The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
By far the most exciting chapters. Ok, so this is going to get complicated, try to follow along. After the confrontation with Tom about his love of Daisy, Gatsby returns home. Later, Daisy is driving Gatsby's car through the valley when she hits Myrtle Wilson, Tom's lover. Tom, in turn, tells George that Gatsby was driving the car. George goes to Gatsby's house, kills him in his pool, then kills himself. Give me a minute to breathe.... that is the short version.
Nick then takes through his account of the events of that day as if it was a flashback. The last chapter goes through the funeral arrangements and other proceedings after Gatsby's death.
This reminds me of the oh so cliche Hollywood love stories that you go to pay $11 to see in a theater. This love triangle, scratch that, love pentagon, developed from a complicated situation to a deadly one. It is interesting to see how an American classic can be used as a template for so many cheesy movies produced by Lifetime or Hallmark. That is not really interesting, but sad, because Fitzgerald made his such an elegant and wonderful masterpiece. I think that this escalation in plot progression was just what Fitzgerald wanted the reader to experience.
"It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete" (Fitzgerald, 162)
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