Such a small book one can fit it in
their back pocket, yet, this small object had a profound affect on
me. Written as a magazine piece for the upscale Saturday Evening
Post, the article eventually found a home in a less prominent
publication - a car magazine.
Originally written as a serial, "The
Cruise of the Rolling Junk" is 'On the Road' for F. Scott
Fitzgerald and his somewhat nutty but beautiful wife Zelda. One
morning Zelda had a passion to have fresh biscuits and peaches from
her natural home in Alabama. So taking off from Connecticut, in a
very unreliable car - the re-named "Rolling Junk" they go
on the road to pleasure. But alas, things don't work out.
For one they have consistent problems
with their automobile on this trip, which often left them stranded in
the back woods of even badder hotels and in the hands of a series of
rotten car mechanics. But in reality they are sort of 'the truth'
vs. the unreality of the Fitgerald's. In what seems like a nice
weekend trip turns into an obsessive journey to the couple's inner
world. The landscape of this piece is 'charming and funny but there
are very dark overtones that takes over the reader in the 21st
Century.
Written while he was working on The
Great Gatsby, F. Scott's attenna was up and working. But sadly and
quite disturbing is his attitude toward Black Americans. The cruel
side of his observations comes to front, so that alone makes it
difficult to 'like' him as a narrator. And Zelda's personality (via
Scott) is sort of troublesome as well. She is sort of a combination
of a nagging so-so and a spoiled child. What must have been read in
the early 20th Century as funny becomes somewhat sad and disturbing
in the 21st Century.
Which brings up to mind does
Fitzgerald's writing has something to say to people now in 2012?
Well, for one, this book is very close to the edition that was
originally published in "Motor" in 1924. The book comes
with photographs of Scott, Zelda, and the Rolling Junk as the
adventure happens. So it is very much a period piece of its time -
but what's contemporary is the mental attitude of Fitzgerald as he
and Zelda wonder back into the Southern past, that for sure will
bring failure.
Like the image of most male americans,
Fitzgerald is not one with his car. A cowboy has his loyal horse,
and the male has his relationship with their car. Here The Rolling
Junk practically rebels against Scott's wishes for a solid car
outing. The humor in this book is a good few chuckles but the real
'dark' humor is the failure of communication, the lack of
understanding of machine, and the need to entertain a wife who is
slowly going out of the picture.
The trip ends as a failure of sorts,
and Fitzgerald for sure sees this as an aesthetic that things rot
from the inside to the exterior. A throw-away literature but what I
think is a masterpiece from F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald reading Shakespeare
Some film footage of the couple.
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