The Love of the Last Tycoon (1941)

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by F. Scott Fitzgerald



F. Scott Fitzgerald's final novel, left uncompleted because of the author's death, tells the story of Monroe Stahr, a hotshot Hollywood producer facing his mortality and longing for a second chance at love.

 


The Hollywood sections, which were informed by the time Fitzgerald spent as a screenwriter, are wonderful, featuring the snappy dialogue and fast pace of a screwball comedy from the 40s. 



The prose in the romantic parts is a bit overheated and sappy, but no doubt that would have been improved by the author had he lived long enough.

 


A brilliant scene near the end, in which three children encounter the wreckage of a plane crash, makes me ache to read the novel that will never be.


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