After all, what else is there? The Great Gatsby? Title character was a tool. Quit your whining and stop hitting on that guy’s wife, man.
Ethan Frome? Please. The one slightly interesting moment in the story is the sleigh crash, which you get the impression takes place only slightly faster than walking pace.
Scarlet Letter? I watched the movie. I couldn’t get past the first chapter of the book.
Also, anyone nominating anything by Faulkner will be shot on sight.
This is my nominee, and if the summary above is all you got out of the novel, I would suggest you’re not able to offer a nuanced and informed opinion on The Greatest American novel.
I say Huckleberry Finn. I “got” it when I was a kid and everytime I’ve read it since then–well, getting older and hopefully wiser? I’ve gotten it just a little bit more.
Oh, I get it. The problem here is that I didn’t care for it. Your suggestion is noted, incidentally- but if you really think I consider my OP to provide either a nuanced or informed opinion on any of those books, I’d like to introduce you to my good friend whoosh. Shake hands?
I’m waiting until somebody actually makes a suggestion before commenting, in other words. Fair?
Some good candidates in Huckleberry Finn and Catch-22. Finn is clearly the best American 19th century novel. (Moby Dick, the other major candidate is too digressive to really be a novel).
But my choice for greatest American novel is John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor. As funny as Catch-22, and much, much bawdier, it’s a work of utter and sustained brilliance (even more so when you realize much of it is based on historical fact – including the sacred eggplant). Catch-22 is about war, whereas The Sot-Weed Factor is about America, which should be the subject of a great American novel.
That’s alright. I intended for all three synopses (is that right? It doesn’t look right) to be tongue-in-cheek, but upon reflection the opinion I gave on Ethan Frome is almost perfectly in line with what I dimly recollect thinking after I had to read it in 11th grade…
One of the problems here in defining ‘greatest american novel’ is that what that would be changes radically with time. Each one could be the perfect one for its period. Colonial, Expansion, Rebellion, Gilded Age, WWI, Depression, WWII, Economic Prosperity, Crazy Years, Me, X, 21st. There’s a lot of ground to cover and what informs one period is lesser in another.
I’d like to advance ‘The Kill A Mockingbird’ as a strong contender. But reading it changed my life at one point so I’m biased.
Er… I understand digressive to mean unfocused or even encyclopedic.
Why would you consider Moby Dick thus, and
In what way is it un-novel-like?
I was hoping nobody would mention The Bonfire of the Vanities because I haven’t read it. Now I see I ought to have hoped nobody would mention The Sot-Weed Factor because I’ve never heard of it. :smack:
I’m gonna’ go with Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Modernist, sweeping, and observational. His description of the Salinas Valley is some of the most descriptive and poetic American prose ever written.
Believe it or not!
I’m writing a book!
I never thought I could pen a story!
Scribblin’ away on a wing and a prayer!
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me!
I’m partial to Paradise Falls by Don Robertson. This article from the Cleveland Arts Council is the best I could find on him, and there’s an excerpt from the book. Robertson doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry, and Paradise Falls doesn’t even have a description at Amazon.
If Paradise Falls were a movie, it’d be Citizen Kane.
His Civil War books are excellent too, and he wrote two angry yet loving books dealing with aging – The Ideal Genuine Man – published by Stephen King’s Philtrum Press (the only book that press ever published) – and Praise the Human Season.
Catch-22 may be the best modern novel, but Huckleberry Finn (at least up until the ending) is the novel that everyone else has tried to beat without success.
If you want something more modern - even Catch-22 will be 50 pretty soon - and about America, then how about Cloudsplitter, by Russell Banks? It’s about John Brown, so it’s about slavery and the oncoming Civil War, and there’s nothing more American than that. It’s just as long as The Sot-Weed Factor and far more focused.
Gatsby, of course, is possibly the most beautifully written novel of all the great contenders. I reread it every few years just to enjoy the remarkable perfection of the prose.
And I also didn’t get that the OP was a whoosh. Why should I? You can find people saying things almost exactly like it here on other threads. And if you’ve never heard of The Sot-Weed Factor (not reading it is OK; nobody can read everything) then Bricker is right about your qualifications to start this thread. Do you know Barth at all? What about Barthelme or Coover? Heck what about Banks? He also started about the same time and with a similar book and I find that few people know how good he is. He’s up there with Roth and Doctorow and Boyle.
And nobody sane would ever mention Tom Wolfe in such a thread.
I agree with you about faulkner and disagree about gatsby, but I am wondering, given your nom de poll and your lack of knowledge of the works of John barth should you really be leading the discussion?
As for catch-22, i loved it but it is certainly no better than “The naked and the Dead” and i don’t think it was as good as “From here to Eternity.” It was however a lot funnier than the other two. I rate it as the funniest American novel followed by “The World According to Garp.”
I will also say that To Kill A Mockingbird is my strong #2 choice. Other contenders include The Sun Also Rises, with the cynical “Isn’t it pretty to think so,” ending; A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Gravity’s Rainbow.