I’ve read Moby Dick and loved it, but it’s by no means my favorite, and I haven’t re-read it. Keep the damned thread open.
I have never seen that work. 
I have not missed it, loved that one too. But ‘A Solder of the Great War’ is extraordinary and somehow worked its way into my bones.
I swear I could open a random page from that book and find a sentence that would stand as, had it been written by most other writers, the most perfectly crafted sentence they had ever created.
mmm
It’s mine too.
Easily, head above the crowd, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
There are others I love, particularly Hemingway and Steinbeck and Gatsby, but Huck Finn is not only a great and entertaining novel, it is quintessentially American; dealing with issues of racial and class conflict, coming-of-age, comedy and adventure, and the mighty Mississippi River. Steinbeck is the only other great author that comes close to Twain for pure American-ness of setting and theme.
I just re-read it a month or two ago. It’s a good read, certainly, but at least to me, it’s not knock-your-socks-off good, and the ending was a bit of deus ex machina, which I find unsatisfying.
It’s a great novel, no argument there.
The problem I have with it is that the historical context Mitchell created for it was totally bogus, but the novel and the movie were quite successful in getting people to believe her bogus version of history.
Mine isn’t classy either – Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
I hear you. I posted The Great Gatsby, so I guess my nose is held high 
But you know the saying, there’s a reason they become classics? A couple of years ago I was talking about a situation with my son. He’d been burned by a guy who was rich and indifferent and was wound up the morning after. I asked if he could imagine the guy and his girlfriend having cold chicken and ale, the resonant scene from Gatsby which he’d recently read. He paused, then saw his situation framed in that scene. It is a complex thoughtful work.
The work is just so damn polished. Its craft is as apparent and amazing as its themes and ambitions. So yeah, no worries if the title is obscure or right down the middle, if you know what works for you.
That’s a legitimate complaint. But in my defense the OP was asking for our favorite, and AoHF stands out to me. It may be because I first read it when I was about twelve (just the right age); it may be because I re-read it at a time when I was struggling with what I had been taught in church like Huck did; it may be because when I was a young teenager the first Broadway musical I ever saw was Big River and it thrilled me. But it’s always been my favorite.
If we’re going for favorites and not “the best” or “the greatest,” I’d have to say Gary Jennings’s Aztec, a great, compulsively readable historical epic.
Rounding out my Top Ten personal favorites:
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Time for the Stars by Robert Heinlein
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
Misery by Stephen King
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Several other non-American faves, too, most notably The Lord of the Rings.
Man, no other Harry Crews fans? I thought there were a couple around here. Ike? Anyone?
His Feast of Snakes is my #2 choice! 
The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield.
This one is tough to beat.
Re-read GWTW last month. MM sure coulda used an editor.
The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. If I thought about it, I could probably think of ten or twenty more that are as good, but that’s the pick for today.
Great detective fiction that is also a beautifully crafted novel with philosophical overtones. Along with some beautiful phrases - “(Sam Spade) looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan”. “He was gone like that - like a fist when you open your hand”. And the story that is the heart of the novel - “Beams fell. And he adjusted himself to them falling. And then no more fell. And he adjusted himself to them not falling.”
Regards,
Shodan
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.
Does Shogun count? I believe Clavell had become a US citizen well before it was published. If not, I have to go with my favorite sci-fi novel, A Canticle for Liebowitz. Beyond that, probably Catch-22, Slaughterhouse Five, or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
“American novel” makes me think of American themes or something innately American, so my picks are in that vein even though the OP meant only author.
Depending on my energy level, it’s one of these three, all of which are similar.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: a lot of effort to read (it took me multiple tries to finish), but what a payoff
The Crossing, also by McCarthy: a little easier to read, but without such an epic scope
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (does Canadian count as American? Either way, he wrote it while living in the U.S. and it has a very American feel): like McCarthy-lite
Since we’re supposed to pick one, I’ll pretend I’m extra-sophisticated and go with Blood Meridian.
omg I’ve never met anyone else who’s read that book. Read an old review of it and was motivated to actually buy it (because I read so much back then, it was library or go broke). Wonderful story.
East of Eden was the one I stayed up all night to finish. Tried to re-read Great Gatsby a couple times recently but y’know, Daisy is such a drip. Little Women which I have reread numerous times but it was only the last time that I twigged the really oppressive religious undertone. It’s more blatant in the sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys, which are *truly awful *books.
Killer Angels, then. I really don’t read many American novels.
Another vote for Grapes of Wrath.*“Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where - wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ - I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build, why, I’ll be there.” *
Runner up would be another Pulitzer winner: Lonesome Dove.
Rounding out my top ten:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Catch-22
East of Eden
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
A Canticle for Leibowitz
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest