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I think this is a very strong list and there are at least three other books I could vote for, Ulysses, To the Lighthouse and The Sound and the Fury. However, my choice ultimately goes (not surprisingly) in favor of my own nomination, The Great Gatsby.
So as not to get into a shouting match with aficionadoes of Huckleberry Finn or Moby Dick, I'll merely claim the Gatsby is the great 20th century American novel. Anticipating Don Draper by close to a century, it raises the perennial American issues of whether and to what extent you can not only remake yourself, but also reimagine yourself, and seemingly incongruently, whether the past can be recreated or transcended.
All of the four novels I've mentioned are perfect realizations of the stories they're telling, but Gatsby has one clear advantage. It's a good read as well as being a literary masterpiece. I won't be seeing Ulysses on the beach this summer, but Gatsby would be perfectly at home.
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