The Great Gatsby
In one sentence: F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel follows Gatsby as the one man still sincerely believing in an American Dream nobody else takes seriously anymore, and paying for that romanticism with his life — Fitzgerald's real target isn't Gatsby, it's a country that claims anyone can rise on their own merit while everyone around him is quietly stabbing each other in the back.
Overview
Nick Carraway moves to Long Island next door to Gatsby's ostentatious mansion. His cousin Daisy is married to Tom, who's carrying on an affair with Myrtle Wilson, unbeknownst to Myrtle's husband George. Nick learns that Daisy was once Gatsby's great love, and that Gatsby built his entire fortune hoping to win her back. At the Plaza Hotel, Tom confronts Gatsby about the affair and forces Daisy to choose between them; she can't decide. Driving back that night in Gatsby's car, Daisy hits and kills Myrtle, then flees the scene, cutting Gatsby off. Tom seizes the moment, telling the grieving George that Gatsby was driving the car and letting him believe Gatsby was also Myrtle's lover — George shoots Gatsby by his pool, then kills himself. Disillusioned by the whole ordeal, Nick leaves New York and returns to the Midwest.
Why It's Recommended
This book earns its place by puncturing a myth: America may have started as a land of people looking out for each other, but Fitzgerald's America is full of people stabbing each other in the back, which makes Gatsby's romantic devotion look almost ridiculous by comparison — his loyalty to Daisy is loyalty to an ideal nobody else still believes in. That devotion shows up in a small, telling detail: Gatsby's house is stacked with books he's never actually read, props for a cultured image he doesn't have. The green light is the novel's clearest symbol — burning bright at the start, filling Gatsby with hope every time he looks at it and thinks of winning Daisy back; by the end, it's just another lame green light, no more special than his dreams turned out to be. The tragedy is exactly why the title calls him great: because the dream was beautiful, and the heroism of chasing it past the point of reason is what makes Gatsby worth the name.
Source
Wisecrack's Thug Notes segment covers The Great Gatsby in its 2013-06-11 episode, built around the claim that "Gatsby can be considered a criticism of the anti-Calvinistic image of the American dream" — Gatsby believes fate can be rewritten by will, the opposite of Calvinism's fixed, predetermined destiny. The video closes on a quote from critic Minter: "Because of the beauty of his dream and the heroism of his efforts to move beyond it, Gatsby can be made great." (First published in 1925 to modest sales and mixed reviews; Fitzgerald died in 1940 without knowing the novel would later be canonized as a Great American Novel.)