Scott Fitzgerald, and finishes soon after Scott dies. The novel follows Zelda Sayer’s life after she meets F. The question, “Did this really happen?” may still exist in readers’ minds, but they can be assuaged by Fowler’s attempts to be as faithful to Zelda’s reality as possible.

Fowler’s repeated disclaimers that Z is a work of fiction based off an investigation of contracting facts, beliefs, and gossip is reassuring. “And the question that troubled me most: Was it even really up to me?” (308)īefore readers delve into the story, they may skip to the last pages-not to learn how and when it ends in Zelda’s life, but how much of the novel is fact or fiction. “Which of my many possible lives did I want to define me? Which one could I have? “All the difference, the other voice answered. What difference could your puny achievements possibly make? “Oh, just let it go, a different voice urged me. “I was a Sayer, after all a woman, yes, but still a Sayer my life was intended to mean something beyond daughter-wife-mother.

As Fowler writes from Zelda’s perspective, Its overall message seems to be that reputations lie it shatters any incomplete preconceptions of Zelda and Scott, leaving readers wondering what is fact and what is rumor.

This is revealed in Therese Anne Fowler’s recent novel, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. The Golden Couple of the Roaring ’20s was actually tarnished pyrite.

Z by Therese Anne Fowler