The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
It is said that people live backwards. We start as infants and children playing all day full of energy with smooth young skin. Then we end with wrinkled skin, wisps of white hair, and drained of energy. Shouldn't we end with the good part? Benjamin Button was born an old man. In many ways he had to be cared for like a child by his parents. They grew used to their abnormal man-child, but each year brought new adjustments. For the first years of Benjamin's life people thought he was his father's father. This book is very short and yet it encompasses his entire life. This book helps the reader wrap their mind around a truly backwards life.
Benjamin begins his life enjoying Sudoku and his rocking chair. As he “immatures” he begins to find interest in other things. When looks like he is just above middle aged he meets a young women and they marry, but as he ages backwards and she ages forward they reach a point of time where they are the same age. The problem is that now they start aging apart. When Benjamin becomes a twenty-year old he drifts apart from his wife and parties the way twenty year olds do. You may believe I have spoiled the book, but Fitzgerald writes this book in a factual manner and you know what’s going to happen next. If you have seen the movie you might believe this is a heartbreaking romance between two people continually moving apart and I just spoiled there romantic ending. I did no such thing. The book is different. Instead of a story dripping with emotion the focus of the story is only the way Benjamin is growing. However this doesn’t make it heartless.
It is the very end that makes me recommend this book. Benjamin becomes a child then a toddler then an infant. His son is the one that helps care for him. The way Fiztgerald writes Benjamin’s death is beautiful. It is a ceremony of letting go of stress, worries, and thoughts. Forgetting becomes beautiful not scary. Baby Benjamin dreams of his toys and food. Then shapes. Then color blobs. Then he falls asleep for a final time.
