Author Archives: SJW

Liza Klaussmann & Stewart O’Nan: Visions of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edinburgh Book Festival

Posted on by

On August 22, Stewart was at the Edinburgh Book Festival!  Here was the topic that was discussed:

VISIONS OF F SCOTT FITZGERALD

Two different periods of F Scott Fitzgerald’s life are covered in novels from Liza Klaussmann and Stewart O’Nan. In Villa America, Klaussmann has Fitzgerald and Zelda alongside Picasso and Cole Porter as summer guests of two wealthy ex-pats. In O’Nan’s West Of Sunset Zelda is in an asylum leaving Fitzgerald, a struggling artist, trying to reclaim his past glories in Hollywood. Chaired by Stephen McGinty.

[more]

Here’s a review of the event:

This entertaining discussion about F. Scott Fitzgerald was like eavesdropping on an animated, cultural conversation during a literary soiree at Gertude Stein’s Parisian apartment.

Stephen McGinty was the charming host with his guests, Liza Klaussmann and Stewart O’Nan who have both published fictional accounts of the glamorous Gatsby-esque life and tragic early death of the American novelist.

[more]

Book Review: West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan (Press & Journal [UK])

Posted on by

From Press & Journal (UK):

O’Nan has written a wonderfully intimate and gently absorbing book. It inhabits an era and a fine mind with great care, folding in details of Fitzgerald’s life with subtle, unhurried sympathy. The result is a portrait of grace under pressure, of a kind of moral courage very different to the macho antics of the writer’s great rival, Hemingway. Great title too.

[more]

The best summer reads: Foreign lands inspire new novels

Posted on by

From Western Daily Press (UK):

Choose a holiday read to match your destination. From Cornwall to Hollywood, top authors tell Hannah Stephenson about the places that inspired their novels, and why readers should pay them a visit.

If you’re… Heading to Hollywood:

The last three years of American writer F Scott Fitzgerald’s life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O’Nan’s heartfelt new novel.

“While most of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Hollywood haunts are long gone, Musso & Frank’s restaurant has survived intact, the decor seemingly untouched since he and Sheilah Graham [Fitzgerald’s partner] ate there. Waiters in the same red vests from the thirties bustle between tables, delivering huge bloody steaks and knockout cocktails. Just up the street on Hollywood Boulevard, the Egyptian Theater, where Fitzgerald’s Three Comrades debuted, still hosts gala premieres, and the Roosevelt Hotel, further up the boulevard, is where the stars still go for the after-party.”

[more]