fitzgerald's perfect ear for words. He describes Button's ageing wife as having, "a faint skirmish of grey hairs in her head", which since he had been talking about the Spanish-American War, is a touch of genius. And in Head and Shoulders (another new story for me) the hero's girlfriend "drapes the last skeins of a Welsh rabbit on her fork" while waiting for him to speak. The author can make even such minor moments in his narratives shine.

Perhaps my favourite story here is Four Fists, in which a businessman philosophically recalls his life in terms of four epiphanies when he was hit on the nose, almost as if were literally having some sense knocked into him.

There is wry comedy too:

"It's the only way," she gasped in a sort of triumphant malignity. "The only thing that keeps old folks like me happy is the sense that they can make other people step around. To be old and rich and have poor descendants is almost as much fun as to be young and beautiful and have ugly sisters"

("O Russet Witch", who proves in the end to be all too human.)

Fitzgerald's dark humor is something which it is almost impossible to transfer to celluloid; the latest attempt with Brad Pitt scorns even to try. However these tales remain masterpieces of the short story genre with their economy of language, wit and cynical eye and are true gems of American literature

If you've seen the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and are interested in reading the short story which inspired it, here are a few things you may wish to consider.

The short story is very different from the movie. Some examples (spoiler warning: this review discusses plot points from the movie and story): in the story, Benjamin is somehow born basically a full-sized, talking old man who is interested in cigars and having conversations with his grandfather, whereas in the film, although physically in an aged condition, Benjamin is still baby-sized and must learn to talk, and is interested in associating with children when he can. In the short story, Benjamin's wife marries him while she's young and he appears to be around fifty, since she says that she prefers men of that age; later, as he appears younger, he no longer finds her attractive or interesting anymore and goes out having fun without her. In fact, the relationship with the wife in the story is played as just one of many events in his life. The movie, in contrast, is played as an epic romance and frames Benjamin's life almost entirely around their lifelong relationship, which is its central focus. Also, in the short story, Benjamin's mind goes in "reverse" as years go by... he starts out like a stereotypically "cranky" old man, and when he eventually looks like a child, his mind is childlike too (he becomes interested in toys, which he didn't care about when he was first born, for example.) In the film, it's the opposite. Finally, the era the short story takes place in is earlier than in the film (Benjamin is born in 1860 in the short story, therefore he does not live until modern times, as he does in the film.)

Some reviewers have commented on some "unrealistic" elements in the short story that made it hard to suspend disbelief, such as how the doctor and nurses reacted with anger toward Benjamin's father that they had to be involved in such an odd birth. But the key here is to understand that Fitzgerald is satirizing "proper" society, exploring how something so out of the norm is reacted to by those who are preoccupied with their standing in society and worried about how "scandal" might reflect on them. Some of the funniest moments, such as Benjamin's father awkwardly attempting to purchase clothes for his "newborn," arise from this.

I recommend that you read this story if you liked the movie, but realize that although some of the themes are the same, there are a lot of differences between the two. But each has its own merits, and are both satisfying in their own unique ways.

Such a cute story, and yet filled with much sadness too. At times, mostly in youth, it would be fantastic to live that life. Growing younger, when old or when really young wouldn't be so great though, and to do it backwards from everyone else... no, thanks. I can't imagine how the author thought this was the funniest story ever, it wasn't an emotion that went through me.
It is an amazing story though. One that everyone should read. Don't let that Brad Pitt movie be all that you know of the story.
I can't comment on the graphic novel part of this. In ebook online, there was no graphics for me to see.

The movie drew me to the story and it was a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes on an afternoon. Most readers know the theme of the story of the baby born as a man of 70 who ages backward to infancy. The story began in a whimsical, fantastic way, mellowed in the middle, and ended with incredible sadness. It seems to me that this is the arc of natural life and that maybe Fitzgerald was saying that if you could do it in reverse you still end up in the same place. The sadness of the final pages is almost unbearable as you see Benjamin's life fade into the mist of infancy.

This is not Fitzgerald's best short story, but it is amusing and written with the kind of tongue-in-cheek reminiscent of Mark Twain. The idea of the story, perfectly made for a movie pitch, is that a man is born 70 years old and then ages in reverse.

Fitzgerald is not so much intrigued by the similarties between youth and the second childhood of old age as he is by how people react to a natural anomaly. The reaction of everyone from hospital staff to parents to friends is to blame the victim. Holding Benjamin Button responsible for creating his own condition is one way of dealing with a natural catastrophe. We trick ourselves into thinking we have control over nature or even over our own destinies. Blaming the victim reinforces this conceit.

