# American Books You've Liked **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387 "2020-03-27T02:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/1 "2020-03-27T02:04:36Z")
Someone mentioned in another thread that To Kill a Mockingbird is a Great American Novel. I’ll go along that’s it’s one of them. Here’re a few more I’d add Housekeeping, by Marilyn Robinson Anything by Mark Twain The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath Their Eyes were Watching G-d Catch-22, by Joseph Heller The Color Purple, by Alice Walker The Grapes of Wrath, by Steinbeck The Tattooed Potato (YA fiction, but great anyway), by Ellen Raskin Franny & Zooey, by JD Salinger The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood Washington Square, by Henry James The Bostonians, by Henry James The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison Shoeless Joe, by Phil Alden Robinson Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell What others would you suggest? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/2 "2020-03-27T02:07:20Z")
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/3 "2020-03-27T02:08:56Z")
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald My Antonia by Willa Cather ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/4 "2020-03-27T02:21:06Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison Nitpick: _The Invisible Man_ is by H.G. Wells. _Invisible Man_ is by Ralph Ellison. Off the top of my head, I’d add something by John Irving, maybe _A Prayer For Owen Meany_. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/5 "2020-03-27T02:22:32Z")
Harry Crews: A Feast of Snakes; The Gypsy’s Curse. 2 of my all time faves. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/6 "2020-03-27T02:35:54Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/7 "2020-03-27T02:37:51Z")
I’m a fan of Richard Condon, particularly _The Oldest Confession The Manchurian Candidate Mile High The Vertical Smile_ ——— _A Canticle For Leibowitz_ by Walter M. Miller Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/8 "2020-03-27T02:49:40Z")
American hardboiled novels I liked: _Serenade_ by James M Cain _Nightmare Alley_ by William Lindsay Gresham _Fast One_ by Paul Cain ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/9 "2020-03-27T03:04:04Z")
Tropic of Capricorn, Henry Miller Collected Stories, Paul Bowles Factotum, Charles Bukowski. OP: My hat’s off to you if you made it through Henry James novels. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/10 "2020-03-27T03:16:11Z")
Mark Twain goes without saying… How about: _Moby-Dick_ _Gravity’s Rainbow_ Pale Fire ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/11 "2020-03-27T03:17:37Z")
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/12 "2020-03-27T03:56:30Z")
American Tabloid by James Ellroy. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/13 "2020-03-27T07:46:13Z")
Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/14 "2020-03-27T11:28:22Z")
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Correction _Shoeless Joe_ was by W.P. Kinsella. Robinson directed the mivie ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/15 "2020-03-27T11:32:45Z")
Infinite Jest…df wallace ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/16 "2020-03-27T11:53:37Z")
_Principia Discordia_ is the only great American book I need. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/17 "2020-03-27T12:33:54Z")
Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin A Gentleman In Moscow, Amor Towles (this is an excellent book to read at this moment, by the way – the story of a Russian aristocrat who is on permanent house arrest in a fancy hotel in Moscow, and how he makes the best of it, a very gentle, witty, but pointed book). Willa Cather and Marilyn Robinson already mentioned, two of my very favorite novelists. Eudora Welty: the Golden Apples, the Robber Bridegroom Flannery O’Connor: short stories ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/18 "2020-03-27T12:46:36Z")
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a better book than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in my opinion. I’d also argue that The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne is better than the much better known The Scarlet Letter. John Knowles’ A Separate Peace is absolutely amazing. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/19 "2020-03-27T12:56:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Canadian. Canadian\* is\* American ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387/20 "2020-03-27T13:15:12Z")
How are you defining “American”? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-books-youve-liked/850387.md?page=2)