[Mrs. Y Reviews] The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Book Cover from Amazon.com

Life is short, or so we know. We know one moment you can be here, and the next gone. Here is a story that is an old story, but one that plays on this theme. What if you age in reverse and you were the only one who could? What would your life be like? Get your rockers ready, don't throw out your hair dye, and whatever you do, be kind to your nana. It's time to review "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Opinion
Hello my dear readers, I come to you with one of my very favorite short stories. This story inspired a movie yes, but here's the one time I'm going to do a spoiler. The movie is NOTHING like the book save for some of the critical elements. This story is a treasure all on its own, just as the film is a fun movie all on its own. I don't think either should be compared side by side, because it'd be like comparing the juice of an orange to the juice of an apple.

We have a story about a man who is born at the cusp of the Civil War, and he is born old. What kind of life can such a man have? My first impressions of this book are that this is a story that not only is written to explore an idea, but also written to make us think about our lives.

Critiques time for the review and my first is in the "Story Structure, Foundation, and Presentation" portion of my scoring. This particular copy of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is suffering from some small injustices. They are not huge, and they didn't alter the speed or understanding of what I read, but at times there are breaks in the text that go to the next line or sometimes three lines down. I realize that probably is a PDF to Mobi conversion error, and I see this a lot with indie books. Whoever may be guardian to this copy, please go back in and read the dialog parts and fix the spacing when you can. It's not huge, but it's enough that it looks terrible, and it appears on both the PC app version as well as the Kindle copy.

Here are some of the things I truly loved about this story and short story writers should hear me out. This story tells a complete and whole story. It weaves it without any pace issues. The reader never feels that the writer is struggling for material or had to edit anything down. The story is beautifully put together, and it confronts many subjects.

For example, in Benjamin's life, he deals with age discrimination regularly, misunderstandings, learning to make friends in any situation. He learns triumphs and heartbreaks. He determines what it is to love and to lose. Never once is the reader struggling to figure out what the writer meant because it's clear and well defined on the page.

If you want to know how to write a short story or have a short story to compare to with a unique premise, read this one. Keep it. I love this story for just how well it takes the reader to a new set of thoughts. In the end, it leaves beautifully and quietly that is so wonderful.


Score

After doing the math on the mobi copy issues, and also considering everything else, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a 92/100. This also goes into the "Mrs. Y Recommends" pile because I honestly believe it's a crown jewel to short story writers, and should be celebrated.