Fitzgerald's portrayal of human nature is a convincing one, and he also is able to inject a good deal of ironic humor into the story.

I did not see the movie, but the story is good and is worthwhile reading.

I struggle with aspects of Fitzgerald. His first novel seems to me unreadable nowadays and his second as pathetic as it is brilliant. 'Tender is the Night' oscillates between insight and triviality, sophistication and fecklessness. The unfinished 'Last Tycoon' would probably rest unread were it not for its author's fame and the sadness evoked by his death at age 45. It is really only 'The Great Gatsby' among his novels that remains worthy of remembrance, and it is a novella in truth, hardly a full-fledged novel in the great tradition. A few of Fitzgerald's stories may also be worth re-visiting - 'The Rich Boy' famously - but in this volume there are only two candidates, 'May Day', which extends the author's palette beyond the undergraduate japes that appear at its core, and 'O, Russet Witch', which justifies the road taken with Zelda vs the one which might have been his had he resisted her allure. That that allure would prove fatal is manifest in 'The Lees of Happiness' among other works here. A Wildean penchant for epigram can be seen in two Princeton-era playlets, which seem frankly silly if you are not a pre-'20s student; a Twain-like inclination to fantasy impels 'A Diamond as Big as the Ritz' and 'Benjamin Button', though both verge on the embarassingly self-conscious in artifice. A later, more serious Fitzgerald might have developed into a Jamesian genius, but that great expectation was sadly never achieved.

F Scott Fitzgerald is an American author who had his own style of writing in retro times. He did not follow others style and his readers appreciated his ways. F S Fitzgerald is known for many works of the budding modern America, but most famous are The Great Gatsby and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Roger Button fathers an unusual child. The child is born seventy-years old with hair strands meant to be on his head on his chin. The child is lean and wobbly like an old man, and is able to get along well with his grandfather than new born babies. This bizarre occurrence rattles Roger Button and makes him try hard to show an old man as a baby. As time passes, the baby now named Benjamin Button, starts looking younger and younger. When Benjamin starts appearing like a fifty-year old man, Hildegarde Moncrief falls in love with him and marries him. His phenomenon of reverse aging makes him look younger day-by-day and his wife look like his mother. Later he even starts looking like his own son, Roscoe Button. What Benjamin does with his rare life is the story to be read.

While reading The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, leave your rationality behind. For the love of logic, you don’t know how a seventy-year old man came out of the vagina of a female human being. Apart from that, this story is a good read and can be read in a single sitting.

I read this book after the release of the movie, but have not yet seen the film. I was surprised when I picked up the book and realized it was a short story. I can understand why many would be disappointed with it. The plot is not about a man as much as his plight, and not about his experiences as much as the culmination of them. The characters aren't meant to be believable any more than I'm meant to sympathize with them. The tone of the piece is very detached, but intentionally so. It seems that Fitzgerald didn't write with the intent to scratch an itch for you, but merely to make you realize that it's there.

After I read it I felt much like I had after reading Beckett's Waiting for Godot: bemused, puzzled, and left wondering. I don't think it's a bad thing to finish a story and think. I will look forward to seeing the movie for the storyline everyone expected to find here.

Mild spoilers. The only issue I have with this book is that it is so much fun to read, but it ends way too quickly. Fitzgerald said it was "the funniest book ever written" (really? EVER written? or only those written by him?) Curiously enough, Hollywood decided to turn this funny, slightly sarcastic short story into a long, very sad and depressing epic. For me the story turned on the hilarity that comes from reverse aging. We all say it don't we? - "wouldn't it be great to get younger instead of older?" But this book illustrates the problem with that idea. Fitzgerald wrote it as a funny book, but it was sad too - Button being abandoned by everyone except his nanny, finally fading away as an embryo in his crib. I'd actually love to see THIS story made into a movie.

Beginning with a preposterous birth, this satirical piece on the mores of our culture never lands on solid ground. The initial birth scene is so devised and unbelievable, that even though you know the author is creating a fantastical fiction scape, it never sticks, and it leaves you wondering how Fitzgerald continued on. Perhaps it was money.
And if you feel it's normal for the delivering Doctor to be upset after such a hideous birth, or for the mother to be completely banished from the story, and for a little hair dye on a man near seventy to fool locals on his age, then you must be highly gullible and an easy target for any goofy sales pitch.
On top of the foolishness of it all, the book basically tells you everything and shows you little. The dialogue is scant as the story speeds into high gear. Fitzgerald rips off time in ten to twenty year chunks, pushing the story to it's end in an easy one hour read.
Written in the typical breezy prose of Fitzgerald, the master of a clever phrase, the story maintains your interest on account of the author's raw talent, his reputation, and the hope that something interesting is about to happen.
It never does. Wars come and go, a marriage disintegrates and a son turns a cold shoulder as he believes his father is faking his disability. By the books end, it's clear, no one really cares about anyone. The last scene shows Benjamin Button, as a baby, simply fading away into his last thought.
With a movie stirring interest in this book it's refreshing to see so many new fans of the legendary writer. However, this book is not worthy of Fitzgerald's other works, and should be left out of the equation when judging the enormous impact of his work.

I don't think I've ever said this before, but........the movie version was so much better than the story! (I'm scowling as I type because I never thought such words would come out of me.)

Here's why the movie was better: it actually explored the characters and invested in them as real people. This short story only had caricatures of people at different ages in their lives. At the time, the idea was perhaps clever in its focus on exaggeration but is so overdone now. It does help to know that Fitzgerald himself was not overly pleased with the story, lamenting it was little more than an idea he roughed out.

The main character, Benjamin, was loathsome to me. He was not sensitive to anything in his life or even aware of his plight so much as just self-involved and willing to exploit those around him for his own personal amusement.

The most affective characters were the minor ones--the poor, socialite wife who fell in love with an older man, sacrificed her whole life for him and then was abandoned with SHE got old. Discarded like a scruffy pair of old slippers.

While I tremendously admire and respect and love Fitzgerald's work, I will attempt to remember this story as the movie version rather than this rough sketch of an ugly life.

I picked this short story up on my Kindle after I saw the new movie starring Brad Pitt. I did like the movie, but felt it was lacking the punch it could have had. I was curious whether this short story was drastically different than the movie.

The only thing that this story and the movie have in common is the fact that it is about a person aging backwards. This story was fun to read, though. It was much more fanciful and ridiculous than the movie is. At the same time, it is very sad as the story goes on.

This book is definitely worth a quick read, especially if you have seen the film and want to check out the source material. I would recommend picking up one of the collections by F. Scott Fitzgerald, though. This short story cost about $7, and is only about 60 pages. I think for almost the same price, I could have gotten one of the short story books by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

This $00 free book is almost a ripoff at that price. The Table of Contents does not enable you to jump to the story that you want. You have to scroll through location by location to find it. Or just read the whole book from the beginning and hope you don't accidentally lose your place.

Benjamin Button was written in 1922 by one of the greatest American authors ever. However, the idea could have been written at any point in time, which is a testament to Fitzgerald's uniqueness.

The story is brief and focuses on the psychological and social aspects of such a situation: being born old and maturing younger through time. While I have not seen the movie, this must be in great contrast to the more romanticized and action-packed version to which I have seen trailers for on TV.

I found the beginning of the story quite odd and obviously not very believable. His father's reaction is not something that we can relate to in this day and age. Fitzgerald seemed to make his youth pass quite quickly and while his family and society found him strange, like a circus act, they did not completely outcast him from a normal life.

But once Button began to proceed through life beyond his teenage years, the social aspects become much more believable and interesting. His wife marries him as an older, more mature man, but then he grows younger then her and they fall apart. His father passes on the family business to him and due to his increasing energy, he actually gives it more life rather than letting the business age with him.

The book gets awkward again toward the end of his life, as he becomes a teenager. His smaller physical size and youthful look can no longer pass for an adult and he struggles to cope with society again. An embarrassing story with his return to the military amplifies the pain he goes through.

Each instance and example in the book is meant to point out one false pretense of society or another. This is a gift Fitzgerald excels at, as proven by his several novels of his time. I would suggest this quick read to anyone who studies sociology, anyone going to see the movie, or any Fitzgerald fans. I did not know of the story at all until the movie came out, so I think modern cinema does continue to surprise me. That said, I will probably not be seeing the movie until it shows up on DVD at my home or is presented as an option on a long flight.

This one was kind of a bummer for me. I didn't like it as much as I expected to and as The Great Gatsby is my favorite book, I had very high expectations.

Out of the nine short stories, I liked one. One. Porcelain and Pink; which appealed to me just because it had a few humorous moments. The other eight stories were either just okay, or a struggle to get through because they just felt so "blah" to me.

I really like Fitzgerald, but in my opinion, he is more of a novelist than a short story writer. I haven't disliked any of his novels that I've read (so far), but for some reason, his short stories don't have the same oomph. I was also expecting more of a Jazz theme, rather than a collection of stories that just happen to be set in the 20's when Jazz was the thing.

I'm sure there are many people who love his short stories, but were someone to ask me what they should read to start on Fitzgerald's cannon, I would definitely suggest his novels.

I am an F.Scott fan, but much of his work is laborious to read. I had no idea this was written by him, and I got the book when the movie came out because I am too cheap to go to the theatre. This flows so much easier than his large works like Gatsby, etc.
The story is poignant, a child in an old body which grows younger, and yet his mind matures. This scews relationships with everyone from parents to spouse to child.
I shed a tear or two, and if you don't like F. Scott Fitzgerald, then you should still read this story. You will be touched.

am not a big fan of graphic novels, mainly because I just never got into the whole anime craze that seemed to have started the trend. This book in particular seems to be called a "graphic novel" just for marketing reasons, at least in my opinion; I think the term "illustrated novel" would be more accurate in this case.

I chanced across this book while perusing the YA section of my library; I had seen and liked the movie, and had never read the story, so I picked it up on a whim.

The story itself is actually quite charming: Benjamin Button is born an old man, and grows younger as he simultaneously ages. Benjamin is forced to live life backward: as a baby, he discusses the weather with old men; as an old man, he goes to kindergarten and is cared for by a nanny. Fitzgerald's sparse prose is complemented by the lovely antique illustrations in this edition. Rendered in sepia tones, the pictures and words combine to take you back in time as we see how Benjamin copes with the mystery of his existence.

This is one of those books you will want to curl up in bed with, on a rainy night, with a steamy cup of hot tea beside you. It's a quick read - I finished it in about 20 minutes - but take your time with it. You'll be left thinking about the story long after it's over.

This was such an interesting and entertaining read. It doesn't go very in-depth in the story, however, it's a very short book, so I'm not sure what more he could have done with the length. I think it would have been interesting to have it be a longer book and see what else he could have expanded on.

If I know a movie version of a book is coming out, I tend to read the book long before I see it, especially when it's written by a legendary author such as F. Scott Fitzgerald (but in this case, they turn an 25 page short story into a 2 plus hour epic film). I grabbed my Fitzgerald Short Stories book and read through Benjamin Button in just a half hour and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a quirky, distinctive little tale that follows the life of Benjamin as he ages in reverse. I highly recommend this story to anyone, especially those who have read the more recent novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer.

It isn't too often that a story really gets you thinking and draws you in like this one does. Interestingly enough, this story was origninally inspired by a remark by another great writer, Mark Twain, who said something like "it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end". F. Scott Fitzgerald toyed with that idea resulting in this delightful story which has just been made into a movie with Brad Pitt.

This edition is nicely designed and easy to read. I haven't seen the movie (personally, I usually prefer the book version), but I loved this book!

Some marvelous short fiction from the paragon of the Jazz Age, Francis Scott Fitzgerald! I would certainly recommend this collection to someone that is looking to read some Fitzgerald for the first time (or having been forced to read the marvel that is 'The Great Gatsby' in high school). I think my favorite tale from 'Tales of the Jazz Age' is the righteously-delicious 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair.

I love F.Scott Fitzgerald. After reading through some of his later works I thought there was no shame in reading some of his earlier writing. Sadly, his attempts do show it's novice. Almost all of the stories follow the same plot line, the main exception being the curious case of Benjamin Button. Mainly the stories all consist of a man, who barely walks the extra mile for a girl and he either gets her or he doesn't it. That is, in essence, the whole book. This wouldn't be so bad if the characters were more three dimensional or if there was some effort put in for the reader to care about them. The women in every story plays a seemingly stupid but pretty woman who is to be wed and There's the main character who is a hopeless man who hatches an idea to win her.

They are nice and fun stories, but really not worth the time if you want to experience Fitzgerald's finest. Even the best artists had to start out somewhere, this was Fitzgeralds.

I read this story before seeing the movie starring Brad Pitt. The story is great and worth reading. It is only 20+ pages, but really interesting. I saw the movie yesterday, and highly recommend the movie. The movie has taken some liberties from the book, but still excellent. Movies are always a little different from the book. I recommend you read this story before seeing the movie.

I gave the book to my 19 year old son to read, and he enjoyed it too. We went to the movie together, and both enjoyed the movie. It was a nice mother/son date. I am an avid reader, but my son normally only reads for school or Harry Potter books, so it was nice that he enjoyed this story too, and wanted to see the movie with his mother. Pick up the book and share it with your family, you might be surprised how much they enjoy reading it too.

If I know a movie version of a book is coming out, I tend to read the book long before I see it, especially when it's written by a legendary author such as F. Scott Fitzgerald (but in this case, they turn an 25 page short story into a 2 plus hour epic film). I grabbed my Fitzgerald Short Stories book and read through Benjamin Button in just a half hour and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a quirky, distinctive little tale that follows the life of Benjamin as he ages in reverse. I highly recommend this story to anyone, especially those who have read the more recent novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer.

