Call Me Zelda

Call Me Zelda
Author: Erika Robuck
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade (May 7, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 045123992X
ISBN-13: 978-0451239921

Book Description:
Everything in the ward seemed different now, and I no longer felt its calming presence. The Fitzgeralds stirred something in me that had been dormant for a long time, and I was not prepared to face it....

From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.

When Zelda is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, vacillating between lucidity and madness in her struggle to forge an identity separate from her husband, the famous writer, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Held captive by her own tragic past, Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she becomes privy to Zelda’s most intimate confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius. But in taking ever greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she intended....

Short Excerpt HERE.

Idgie Says:
I have never been a big fan of the Fitzgeralds, and in fact don't know that much about them, so I wasn't sure how interested I would be in a fictional novel about Zelda's stay in a psychiatric hospital - discussing her life and making friends with her nurse. 

I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised! The nurse, Anna, is a fully fleshed out character with an extremely engaging presence.  I liked her personality.  I liked her brother.  I liked her friend Will.  I could easily visit, have dinner with and just "be" with these people.

At the same time, Zelda, while obviously emotionally fragile, also grabs your attention with her character and additionally makes a claim about her husband that immediately made me perk up and pay attention.  Plagiarism and/or stealing of a story line is not to be taken lightly in the book world.

I found myself rooting both for Zelda, her possible success and her sanity, and also for Anna to find peace and happiness in her life. 

A novel that grabs.  Definitely worthy of your time and attention.