The Great Gatsby is one of those novels about which it is difficult to say anything new. High schoolers who had it forced down their throats remember it as that novel about rich people and a green light somewhere, with all details forgotten after the final exam. It’s a shame because Fitzgerald’s language is perfect. There’s not a misplaced or unnecessary word in the whole novel. Forget about what you thought in high school. This is a novel for people who have lived, experienced heartbreak and disappointment, but still hope. You weren’t ready for this book at 16 – but you’re ready for it now.

For those who don’t remember, this is the tale of Nick, a young man working in the financial sector in New York in some low paying job. He rents a run-down house in an otherwise fancy neighborhood, just across the bay from his uber-wealthy cousin Daisy and her slightly frightening husband. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, a mysterious and secretive party-throwing type who swims in money. Slowly, with perfect tension, Fitzgerald reveals to you that Gatsby is not all that he seems, and that he isn’t across the bay from Daisy by accident.

It would be easy to let this story devolve into the whiny musings of the upper class, but Fitzgerald never goes there. Yes, it’s summer, and there’s booze, and it’s the 1920′s, and almost all the characters are very wealthy. However, Fitzgerald is able to humanize an otherwise unsympathetic crowd. Their problems are not superficial. The characters are rich, or want to be, but he handles them in such a tactful and real way, and gives them real issues, and judges them for their silly greed. He shows glimpses of their inner world through seemingly inconsequential scenes; for example, Daisy sobbing over Gatsby’s beautiful shirts. She’s shallow, she’s sorrowful, and she’s perfectly written.

The author never makes excuses for his subjects, never lets them get away with their imperfections. Perhaps most of all, he shows us the fallacy of the materialism in the American Dream through Nick, the unlucky narrator. Nick stands by and watches the cream of Long Island society immolate themselves. Yet, Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is not totally hopeless. That famous image of the green light at the end of the dock, and the even more famous last lines of the novel, remind us that the past is always with us. We cannot escape it, but the trying is what makes us human.

It’s the best novel to tackle the American Dream, hands down. Five out of five stars.

Guest review by Amanda Nelson. Amanda also blogs at Dead White Guys: An Irreverent Guide to Classic Literature.

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