It isn't too often that a story really gets you thinking and draws you in like this one does. Interestingly enough, this story was origninally inspired by a remark by another great writer, Mark Twain, who said something like "it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end". F. Scott Fitzgerald toyed with that idea resulting in this delightful story which has just been made into a movie with Brad Pitt.

This edition is nicely designed and easy to read. I haven't seen the movie (personally, I usually prefer the book version), but I loved this book!

Some marvelous short fiction from the paragon of the Jazz Age, Francis Scott Fitzgerald! I would certainly recommend this collection to someone that is looking to read some Fitzgerald for the first time (or having been forced to read the marvel that is 'The Great Gatsby' in high school). I think my favorite tale from 'Tales of the Jazz Age' is the righteously-delicious 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair.

I love F.Scott Fitzgerald. After reading through some of his later works I thought there was no shame in reading some of his earlier writing. Sadly, his attempts do show it's novice. Almost all of the stories follow the same plot line, the main exception being the curious case of Benjamin Button. Mainly the stories all consist of a man, who barely walks the extra mile for a girl and he either gets her or he doesn't it. That is, in essence, the whole book. This wouldn't be so bad if the characters were more three dimensional or if there was some effort put in for the reader to care about them. The women in every story plays a seemingly stupid but pretty woman who is to be wed and There's the main character who is a hopeless man who hatches an idea to win her.

They are nice and fun stories, but really not worth the time if you want to experience Fitzgerald's finest. Even the best artists had to start out somewhere, this was Fitzgeralds.

I read this story before seeing the movie starring Brad Pitt. The story is great and worth reading. It is only 20+ pages, but really interesting. I saw the movie yesterday, and highly recommend the movie. The movie has taken some liberties from the book, but still excellent. Movies are always a little different from the book. I recommend you read this story before seeing the movie.

I gave the book to my 19 year old son to read, and he enjoyed it too. We went to the movie together, and both enjoyed the movie. It was a nice mother/son date. I am an avid reader, but my son normally only reads for school or Harry Potter books, so it was nice that he enjoyed this story too, and wanted to see the movie with his mother. Pick up the book and share it with your family, you might be surprised how much they enjoy reading it too.

60,500 people a month search Google for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Some of them even search for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons." Do you want to know the difference? By subtracting one small letter "s", you get 1,155,500 more results.

A similar alchemy is at work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Story to Screenplay. The short story called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald is bad. The screenplay for it by Eric Roth is good because Roth gets better results by removing Fitzgerald's loss-making and useless letters.

An example of how bad Fitzgerald's version is:

On the third day following his matriculation he received a notification from Mr. Hart, the college registrar, to call at his office and arrange his schedule. Benjamin, glancing in the mirror, decided that his hair needed a new application of its brown dye, but an anxious inspection of his bureau drawer disclosed that the dye bottle was not there. Then he remembered - he had emptied it the day before and thrown it away.

An example of how good Roth's version is:

A large open DANCE LOFT. And we see Daisy, dancing for a selection committee seated on metal chairs... Daisy moving with technical proficiency -- but it's bloodless, without any real distinction.... She gets nods -- but no kudos.

Interestingly enough, my thesaurus lists 41 synonyms for bad, one of which is "the pits". You could use that as a mnemonic. As in, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button WITHOUT Brad Pitt is the pits." But that would be a tautology, wouldn't it?

And among the synonyms for "good", the screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Eric Roth could best be described as admirable, commendable, stupendous, and/or worthy.

You may like Fitzgerald better than Roth, but you won't be able to say why unless you read this book. If nothing else, you'll learn how a master of one medium reads and interprets a master of another medium.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's last royalty check came to around $4.85. In the beginning (with the publication of "This Side of Paradise") he was America's literary darling. In the end, practically everybody gave up on him. Hollywood snubbed him. His wife, Zelda, died in an insane asylum. Only his lover, the columnist Sheila Graham, remained loyal.

The author of "The Great Gatsby" -- the prince of novels in our literary kingdom - died forgotten, a self-perceived failure.

Today, even Hollywood appreciates him. A short story of his, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," was turned into a movie and won two (three?) Oscars at last night's Academy Awards. Too bad he's dead. Fitzgerald could have used some of that love when he was still alive. He got nothing but scorn.

This may well typify the life of a novelist in Hollywood, or the life of a novelist, period. How we glorify our artists usually too late!

Fitzgerald - in his novels and short stories - is the man we turn to for sentences that sing. But after "Paradise" and even after "Gatsby" he teetered from rejection to rejection. He tried Hollywood and got himself a credit for one movie, something called "Three Comrades." He was hired on to do some tinkering for "Gone With The Wind" but his tinkering was too much. Nobody touches Margaret Mitchell. He was escorted off the set.

He kept going back to ask for any kind of screen work, even "additional dialogue," just to pay the bills.

He placed himself at the mercy of a particular Hollywood tycoon. "Tell me what to write and I'll write it," he pleaded.

"Me?" said the boss. "I should tell F. Scott Fitzgerald how to write?"

His last work, still unfinished, has been published as "The Last Tycoon." It's about Hollywood. Some say that even though it's unpolished it may still be the finest novel ever about Hollywood. That honor must be shared with Nathanael West who gave us Hollywood unwashed in "The Day of the Locust."

Nathanael West was killed in a car accident en route to Fitzgerald's funeral - as if to prove the Hollywood jinx for true novelists.

Fitzgerald spoofed Hollywood in a series of short pieces collected as "The Pat Hobby Stories." These vignettes that are about a hack always in search of an angle, are delightful and often hilarious. They spoof Hollywood without malice, but we get the message. They do not belong in the Fitzgerald canon because they're so un-Fitzgerald-like, written somewhat in the style of Damon Runyon and Ring Lardner. But they were written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, so even when he tried to write flip, he still could not write a bad sentence.

Hemingway kept after Fitzgerald to write "true" and to refrain from the pursuit of money. But Fitzgerald was always desperate. The boozing didn't help. Hemingway was especially critical when Fitzgerald put words to his own disgust, despair and melancholy in "The Crack Up," a still underappreciated but sterling work of art. This reads as a follow-up to King Solomon's "Ecclesiastes" and is Fitzgerald at his best, like the following:

"I must continue to be a writer because that was my only way of life, but I would cease any attempts to be a person - to be kind, to be generous... The decision made me rather exuberant...I felt like the beady-eyed men I used to see on the commuter train from Great Neck fifteen years back - men who didn't care whether the world tumbled into chaos tomorrow if it spared their houses. I was one of them now."

No, he wasn't. He wasn't one of them, much as he tried. He left us the glory of his writing. Hollywood finally came around.

Too bad he's dead.

About the author: Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novel, now available in paperback, is "The Bathsheba Deadline." He can be reached at his website [...]

This page mixes reviews for 3 books: one published by MobileReference and two others published by 'Public Domain Books' and 'Juniper Grove'. It is unclear which review corresponds to which book. We assure you that MobileReference book does not have any errors. The MobileReference book was carefully checked for accuracy and completeness by a team of experts. Please download the Free demo. To find Tales of the Jazz Age published by MobileReference, search: mobi Tales of the Jazz Age.

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After having seen the movie, I ordered the "book" which is really a short story. The thing that is so amazing is the departure of the movie from the book. The only things in common between the two stories are the title and the idea of a person being born old and dying young. The movie concentrates almost completely on the mother's point of view, and the book totally on the father's. To accommodate Brad Pitt's reputation as a womanizer, the movie contains a lot of new material about Benjamin's life as a seaman and being introduced to sex through that presumed lifestyle. Both stories are absorbing but basically unrelated.

This trifle has been catapulted into prominence, recently, because of a successful motion picture, of the same title. I haven't seen the movie, but from online sources, the screen play just uses the main idea of the story, a man, born old, grows young, and makes considerably more out of it than Fitzgerald did. I think that the original author, having had the idea of the plot, suggested to him personally by Mark Twain, felt obligated to do something with it, but realized that he couldn't so just made a 20 page bagatelle.

For example, Benjamin's mother doesn't make an appearance in the story at all. The doctor, who delivers Benjamin, angrily blames Benjamin's father for the strange birth and vows never to have anything more to do with the family. Benjamin's father and son both tell Benjamin that he could age in a normal way if he wanted to. All of this absurd behavior prevents the reader from engaging with the people in the story. Somebody like Pushkin might have set the story in a fantasy land, inhabited by wizards and witches and then it might have had some charm. But it makes no sense as social satire, set in the family of a prosperous hardware dealer, in Baltimore of 1860-1930.

I give it 2 stars for Fitzgerald's ability to finely hone phrases.

This was surprisingly entertaining, thoughtful, and wrapped up in a very short, well-written package. I found that I just simply enjoyed the story, and let myself be carried away with Benjamin Button and his reverse journey through life. I am extremely excited to watch the movie, as I'm sure it will be a masterpiece to behold.

