Off the top of my head, I'd say the title for best American novel goes to Mr. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In my opinion, that novel says more about what it is to be an American than any other I've read. I reserve the right to change my mind later on, though.
Sounds of choking/dying/barfing.
I think Gatsby is very much highly overrated, myself. It tells the sordid soap-operaish story about the rich and pampered in a rather weird time of American history.
You might as well have picked Babbit.