Review: The Movie was Better!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2013
I downloaded this book because I had seen the movie and I had enjoyed it.  Being a realist I wanted to see to what extent had the producers and screenwriters gone in taking this story from book form and turning it into a major motion picture.  Needless to say that beyond keeping the original story concept, that of a person born old and aging backwards Hollywood did a complete makeover.  So how was the original story?  While creative and interesting, it didn’t grab me in the same way as the movie did.  In fact, I found the main character less sympathetic in the book in comparison to the portrayal in the movie.  True it was sad that Benjamin Button ends up dying forsaken by his family in the book, but the sadness is not the same as what is portrayed on the big screen.  As for the other stories in the collection, all were enjoyable to read, however none of them really grabbed me.  Of the other short stories, only "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong" put a smile on my face.  The other tales all end on a down note for the central character with them either suffering social stigmatism as in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" or loses out on love as in “Jelly Bean”.  In “Dalyrimple Goes Wrong” the main character wins out in the end, achieving social acceptance and economic reward at the end of the story, even though the main character actually turns his back on society and becomes a criminal during the course of the story.  Of course, all the stories address moral issues; however, I found it hard to accept how these issues were resolved in the tales.  Perhaps that is because of the changing times between now when I am reading the stories and then when F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the stories.  Still it was difficult to accept that a young girl who gets her hair bobbed is ostracized (though she does get her revenge) and a guy who turns to theft to support a life style that he feels is his right, gets a chance to run for public office.  In the end, however I must acknowledge that the stories were well written and interesting.  They were also very different from what I have read before and that is why I’m giving this book three-stars.