To begin with, the plot of the movie is far more logical, believable, and interesting than the plot of the book. The book itself, really just a fairly long short story, constitutes a historical disaster in publishing history! Where to begin? The printer/publisher/writer, or whoever it is, has no idea how to put paragraphs on the written page. Not only is the entire opus awash with idiotic typos and misspellings, far worse than that is the fact that virtually every single page has some mind-boggling stupidity on it. If you don't believe me, look for yourself. This book is a collector's item -- for everything that can be wrong with a book!

In urban areas jazz was played on the radio more often than in the suburbs youth used the influence of jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations. This youth rebellion of the 1920s went hand-in-hand with fads like bold fashion statements (flappers) and new radio concerts. As jazz flourished, American elites who preferred classical music sought to expand the listenership of their favored genre, hoping that jazz wouldn't become mainstream.

This is one of those rare times when the movie is better than the book. Fitzgeralds story is choppy, strangely written and composed, and not very interesting. Maybe if I had read the book before seeing the movie I might have given it two stars, but I still would not have liked it.

Although as usual, Fitzgerald's writing was exemplary, this story did leave a lot to be desired. If you're expecting anything like the movie, you'll be either disappointed or happy, depending on how much you liked the film version. Personally, I think people's reaction to Benjamin's aging backwards is a lot more realistic in the book, but the movie did a better job of portraying Benjamin's entire life. Fitzgerald could have and should have made this story a lot longer than 30-ish pages.

I used this audioCD with high school students during a summer school reading class. All students had their own hard copy to follow along with. The narrator left something to be desired. There were many mispronounced words which turned into a game for the students to make note of as he read. The narrator was an older gentleman that, in a way, might have reflected the time period in which the story takes place. It would have been nice to have had a few other narrators to choose from, but this was my only option.

The collection of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald are very enjoyable. I confess that THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON was what drew me in to buying the short stories but I enjoyed every story. My personal favorite was BEATRICE BOBS HER HAIR. Very well written stories. It's a pity the movie version of Button was nothing like the story.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, we learn by his own account, that he wrote the story after a conversation with Mark Twain. A comment was made by that esteemed writer that perhaps one of the curiosities of life was that the best part came at the beginning and the worst at the end, leading Mr. Fitzgerald to dash off the Button story. It is unusual at best and reminiscent of Rod Serling or even perhaps, Stephen King, though not the complete horror that Mr. King is capable of writing. It is a short story, in every sense of the word, written and published for one of the leading magazines of the day. In his preface, the writer states that he received reviews that, well, lead us to believe he could have rivaled Mr. King in the horror genre. I guess for the time it was written, such theories were not considered good thinking material for the minds of the young. It has drawn new-found fame by becoming the basis of a movie with one of today's best known leading men. This in itself is probably the main reason for the re-vitalization of a lesser known work by an American writer whose other works have been chosen as required reading in high schools and colleges for generations as examples of classic American writing. I am not so sure this Button story will reach that level. I understand that it was written as a dare or joke, just to prove a point or, as he states in his preface, once he had the idea, just to prove he could! Although I find it an interesting concept all around, that someone who is just born becomes aged in a matter of hours and then begins to gradually become younger with all the inherent problems that would entail, it is rife with associations of the society in which it is set. Let's just say that the family is not only horrified, as anyone would be when their newborn is a little old man who can walk, talk, and think as if he has lived a full life, they are ashamed of what has transpired and afraid that it will have an effect on their social status. The story goes one in the same way but, seems a little anti-climatic in the ending. In my opinion, his story could have reached the level that Stephen King is famous for, if only Mr. Fitzgerald happened to lean in that direction a little more instead of opting for a humorous line. In that case, we might find ourselves reading a great horror story by a classic American author instead of a simple little "what if" scenario! By: Sherry Airey

The story was okey.. but I was disappointed... I never new it's a short story type of book. It is sooooo tiny! I never realized too I was ordering from Europe that's why it took a long while for me to receive the product.

I just saw this movie this weekend. I got this thinking of my wife, she normally doesn't like the movies I do. Funny because she fell a sleep and I ended up watching it. It wasn't a bad movie at all, it was actually pretty good. I stayed interested in it from start to finish, if you know me if I thought it stank I would of shut it off and watched NESN or ESPN. There were a couple parts where it started to drag on a bit, but my curiosity to see what happens in the end kept me interested. I gave it a 3 out of 5 because it seemed to me as they were making this out to be the next Forrest Gump and as the acting was very good it was no Forrest Gump and didn't meet the hype that was created before it was released. I would definitely recommend seeing it but not buying the DVD.

Great movie and this could have been a better book. There are hundreds of "omitted" lines throughout the screenplay. This ruined the screenplay for me. Anyone know why Eric Roth allowed the publishing of his screenplay with lots of missing material?

