Tales of the Jazz Age

Tales of the Jazz Age cover

This book, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a collection of short stories. Some of them are The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, May Day and Porcelain and Pink. The stories change in theme, characters and scenery. The most popular one is probably The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where a baby is born as an old man (even in size) and as he ages his appearance is more child-like. He classifies his stories in three sections: My Last Flappers, Fantasies and Unclassified Masterpieces. Each story is different from the last and most of them are more or less 20 pages long. At the beginning of the book, Fitzgerald gives a small introduction of the story's context within the index.

I liked this book, at least most of the stories. I definitely liked the Fantasies section much more as I am a lover of fantasy and science fiction. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was by far my favorite, followed by The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. I liked the stories and their characters. Most of the stories had a somewhat sad ending, either with death or poor living conditions the stories were definitely sad. I guess what Fitzgerald tried to do was to show how fragile human life is, I don't know for sure. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button shocked me, it was amazing. Benjamin's life was not as good as the movie depicts it. It is way more different. He wasn't loved and his parents ignored his condition because they couldn't live with it and keep their social status. It is extremely hard to review a book of short stories, if I were to talk about them all I would never finish it. I do recommend this book because it's so unique and intriguing. Some stories may not be as appealing but I'm pretty sure anyone will like at least on of them. Fitzgerald is a good author and it isn't such a hard book to read, it's pretty easy and the stories aren't annoyingly long.
For me the book as a whole deserves 4/5 stars because most of it is quite interesting to read.