This Side of Paradise (The Romantic Egoist) F Scott Fitzgerald

This book required me three attempts to finish reading it. The first attempt I don't count because I lost the book poolside in Cuba and it took me a few months to find a new copy. But, anyways, the book is not a simple read but it is quite rewarding. I think the art of writing a romantic novel is dead.
The constant allusions to the troubles of the time, the depression and WWI, are frighteningly relevant now. The main character, Amory, struggles through the end of his family wealth in such a terrible way that it really questions the cliche 'it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all' as it is clear that Fitzgerald, mirrored in this character, does love money.
Reading the book helped me form an idea about growing up. About how simple it is to read a novel at my age, even if both the language and content are difficult like in a Fitzgerald novel, because of how we are conditioned as we grow up.
Its not just that we learn and therefore novels become easier to read as we get older and increase our education, though it certainly is part of the process. I think it is as much our tolerance for the unknown as it is our knowledge about the topic that makes the novel easier to read. Certainly we understand more but, also, do we not just keep reading when we don't understand something instead of stopping the progress of the book and figuring out what is meant?
Of course my book has been dogeared and dissected as much or more than I would have taken the care to do in high school but I wouldn't stop reading to do research, I would wait until some later time.
Anyways, it is worth the read if you have the patience and time to do give it a try. I think the American classic is hard to find but when you can, it is quite nice.
The only other one I have read in the past year is "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction" by JD. Salinger. (Thanks to Ken as this was a Christmas present about 5 years ago).