Preferable to the story's original form, this graphic adaptation is well-paced and beautifully illustrated (full disclosure: the illustrator is a good friend of mine), both preserving and enhancing Fitzgerald's winking, flowery prose. Kevin Cornell's loose lines and sepia watercolors strike a flexible tone that deftly manages the story's mood swings and evokes the era magnificently. The portraits marking Benjamin's progress in backward aging at the beginning of each chapter are an especially nice touch.

I've never found a book that I liked the movie version better. Then I read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... I should have saved the time and stuck with the movie. Maybe had I read it first the opinion would be opposite but if your like me and take what Hollywood turns into a movie as a clue to what to read when your reading list is short, this is one I would bypass.

This book was pretty amazing. It was well written and amusing.
I only wished it to be longer like the movie, maybe giving a little more details here and there. I thought i would be pretty occupied with this book [expecting it to be around 200 pages] but it was 50-60 pages. Other than that, Fitzgerald is an amazing writer. You should read this book.

"Mr. Button's eyes followed her pointing finger, and this is what he saw. Wrapped in a voluminous white blanket, and partly crammed into one of the cribs, there sat an old man apparently about seventy years of age. His sparse hair was almost white, and from his chin dripped a long smoke-colored beard, which waved absurdly back and forth, fanned by the breeze coming in at the window. He looked up at Mr. Button with dim, faded eyes in which lurked a puzzled question."

I have to say I was not impressed. First of all, the "baby" born in the Fitzgerald version is a full-grown man, 5 feet 8 inches tall, to be precise. This is illogical. Of course the whole idea of aging backwards is illogical, but still, a fantasy must abide by the obvious laws of physics, or else explain them away. No woman can give birth to a full-grown man. Not only is he born full-grown, he has also been born with the ability to speak and a taste for expensive cigars.

The story continues as Mr. Buttons insists on treating a full-grown, talking, cigar-smoking man as a newborn baby, insisting on dressing him up in children's clothes (made-to-order, of course) and giving him a rattle to play with. Benjamin, however, continues to act the age he looks, rather than the age he is, as he ages right back into the cradle. It didn't make much sense and was not engaging.

I am disappointed, but it is really my own fault. I fell in love with the movie and wanted more... so I decided to buy the book. I had no idea it was a graphic novel. I think I'll just watch the movie again.

I read this story in about 30 minutes or so...found 2 typos in this edition which always bugs me...

To me, this was a creepy story with nothing all that intriguing about it. I haven't seen the movie yet but can't for the life of me understand why this story would move someone to make it into a film. The illustrations were awful in my opinion and were totally unnecessary. My apologies for thinking this was mediocre.

This book has probably received a lot more attention as of late because of the movie, which was also what made me interested in the book. It's a story about a man named Benjamin Button who ages backwards instead of forwards. He begins life as an old man, and gradually gets younger throughout the years.

Although I was so fascinated by the idea of this story, I must admit I was a little disappointed. I felt that there could've been a lot more that F. Scott Fitzgerald could've done with this story. It was all just too typical.

For one thing, they never really explained how or why Benjamin Button is born as an old man. Benjamin doesn't seem to do anything extraordinary with his life. The whole story seems rather pointless. So he ages backwards. Why does he age backwards? I kept waiting for something great to happen that never did.

The story is wonderful -- but I can't believe the publisher is charging ten bucks for a story that anyone can read for free on the internet. This book is 64 pages with enormous margins. You'll be done with it in 15 minutes. Save your money, check it out online, and/or get the gorgeous graphic novel adaptation instead.

The story is very good but this website has priced this one short story very high. However, check your local Borders or other book stores because you can find it at bargin prices. I paid $2 for mine!!

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

Kindle edition of Tales of the Jazz Age is superb. It is "must" reading for F. Scott Fitzgerald enthusiasts and fans.

First off, let me say that I adore Fitzgerald’s writing. I thought Gatsby was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. However, I didn’t like this book. At all. The characters had no character! A moment that this really annoyed me was at the very beginning when the father is shown his son and he is an old man. Wouldn’t you be a little bit dubious? Instead, he carries it as if it is an inconvenience and goes out to buy him clothes? I just thought that was way too unrealistic. I get that it is a short story so can’t go into a whole chapter of realistic character development and emotion and disbelief but I couldn’t move past it.

Even throughout the rest of the book when I was supposed to sympathise with Benjamin, I couldn’t bring myself to. Only perhaps at the end when he is a baby did it garner some reaction from me which is why my rating isn’t one star. The ending was quite well done.
An interesting concept which maybe should have been better developed as a full length novel.
I hope this is the last Fitzgerald book that I don’t like and enjoy the rest of them.