Five by Fitzgerald

Whether you are revisiting these classic stories or just discovering them, this audio presentation is excellent. Narrators Bronson Pinchot and Stephen Thorne avoid any melodrama and let the listener detect Fitzgerald's irony. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" offers an awkward country girl seeking advice from her snobby city cousin in order to become popular with the country club set. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is the fantastic tale of a man who lives his life in reverse: born an old man, he dies as an infant. In "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz," John Unger goes "out West" to spend the summer with a prep school classmate. That family's Montana compound is on a mountain-sized diamond. The extravagance that this fabulous wealth affords comes at the price of a siege mentality and an explosive end. "Dalrymple Goes Wrong" concerns a war hero who basks too long in celebrity. Unable to find a job that provides the kind of living he thinks he deserves, he becomes a successful criminal. In "Head and Shoulders," Horace Tarbox is a gifted teenage scholar, studying philosophy at Princeton. He answers a knock on his door to find Marcia, a chorus girl. Improbably, they fall in love and marry. All told, a treat for fans of short stories and the inimitable Fitzgerald.—Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL