Her Book Review: Villa America by Liza Klaussmann (2015)

Why she read it: A good review in Entertainment Weekly

Would she recommend it: Yes

Her review: Based on real life characters in a time of that seems sheened with elegance and affluence covering a lack of depth or of misery, Liza Klaussmann’s Villa America gives us a sense of how difficult happiness is to find no matter one’s social class. With a lyricism of language, we get to meet Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and a number of other real life characters, but at the center are Gerald and Sara Murphy, who seem to save each other from the misery of their families and create what seems to be the perfect couple. Except, despite the fact that the Murphys love each other, Gerald battles with his homosexuality, brought to the fore by a farmer-turned-pilot Owen Chambers, a fictional creation of Klaussmann’s that allows her to explore the darker sides of the culture of the time, even if the characters seem to mostly struggle with what to wear and how much to drink.

Fitzgerald based Tender is the Night on the Murphys and Klaussmann paints all her characters in clear, sure strokes, showing us the Fitzgerald’s twisted love and Hemingway’s overbearing masculinity. But most especially with the tragedy of the last act provides the great equalizing force: that no matter how privileged or gifted someone is, death still finds us all. What, then,if we cannot rely on love, sexuality, or our progeny, gives our lives meaning? That’s the question this book leaves us with.