# What is your favorite American novel?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 5, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533 "2017-07-05T11:48:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/1 "2017-07-05T11:48:49Z")
You may list a handful of titles but please denote just one as your favorite.
I’m going with ‘ **A Prayer For Owen Meany** ’ by John Irving.
You?
(I may generate a poll in the future if this goes well.)
mmm
(and I know it’s probably been done before, no need to search/link)
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/2 "2017-07-05T11:58:12Z")
**Catch-22** , by Joseph Heller.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/3 "2017-07-05T12:20:50Z")
_The Sot-Weed Factor_ by John Barth.
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### Author:  [@TheSundial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSundial)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/4 "2017-07-05T12:35:20Z")
The Mailman by Bentley Little
It’s not as classy as the others listed here. It’s my favorite because of the surrealism.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/5 "2017-07-05T12:36:17Z")
Hmm. Feels like this is a bit about The Great American Novel?
I would likely pick **The Great Gatsby**. I love the writing and the themes he writes about.
I might’ve picked **To Kill a Mockingbird** , and while I still love it, I feel it is a bit too “white savior”-y as I read about Atticus nobly defending the condemned Tom Robinson.
I also love **The Broom of the System** by David Foster Wallace. I found it on a new release bookshelf at a library and loved it, only to see DFW emerge as a leading voice in writing up to his death.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/6 "2017-07-05T12:50:41Z")
Roger Zelazney, _Lord of Light_.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/7 "2017-07-05T12:53:08Z")
Off the top of my head, East of Eden.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/8 "2017-07-05T12:53:46Z")
The novel I think is the greatest is _To Kill a Mockingbird_, by Harper Lee.
The novel which is my own personal favorite is _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, by Robert A. Heinlein.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/9 "2017-07-05T13:05:50Z")
**A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** , by Mark Twain.
I know that his **Huckleberry Finn** is supposed to be The Great American Novel (and justly so), but I don’t love it. I’ve only read it twice. But I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been through Twain’s King Arthur novel. I would love to se them do a proper screen adaptation of it – something they haven’t come _close_ to doing yet.
Several of his other books – _Life on the Mississpii. The Innocents Abroad_ – are also favorites of mine, but they’re not novels, so they don’t qualify for this thread.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/10 "2017-07-05T13:58:06Z")
If I had to pick just one, it would probably be _The Great Gatsby_. But there are a hundred others I consider great.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/11 "2017-07-05T14:02:25Z")
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/12 "2017-07-05T14:31:37Z")
> [@WordMan](#):
>
> Hmm. Feels like this is a bit about The Great American Novel?
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> The novel I think is the greatest is _To Kill a Mockingbird_, by Harper Lee.
>
> The novel which is my own personal favorite is _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, by Robert A. Heinlein.
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> If I had to pick just one, it would probably be _The Great Gatsby_. But there are a hundred others I consider great.
I intentionally did not use the word ‘greatest’ in the OP, just looking for your personal favorite. They certainly could be the same title, of course.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/13 "2017-07-05T14:49:49Z")
Sorry I misread it as asking for “greatest.”
My personal fave is **The Gypsy’s Curse** , by Harry Crews.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/14 "2017-07-05T15:05:03Z")
**A Soldier of the Great War** , by Mark Helprin \*favorite
**Going After Cacciato** , by Tim O’Brien
**To Kill a Mockingbird** , by Harper Lee
**Beloved** , by Toni Morrison
**For Whom the Bell Tolls** , by Ernest Hemingway
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/15 "2017-07-05T15:20:03Z")
**Double Indemnity** , James M. Cain. Much more bizarre than the Billy Wilder film version, which was also great, but less weird than the novel. I _like_ weird.
Speaking of weird, **The Cook** by Harry Kressing. I came across this largely forgotten short 1965 novel two years ago, and I LOVE IT. Re-read it twice since.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/16 "2017-07-05T15:21:59Z")
**Lolita** by Vladimir Nabakov.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/17 "2017-07-05T15:43:13Z")
**The Natural** , not the feel-good Robert Redford film version (sorry if that spoils it for anyone). The optimism, corporate greed, little man thinking he can beat the system, all make it a truly American story.
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/18 "2017-07-05T15:51:41Z")
I guess a novella rather than a novel, but Of **Mice and Men**.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/19 "2017-07-05T17:14:08Z")
_The Women’s Room_, Marilyn French.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-american-novel/790533/20 "2017-07-05T17:20:04Z")
**A Confederacy of Dunces** by John Kennedy Toole
Runners up would include works by Vonnegut, Irving, and others.
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