Don DeLillo

4.1965 learners

David Bell, a handsome, disillusioned young advertising executive in 1960s New York, escapes the suffocating hypocrisy of corporate politics and fractured personal relationships to embark on a cross-country journey. Armed with a 16mm camera, he sets out to make a film that captures the unvarnished truth of America—beyond the glossy ads and polished narratives he’s spent his career selling. Along the way, he confronts the ghosts of war trauma through Glenn Yost’s harrowing Bataan Death March memories, navigates the raw class divides of Texas tire fields, and connects with the quiet resilience of Arizona’s Apache communities. As he moves from bustling cities to desolate small towns, David dismantles his own illusions of success and the American Dream, confronting existential questions about identity, purpose, and the hidden fractures beneath America’s shiny surface. Don DeLillo’s debut novel is a sharp, introspective odyssey that lays bare the absurdity and quiet humanity of modern American life.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.1809 learners

In the glittering yet hollow Jazz Age of 1920s America, Nick Carraway, a thoughtful Midwestern transplant, moves to Long Island and becomes neighbor to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. Behind Gatsby’s lavish, nightly parties—attended by scores of strangers who never truly know him—lies an obsessive, decades-long quest: to win back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan, a privileged socialite trapped in a loveless marriage to the arrogant old-money heir Tom Buchanan. As Nick navigates the tangled lives of the wealthy elite, he uncovers Gatsby’s humble farm-boy origins, his fortune built from bootlegging, and his unshakable belief that wealth can erase the years and class divides separating him from Daisy. But when Tom exposes Gatsby’s dark secrets, Daisy’s cowardice and the cold indifference of the upper class shatter Gatsby’s dream, leading to his tragic end. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is a searing critique of the American Dream, laying bare the emptiness beneath the era’s excess and the tragedy of chasing an illusion.