Across The Pond

[belamyi]

You think of it/him/her as being worthier of a serious consideration of the trite concept of the GreatER/est American Novel/ist...

 

[pat grimshaw]

(I'm not sure what to say)

 

[Latimer]

Other: I believe John Steinbeck writes the most beautiful prose of any American, so I'll cast a vote for The Grapes of Wrath, or perhaps East of Eden...

I'm not sure you realize that, unlike Don Quijote in Spain, almost no one in America actually reads Moby Dick. (For that matter, not too many people read Grapes of Wrath either.) Perhaps Pierre or Billy Budd--read in high school--but Moby Dick, I think not-- much like Ulysses, War and Peace and the Inferno, aspired to, perhaps even begun, but never really read.

 

[belamyi]

Other: I believe John Steinbeck writes the most beautiful prose of any American, so I'll cast a vote for The Grapes of Wrath, or perhaps East of Eden...

I'm not sure you realize that, unlike Don Quijote in Spain, almost no one in America actually reads Moby Dick. (For that matter, not too many people read Grapes of Wrath either.) Perhaps Pierre or Billy Budd--read in high school--but Moby Dick, I think not-- much like Ulysses, War and Peace and the Inferno, aspired to, perhaps even begun, but never really read.

What do you mean "unlike El Quijote"? I'm not sure if you realize...

 

[ashonfire]

Other: I believe John Steinbeck writes the most beautiful prose of any American, so I'll cast a vote for The Grapes of Wrath, or perhaps East of Eden...

I often think of 'Cannery Row' as the great American text. It's so beautiful and compassionate.

I do have a soft-spot for Twain and Melville though. I voted Moby Dick because I read it recently for the first time and loved it.

And, yes, the concept is trite and subjective, but discussing and thinking about the value of books is always welcomed by me.

 

[pat grimshaw]

I reckon they can be just read and appreciated without being commodified and advertised — which can set up unreal expectations. I'd hate me or my nation to be represented by these three fictional stories about people riven with failure.

 

[belamyi]

I reckon they can be just read and appreciated without being commodified and advertised — which can set up unreal expectations. I'd hate me or my nation to be represented by these three fictional stories about people riven with failure.

OMG ... That's--so--AMERICAN!!

 

[pat grimshaw]

^
I know nothing about ballgames. That awful song in the background is all about failure but our anthem is this

 

[belamyi]

^
I know nothing about ballgames. That awful song in the background is all about failure but our anthem is this

Yeah, I know, but that other song I posted above DOES represent you, no matter how unofficially

 

[Croynan]

The Old Man and the Sea

East of Eden

The Heiress (play)

eM/

 

[teadrinker]

The Great American Novel: for me it's Catch 22. The brilliance of Heller's writing, coupled with its sheer black absurdity, seems to me to be quintessentially American.

-T.

 

[belamyi]

Oh, Croy was once here!

 

[medic1]

To kill a mocking bird.

East of Eden

The third bullet.

 

[palbert]

None of the above.

Still pondering.

 

[palbert]

I will venture far from academic elitism and nominate - not a literary edifice - but a great and sweeping story: Gone With the Wind.

In the same way Waugh's Brideshead Revisited captures a time, so does GWTW.

There, I've set the cat among the pigeons.

 

[belamyi]

I will venture far from academic elitism and nominate - not a literary edifice - but a great and sweeping story: Gone With the Wind.

In the same way Waugh's Brideshead Revisited captures a time, so does GWTW.

There, I've set the cat among the pigeons.

You mean you have revealed your age?

 

[JohnnyAnger]

If Nabokov can be considered American in some sense I would say Lolita, but maybe he just has to be saved for the greatest writer in the English language. Outside of him something by Cormac Macarthy should be there, as well as Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest even.
The shout for Catch 22 is a good one also

 

[palbert]

You mean you have revealed your age?

....There, I've set the cat among the pigeons.

See

 

[belamyi]

See

In the same way Waugh's Brideshead Revisited captures a time, so does GWTW.

 

[bankside]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Fountainhead.