As its subtitle suggests, Steven Millhauser's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Martin Dressier: The Tale of an American Dreamer, is ostensibly concerned not so much with a variety of particular social issues, as with the primal myth of American society itself: the American Dream. The novel begins like a folktale or fairy tale: "There once lived a man named Martin Dressier, a shopkeeper's son, who rose from modest beginnings to a height of dreamlike good fortune." Like one of Horatio Alger's youthful heroes, Martin goes from rags—helping out in his immigrant father's cigar store—to riches, ultimately becoming New York's foremost real estate developer. Millhauser's version of turn-of-the-century New York City seems to function just like Alger's ideal America: with a little hard work and a little bit of talent, anyone can become a millionaire.

Indeed, Martin faces very few obstacles in his rise to...