or Jacqueline Susann?
"ah yes, the giants"
Posted on 07/07/2025 7:33:00 AM PDT by MtnClimber
And Ben Hur swept the nation, written by a civil war general and governor of New Mexico Territory there in New Mexico.
A masterpiece.
Another fine selection, two years before the mast.
Captains courageous is in a class of its own. Both the book and the film.
My definition of Great American Novel is pretty straightforward: a first rate fiction, by an American, that tells us something large and expansive about the American experience. One other condition—it has to be readable.
Hemingway is my favorite. But his stories are largely Americans in Europe, Africa, or the Caribbean, not so much “the American experience” suggested for inclusion here.
I think Fitzgerald should be on this list.
I would have included:
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Tree Grew in Brooklyn
Red Badge of Courage
The Great Gatsby
“American Pastoral” is probably Roth’s best book. It forms an informal trilogy with “I Married a Communist” and “The Plot Against America,” but is better than either. Some of Roth’s early stories are also good. A lot of what he wrote isn’t that great. “Nemesis” wasn’t that bad. “Indignation” wasn’t that good. Roth undercuts himself with too much childishness about sex.
“The Sound and the Fury” and “As I Lay Dying” are Faulkner’s great modernist books. His later work is more in a popular/conventional vein. “Absalom, Absalom” and “Go Down, Moses” are perhaps his most “American” works — mythic and with a lot about race.
Although they are non-fiction, Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” and “Life on the Mississippi” should have a place in any list of great American books. I’d also make room for “The Great Gatsby,” though we probably hear way too much about it. Edith Wharton’s and Willa Cather’s books might also deserve a mention.
I read the entire John Galt speech! Every word. Lol.
The author of this post has pretty much no idea what he is talking about.
Catch-22.
or Jacqueline Susann?
"ah yes, the giants"
Potrnoys Commplaint.
**That’s ten. Not the ten I would choose.**
I last read a novel over 35 years ago. While it was interesting, I felt disappointment in that I spent all that time reading fiction instead of an actual story about real people.
I wrote a Bible study book, over the course of about 7 years (recently adding another chapter that closes it out better). That was difficult, because the subject matter cannot be played with or altered.
I remember thinking at times, during the project, that writing a novel would be much easier, since there is the liberty to make things up.
Literary purists might disagree, even vehemently, due to its subject matter and overall low reader circulation, but its translation into film became a core influence on many Americans' behavior and life outlook. It's a work of fiction that many viewers ingested and integrated into their mental frame to thus affect their reality. They live with their translation of it and even pass that mindset and outlook onto successive generations.
It's not just what they personally took from it, it's reinforced by others around them who also viewed the cinematic interpretation of the novel.
LOL
Last of the Mohicans, The Deer Slayer, and the rest of The Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper, were very good.
...calling a “slave” an “enslaved person” adds nothing to the conversation but syllables.
Thanks for this thread. Hearing various FReepers' opinions ...just great.
Most boring list ever. I hated reading the ones I had too. Quite surprised the worst book on earth wasn’t listed….beowolf!
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