West of Sunset

"The war dwarfed their problems. What was a broken molar when the Germans were pushing through the Ardennes? [F. Scott Fitzgerald] went to the dentist and Belgium fell. Luxembourg, the Netherlands. He thought of Gerald and Sara's villa, and Sheilah's brother in London. Ernest [Hemingway] was probably there somewhere, filing hot copy.

"They were on their way to the World's Fair in San Francisco when the radio broadcast the evacuation of Dunkirk. It was a victory, saving the British army to fight again, but there was nothing to stop the Germans from taking Paris. [Fitzgerald] was there every day, on the Quai du Louvre with Scottie, as Cary Grant in the Ritz bar. Selfishly, he felt it was his city, his past they were taking from him--the gray, rainy streets and scabby sycamores and hennaed doyennes walking their little dogs in the Jardin des Plantes. He wondered if he would feel the same if the Japanese bombed Los Angeles."

~~ from West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan