The Diamond as Big as the Ritz

More about the book

Although this novella stands out from Fitzgerald's body of work as a playful yet sinister fairy tale, it brilliantly fuses his lush fantasies about the extremes of wealth with a somber understanding of what underpins it. Loosely inspired by a summer spent working on a ranch in Montana, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is Fitzgerald’s hallucinatory tribute to the American West and its promises. It tells the story of John T. Unger, a young Southerner who goes to Montana for summer vacation with a wealthy college classmate. However, the classmate’s family proves to be much more than simply wealthy; they own a mountain made entirely of one solid diamond and have gone to dreadful lengths to conceal their secret, putting John in danger. Yet the family also has a daughter, the lovely Kismine, and with her help, John may yet escape the fate that has befallen all their other guests.