It’s the summer of 1925 and Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, freshly famous, arrives in the French Riviera with her mother. Full of innocence, she watches other visitors, and becomes infatuated with one group in particular. Dick Diver and his wife Nicole seem to be the centre, and she is drawn to them, sophisticated and in love, they signify a maturity that she longs for. Book one may focus on Rosemary, and introduces us to the cast of characters through her eyes, but book two and three shift the focus to Dick and Nicole, travelling back in time to show Dick in Switzerland when he was still practicing psychiatry, and Nicole was his patient. Book three delves deeper into their relationship and Dick’s descent into alcoholism. They see Rosemary again but she is not as central to the novel as you’d imagine from the opening.
Dick is really the main focus of the novel. To begin with he appears admirable and desirable, as Rosemary’s first flushes of attraction focus on him. Book two reveals a different side to him. Fitzgerald does not seem to be casting judgment upon him, but many readers will feel uncomfortable with his burgeoning romance with a patient, who is naturally in a position of vulnerability. We see the unhealthy root of their relationship, him believing that he gives her mental stability, and her providing him with the money he needs to become a partner in a Swiss psychiatric clinic. They are dependent on each other, and the unequal beginnings of their relationship doesn’t bode well. Dick does seem to love Nicole genuinely but her relapses into mental ill health take their toll. We see the real danger she poses to both them and their children, and Dick comes to see her as a liability, limiting his ability to succeed professionally. In book three he has become something of a social pariah as his drinking gets out of hand. He drinks excessively and in environments where it is not at all appropriate, insulting their friends and behaving unprofessionally. He no longer seems at all admirable, and we root for Nicole. It is widely believed that the couple is based on the Fitzgeralds and so it seems strange that the author would write himself into such a flawed character.
In book one, we see Dick and Nicole’s relationship through Rosemary’s eyes, their sexuality intimidating to her. It is an aspect of life she hasn’t yet experienced but longs to. Book one leaves us with some ambiguity about an upsetting event with Nicole, and as with Dick we gain greater insight into her character when the gaze moves from that of Rosemary. Nicole’s ill health is brought on by being abused by her father. Her relationship with Dick, although not as unequal, also begins with a power imbalance and so we can draw some parallels. This colours their relationship with a sense of dependency, which again at times mirrors that of a parent and child. Dick may be concerned with healing Nicole but at times it feels as though he makes her worse, that his own preoccupation with her mental health is not positive for either of them. It also causes him to distance himself from her emotionally, trying to separate her well and unwell, but ultimately causing a coldness between them. As book three progresses, Nicole comes into sharper focus independently.
The writing is frequently beautiful, and there are many passages that will stay with me. The emotional impact of the closing pages pack quite a punch, and although towards the end of book one the plot becomes a bit vague and wandering, Fitzgerald succeeds in bringing it back around, completely absorbing the reader in the characters. He did apparently consider whether the book would have been better if it were written chronologically. This may have been a more linear approach but I think some of the power would be lost. We are like Rosemary at the beginning, viewing the characters through the eyes of an innocent. It is more interesting to see their complexities reveal themselves gradually, and the contents of book one would feel more inconsequential if the characters were already established. A book full of intriguing characters and carefully crafted sentences which makes for a luxurious reading experience.
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