Stewart O'Nan

Everybody remembers F. Scott Fitzgerald for The Great Gatsby and the glitzy, boozy crowd he associated with, but that was a fairly brief moment in Fitzgerald's life. In 1937 his wife was institutionalized, he was out of money and the great success he'd achieved was now a millstone around his neck. So he did what the truly desperate do and headed to Hollywood to break into showbiz as a screenwriter. It did not turn out well. Stewart O'Nan's new novel West of Sunset fictionalizes this bleak period in Fitzgerald's life, when he was starting over again as a very famous nobody in a city of powerful somebodies. O'Nan discusses and signs copies of West of Sunset at 7 p.m. tonight at St. Louis County Library Headquarters (1640 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Frontenac; 314-994-3300 or www.slcl.org). Admission is free, and Left Bank Books will sell copies of the book on-site.