Another Side of Paradise

Koslow's (The Late, Lamented Molly Marx; Little Pink Slips) latest presents a fictionalized account of F. Scott Fitzgerald's love affair with Sheilah Graham, who is confident, secure in her sexuality, and a more than a little ruthless when it comes to her career. Graham successfully distances herself from her orphanage-ridden childhood, lack of education, and failed first marriage by creating a dynamic persona as a celebrity columnist in 1930s Hollywood. As her career takes off, she meets Fitzgerald, who has been nearly forgotten by his reading public. The dichotomy between their ambitions and their hearts fuels their love story, which is all-consuming, full of contradictions, and overshadowed by Fitzgerald's alcoholism and marriage to Zelda. Graham is always jockeying her contrary appetites, making her concern and support of Fitzgerald's perpetual and always-around-the-corner literary comeback seem insincere. Even after she reveals her deepest secrets to him, it's hard to sympathize with her choices, past and present, as the couple's cycle of writing, fighting, and passion continues.