Great American Novel

[Xenalyte]

The Great American novel - voice of a generation.

Xena's Mom says Huck Finn is the definitive GAN, and no one'll ever top it. (What a reactionary that broad is.) I say there's a new novel for each generation.

I'm 32 (which I guess makes me a Gen-Xer), so what's the Great American Gen-X Novel? Or any other generation's? I'm an ex-English teacher, so bring it all on - I'm bound to a) have read it, b) have taught it or c) own it.

And if any of you says Gravity's Rainbow, I'll personally come over there and whomp you with a well-placed chakram to the back of the skull. That goes for Catcher in the Rye and Song of Solomon too. Blech.

[tallhappy]

Yeah, it's not for everyone. The literate, yes, but not everyone.

Hardy har har har.

Seriously, I have an exact opposite take on it. It was corny as all get out and so kitschy.

Cute and trendy is not "literate".

If one wants to talk about books of a similar genre, called cyberbunk, I mean, cyberpunk, Rudy Rucker wrote much cleverer and more entertaining books.

But as far as literate or literary, Philip K. Dick wrote them much better and much longer prior to the Gibson pulp.

Your comment to me points out the major problem. It was pulp that took itself seriously.

It becomes nothing.

[lugsoul]

Great choice, pharmboy. I'll go with the border trilogy, as a whole, as well.

[Whilom]

Gray's Landing, Francis Irby Gwaltney, or Time of the Panther, Wesley Ford Davis.

[bleudevil]

Not necessarily "Great American Novels," but I heartily recommend the Travis McGee mystery series by John MacDonald. A thinking man's (and woman's) real man.

[WillaJohns]

I can't really pick the "Great American Novel," but I would nominate John Barth as the greatest living American novelist. Start out with "The Floating Opera."

[MinuteGal]

Modern Library conducted a survery for the 100 best novels of the century. Their board members picked the following novels (not all American) as their top choices in the list of 100....ULYSSES, James Joyce....THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott FitzGerald....A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, James Joyce....BRAVE NEW WORLD, Aldous Huxley.....THE SOUND AND THE FURY, William Faulkner.....CATCH-22, Joseph Heller.

Modern Library's readers picked the following:....ATLAS SHRUGGED, Ayn Rand....THE FOUNTAINHEAD, Ayn Rand....BATTLEFIELD EARTH, L. Ron Hubbard....LORD OF THE RINGS, J.R.R.Tolkien.....TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee....ANTHEM, Ayn Rand.

Quite a bit of difference between the tastes of the eggheads and the bourgeois!

Leni

[Billthedrill]

Now, don't take that too seriously yerself. Actually, I think the genre started with Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, which nobody these days has ever heard of, more's the pity. And I wasn't being altogether arch - Gibson is a stylist, and if you don't like that style you won't like the novels. Personally I think he has a wonderful way with words, but de gustibus...

Read any Stephenson? He's as verbose as Gibson is terse...maybe more to taste?

[Physicist]

Actually, I think the genre started with Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar

Oh, soooo close, but no cigar. It really started with Brunner's The Shockwave Rider, although much of it was anticipated by Philip K. Dick.

[Maven]

I was thinking of tackling James Michener's books this fall. I've read Alaska and Space and found them very interesting.

I've read all of Michener's "mega" novels, and most of his shorter works, and "Alaska" and "Space" are about the worst of what he produced.

"Chesapeake" isn't bad, but it isn't nearly as good as "Centennial" or "Hawaii."

"The Source" is probably my favorite (with "Centennial" and "Hawaii" running second and third), but it's not about America.

Another good Michener not-America book: "Caravans."

Maven

[PoisedWoman]

Agree, Chesapeake was great, but I preferred Michener's Alaska, which gave details of the incredible trek across frozen mountains in threadbare clothing that original settlers undertook. Nothing demonstrates the power of the American spirit better than the bravery, determination, and fortitude of those settlers, IMHO.

[MissLuluBelle]

"Oh! thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee, that to this hour I bear the scar; I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now know that thy right worship is defiance. To neither love nor reverence wilt thou be kind; and e'en for hate thou canst but kill; and all are killed. No fearless fool now fronts thee. I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake live will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me. In the midst of the personified impersonal, a personality stands here."

Say, isn't Laz a Dick-head also?

[Dakmar]

Another American Novel I love very much is "Grapes Of Wrath". You see, I've been oppressed by an oppressive government (now that's redundant(sp?) isn't it?) I thought your Xena pictures were very pretty. I'm gonna go and rename all the younger children everywhere Tom Joady-joad, if I can.

...Well, maybe not, do you like Woody Guthrie? I do.

[jays911]

two choices spring immediately to mind. 1. for a pure GAN, i nominate john irving's "a prayer for owen meany", one of the great, pure American novels of the 2nd half of the 20th century. 2. from a strictly freeper point of view, and without regard to one of the poster's requirements that any nominee take place in America, i would nominate "the moon is a harsh mistress" by robert a. heinlein--essentially a retelling of the American Revolution in the form of a science fiction novel set on the moon. highly recommended.

[dagny taggert]

Poland was also good. It took a little work to keep track of the past/present back and forth, but worth the effort.

[dagny taggert]

Good point, Texas was good, too.

[liliana]

"war and remembrance" was the title of the second volume, i didn't get around to reading it, i did see the mini series though.

[x]

I don't think we think much in terms of novels nowadays. Even major novelists think the form is dying. For better or for worse -- well, for worse -- movies have replaced the novel.

After seeing "Fight Club," I did read the book. It examines some really major themes. But I do think the film was better. The film realized what Pahlanik only sketched out.

Another important novelist is Don DeLillo. I wanted to read "White Noise," but after hearing people describe and retell it at such length and after trying to listen to another of his novels on audiobook, decided not to bother. His theme in "White Noise" is precisely how the craziness of reality defeats attempts to explain or fix its meaning in words.

If you are looking for a great post-modern novelist, DeLillo is perhaps you best bet, because he hasn't wholly lost touch with the world outside. I look forward to reading or listening to his "Libra" on the Kennedy assassination, though after trying to read Norman Mailer's and James Ellroy's stupifying works on the same subject, I suspect either writers will give up on Oswald or I will give up on reading.

Kurt Vonnegut may be another post-modern classic, though weighted much more towards popular fiction, than towards high art. Some rave about John Barth's "Sot-weed Factor" and other works, but I've not been tempted. Speaking purely as a non-reader, I wouldn't bother with Robert Coover either.

Reality does seem to defeat attempts to put it into words, especially since moving photographic or videographic images are so much more immediate. And literature does tend to be come obsolete quicker now than in the past centuries. Dip into Salinger, Mailer, James Jones, Cheever, O'Hara, Bellow from 50 years ago. That world is very much dead. Deader than Hemingway's or Dickens's world.

[brbethke]

It really started with Brunner's The Shockwave Rider

I know I'm gonna regret jumping into this discussion, but... It started with Tony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange cross-pollinated with Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Trust me on this point.

Of course, Gibson says his primary influence was Burrough's Naked Lunch.

[Physicist]

OK, I'll go farther out on a limb. Brunner and Dick's ploughed field lay fallow until Vernon Vinge sowed it with True Names.