What is your favorite American novel?

19 comments

1. Hard to pick just one out of so many books. Steinbeck’s *East of Eden* is the first that comes to mind, it’s one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. Anything by Steinbeck, really. *Cannery Row*, *The Grapes of Wrath*, *Tortilla Flat*, *Of Mice and Men*.

   Saul Bellow is one of my all-time favourite authors, if we’re counting him as American (born in Canada to Russian immigrants of Lithuanian descent if I’m not mistaken, but grew up in the US). *The Adventures of Augie March* would be the first of his I would recommend.

   I’m also a big fan of John Irving, *A Prayer for Owen Meany* is my favourite of his (and the novel that inspired it, Grass’s *The Tin Drum*, is even better in my opinion, but that’s not American). Heller’s *Catch-22* is amazing, and just about anything by Kurt Vonnegut is great. Personal favourites of his are *The Sirens of Titan*, *Mother Night*, *Player Piano*, *Breakfast of Champions*, and *Cat’s Cradle*.

   Edit: *The Crying of Lot 49* by Thomas Pynchon is also fantastic, even though I’m not really a huge fan of Pynchon in general. Palahniuk has lots of great stuff as well.

   Edit2: Cormac McCarthy should probably be mentioned as well, great writer. *No Country for Old Men* and *The Road* are both excellent.

   Edit3: just remembered William Faulkner, has to be up there as well. *The Sound and the Fury*, at the very least deserves a mention.*As I Lay Dying*, too.

2. I was a huge fan of Holes by Louis Sachar when I was about 10 or 11, it was almost the only book I would read at the time. I guess from an adult perspective it’s also a fierce critique of the US justice system.

   It also got made into a film featuring Shia LaBoeuf before he went crazy

3. Not too versed on the American classics, but between Blood Meridian, Stoner and East of Eden, probably Blood Meridian (just like a typical redditor).

4. Among others, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner for its diverse vantage points and slow reveal of the humor within the family funeral dysfunction.

5. Not read many, huck Finn being one (that was just painful), some works of Poe and when in school we read a novel about a black family in the reconstruction south but I can’t remember the name of that (it was a good but not enjoyable, not that it was trying to be). Favourite probably had to be abraham lincoln vampire hunter, it’s nothing earth shattering, but it is fun and paint a good picture.

6. *Something Happened* by Joseph Heller.

7. Big fan of Ernest Hemingway generally, For Whom The Bell Tolls stands out for me (although it is set in Europe!). The Old Man and the Sea is a more accessible one of his, but his writing is just so good. Puts things in simple terms that can still instantly create a clear image in the mind. Steinbeck is another with East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath as his best. I am a big fan of Catcher in the Rye which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it speaks to me somehow.

8. Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, by Tom
   Robbins.

9. With the MASSIVE caveat that I know it depicts a time when awful things were happening and people had horrendous opinions, and it doesn’t contradict said horrendous opinions in the least – my favourite American novel is Gone With The Wind. I read it when I was 17, and then several times since then, and I just think it’s so romantic and evocative and has great characters and such a gripping story, I can’t help loving it.

10. It depends what you mean by “American Novel”. I would put *100 Days of Solitude* by Gabriel Garcia Marquez pretty near the top of my list.

    But a lot of people use the term “American Novel” to refer to just books written in the USA rather than America as a whole. And even then there is the question of genre.

    As far as mainstream fiction is concerned I think *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison is probably at the top of USA specific novels for me. The fact that Ellison didnt get a Pulitzer is as much an aspect of this book as the book itself.

    As for the SF genre I would go for *Left Hand of Darkness* by LeGuin. Just as Ellison challenges our prejudices concerning race, LeGuin does the same for gender and sexuality.

    The only other genre I know anything about is Crime and Detection and here I would go for *The Long Goodbye* by Raymond Chandler. OK Chandler was in fact English but he was significant in establishing one of the most American genres of all time – the “hard boiled detective” and is seen as a stalwart today of American culture. Considering its pulp-like associations, this is a deeply personal work of literature that throws an uncomfortable light on the American class system and privilege.

11. I loved reading Stoner by John Williams, it’s my favourite book. It manages to describe a fairly mundane life in a heartbreakingly real manner. You truly live alongside the protagonist througout the novel. It’s just full of life, its highs, lows and everything in between.

12. Stoner by John Williams.

13. “The Sea Wolf” by Jack London, my all time favourite book. I read it first when I was about 9 years old and have since read it countless times.

14. I loved *4321* by Paul Uster. Don’t know if it qualifies because of the “stuff like Huck Finn, to kill a mockingbird”-qualification.

15. It’s either Hemmingway’s “The old man and the sea” or King’s “The Stand”

16. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Finest novel to have come from the USA in my opinion. Very readable with some fantastic prose, as well as some interesting musings on religion, fate etc.

    An amazing work as long as you can get past the massive chunk where he just goes on about the ins and outs of 19th century whaling techniques.

17. Dharma Bums, The Great Gatsby, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Farenheit 451, Amistead Maupin’s *Tales of the City*, Ursula LeGuin’s *The Left Hand of Darkness*, Interview With a Vampire…

18. It’s hard to pick a favourite, since the US produced so much great literature, but I think I’m gonna go with “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller is a close second though.

19. I love The Catcher in the Rye, and everything ever written by Ursula Le Guin.