The Sea Wolf
Posted on 07/07/2025 7:33:00 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The Sea Wolf
To Kill A Mockingbird.....................
Not sure where on the list it would fall but I have a hard time believing there are 10 American novels better than All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. I read it every four years (Presidential campaign years) as I think it is the best novel ever written about American politics.
Sometimes a Great Notion deserves a spot on the list, IMO. Maybe Catch-22 as well.
What? Nothing by Harold Robbins?? :/
Even though by a British author, “Captains Courageous” is the most American novel I’ve ever read
1. The Bonfire of the Vanities doesn't belong anywhere near a list of great American novels. Tom Wolfe made his mark as a non-fiction writer, and this novel reads like a documentary. It didn't take any creativity to write a book that was basically taken from several years worth of 1980s news stories from the NYC tabloids. Wolfe has an interesting, unique writing style, but this book was so predictable that anyone could have written the second half of it.
2. William Faulkner's greatest work is The Sound and the Fury. It belongs on this list in place of Absalom, Absalom!
Far and away the single American novel having the greatest societal impact is “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
Things As They Are, William Godwin
Tequila Mockingbird
The Yearling
I've read quite a bit of Faulkner and if you want to read a good Southern gothic murder mystery check out "Intruder in the Dust."
When Faulkner is good he's very good. When he's not he's impenetrable and makes reading a chore, which is not what one wants out of a book.
It’s also hard to believe there would be a list like this with no Hemingway or Fitzgerald works on it.
That’s ten. Not the ten I would choose.
Robert Ruark — “The Old Man and the Boy”
Seawolf is one of my all time favorites. I loved it. I would add lots of novels to this list. East of Eden is great. There are a few Hemingway novels. And of course old man and the sea. To kill a mockingbird is a huge favorite. Not sure modern writers have to fight for every word as they did before word processors. So they are not as great. Its the difference between hand made and machine made. After 1980 novels are machine made. Soon they will be AI.
Although not an easy read but Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was so prescient.
Also a big fan of “The Hamlet” where we get to know Flem Snopes and Eula Varner.
Tequila Mockingbird. I’ll have to get that one.
2 Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
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