This was so good!!! I read it in preparation for a Last Days of F. Scott Fitzgerald walking tour in West Hollywood. ( )

This was so good!!! I read it in preparation for a Last Days of F. Scott Fitzgerald walking tour in West Hollywood. ( )

This autobiography of Sheila Graham - a gossip columnist during the Golden Years of Hollywood - was written with the help of ghostwriter, biographer, and confessor to the stars, Gerold Frank. It has been praised as "the very best portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald that has yet been put into print." In a way, it is the literary equivalent of a turducken" - delicious, but to be consumed with more than a grain of salt, for it represents "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma".

F. Scott Fitzgerald, lyrical genius, and author of The Great Gatsby, was an enigmatic tragic figure. A symbol of the youthful Roaring Twenties, he outlived his time on the stage, and was nearly forgotten by the reading public by the late 30's. His books were then out of print. He doubted his ability to produce another novel. And he struggled to find a niche as a screenwriter while contending with both alcoholism and tuberculosis. During a drinking binge, he could be as cruel and self-destructive as a Dostoyevsky anti-hero. Yet, he could write of love and estrangement with a unique Romantic pathos.

Sheila Graham kept her past, and her private life, a mystery for much of her career. She was humiliated by her childhood in a London Jewish orphanage. She felt handicapped by her eighth grade education. To advance in society, and circulate as a single woman, she and her first husband conspired to keep their marriage a secret. Although she ultimately chose the romantic over the practical in her love life, she was remarkably cold-blooded about assessing the financial and societal advantages of two potential mates whom she rejected, both of whom were millionaires, and one of whom was royalty. And she felt no compunction about flirting or using her looks to advance her prospects.

Gerold Frank is a bit of a riddle, at least in so far as the extent to which he helped craft this book. A gifted writer, he had a knack for drawing out biographical material from his subjects, who included Judy Garland, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Lilian Roth. In his NY Times obituary, Diana Barrymore is quoted as saying ''I told him things I wouldn't have told a priest,'' she said. ''He was always there, like a sponge. I lied to him, and I am a brilliant liar. But he'd know.'' The picture Graham reveals of herself is not always flattering, so it seems he merits more than mere editing credit for this compelling book.

Graham was Fitzgerald's lover for the last four years of his life, and was present during his fatal heart attack. Their time together was turbulent due to his intermittent drinking. At one point, and once at gunpoint, they almost permanently split up. But perhaps the most surprising aspect of their relationship was his role as her intellectual mentor. He created for her a "College of One", with detailed reading assignments and relished his role as her personal tutor on art, history, music and literature. Graham's career was as unlikely in its meteoric ascent as Gatsby's and she shared with Gatsby an aching sense of the necessity of romance. Fitzgerald and Graham seem too perfect a match. Each to each seems equally a beloved infidel. That perfected romance - a squared circle - may just be true and the answer to this relationship wrapped in mystery inside their enigmas. ( )

While the first half of the book was interesting (about her childhood and growing up in London), I didn't really care about it. The book doesn't really start until the moment she sees F. Scott Fitzgerald at a party. Nice book from the viewpoint of someone who knew him at the end. ( )