The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is truly one of my favorite American classics because Fitzgerald captures the era the Roaring Twenties,  and bottom line, I love his writing style. (As an aside, it doesn’t hurt that he hails from my home state of Minnesota.)  Because it is such an enjoyable read,  it’s easy to lose track of its depth and complexity. Its themes of decadence, depravity, idealism, social issues, false security and excess are handled against a backdrop of  wealth, jazz music, war recovery, and allusions to organized crime. One of my favorite lines comes toward the end of the book when the narrator, Nick Carraway,  says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smash up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made.” If you haven’t read it, read it. It’s not long. If you read it years ago, reread it. Now that you know the story, you’ll peel back layers of insight that you’ll relish. This book about  The American Dream is certainly a contender for the title “Great American Novel.”