American Lives (& Deaths) Are All About Second Acts

As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.” But…

Most self-help gurus say we do have more, maybe even three, with additional modules available for download.

The melancholy Jacques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It counts seven acts. If we’re to go with Fitzgerald’s take, that would leave us Americans, per Jacques’ monologue, perpetually “mewling and puking.” That generally ends in college, but I’ve met some lifetime learners as well.

So, who do we trust in this regard, Fitzgerald or Shakespeare? The latter’s been at it 400 years longer than Fitzgerald, so let’s go with him. Besides, unlike Shakespeare, Fitzgerald never had a hit in his lifetime. The Great Gatsby, for example, only became one after its author’s death, when it was issued as a paperback Armed Services edition, read by GIs when not getting shot at.

Notably, Fitzgerald died before finishing The Last Tycoon, the novel in which his second act supposition appears. At least two subsequent wri…