What, in your opinion is the 'Great American Novel'?
Off the top of my head, these are some that are generally considered:
Moby Dick, The House of Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter, Tom Sawyer, Infinite Jest, Freedom, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Catcher in the Rye.
What's your take?
Blood Meridian
This is a stupid question. There is no great American novel. There are a collection of great American novels. This is necessary because of time.
>infinite jest, Freedom
Heh
Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby, and IJ. These are prerequisites to understanding American society.
They are indeed necessary, but they are not sufficient. You must add essays by Thoreau and Emerson, and of course Whitman's Leaves of Grass. You should also add something from Faulkner to understand the South.
>great American novel
>novel
>You must add essays by Thoreau and Emerson, and of course Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
I must never underestimate the stupidity of this board
I was responding to a post saying that those novels were necessary to understand the American psyche, not to OP himself. I am well aware that essays and poetry are (generally) not novels.
Call of the Wild
Blood Meridian
Moby Dick
Catcher in the Rye
the book of the new sun
Spirit if the Nation tier:
Moby Dick, Blood Meridian
High tier:
Gravity's Rainbow, The Sound and The Fury
Mid Tier:
Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath
Undergrad tier:
Infinite Jest
Last read a book in Highschool tier:
Scarlet Letter, Great Gatsby
Infinite Jest, White Noise, Gravity's Rainbow.
I'm not American and I've only read those anyway.
What qualifies a book as the Great American Novel?
John Fante's Ask The Dust. An excellent novel yet one IQfy rarely ever talks about
I just finished Gatsby and you post this, stop spying on me
The Book of Mormon
Booth Tarkington and John Dos Passos series should be in consideration.
Obscene Bird of the Night