Story Review: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one of Fitzgerald's fantasy pieces, a sharp turn from the popular flapper stories in which he chronicled the mercurial emotions of the Roaring Twenties (our current Twenties aren't off to quite the same start). Originally published in Collier's magazine and collected in Fitzgerald's hodgepodge of a second story collection, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922); many years later it was made into a 2008 film with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Perhaps it's an early look at magical realism. The story almost seems a finger exercise in which the author set himself a puzzle: he took a premise and extended it into a full story that explored the possibilities of how it all might play out. After reading, one notes "youth is wasted on the young" and wonders why a lifetime of experience and learning coincides with a weakening body and approaching death. Cited as a satire on aging, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is an even more pointed satire of societal requirements that we conform to expectations, as Mr. Button certainly does not. His march to the beat of a different drummer sends everyone into hysterics. He faces intolerance every step of the way. I felt the story had a surprising emotional resonance the first time I read it, and it's one that I've never forgotten. Haunting as well. Even just as an oddity, an imaginative detour for those with creative minds, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" sticks with the reader and is a necessary read. [4★]
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