The book that catapulted Fitzgerald to literary fame at the age of 23, it's his first and second most famous novel.
This Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature and has the book's theme of love warped by greed and status-seeking.
It's a flawed novel, but I appreciated it. I think a lot of us can relate to the idea in the book of knowing you're smart and destined for great things, but unsure of how to go about it.