What is the Great American Novel?
- Thread starter DotCommunist
- Start date
maya
timewasting fool (in every universe)
Burroughts *loved* Fitzgerald... How he so perfectly evoked an era.
narcodollars
avoid eye contact.
The American Dream is best exemplified in The Godfather. Puzo was really depicting a working class family that found a way to survive in Prohibition-era America, the typical underdog, the black market.
dark mistress
roaring girl
I'd go for Moby Dick
I couldn't find anyway to say that without it sounding bad
I couldn't find anyway to say that without it sounding bad
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
good god, yeah. Hunter is given some pedestal that he never deserved nor would have wanted. He is good though, if you like rambling polemical diatribes and yes I do.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Why? It doesn't presuppose that it's the best in the world.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Bill Hicks is overrated, but Thompson was a keen observer of the American scene, moreso early on in his career.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
I'd go for Moby Dick
I couldn't find anyway to say that without it sounding bad
If we're looking for the greatest American novel, perhaps the greatest novel written in English language, I'd agree with Moby Dick.
Vernon God Little
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_God_Little
not that piece of overrated shit....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_God_Little
not that piece of overrated shit....
but i wouldn't say it was The Great American Novel (dunno if it'd qualify anyway cos the author is australian irrc) but anyway, i tend to agree with lilbabyjesus' point when he said 'It is an insular, self-regarding tendency that we would do best to ignore, imo'Aye
I've got a fair few of his, but my favourites are F&L, and a collection of his letters called The Proud Highway. Some of the letters are funny as fuck, especially when he's dodging paying bills
The Octagon
Stop...Hammertime
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye (although it leaves me cold)
American Psycho
Catcher in the Rye (although it leaves me cold)
American Psycho
Lea
Well-Known Member
Agreed, great read!
It's a great book, but the author is a Brit. That is why he won the Booker prize. The judges obviously loved a Brit taking the piss out of the USA.
Laney
Got Faith?
Can't stand most American writing but I loved Moby Dick (
) The more you look into it the more you find, the more it offers. Real er, 'hidden depths'. Got me slightly obsessed with the history of whaling and Nantucket, too...
...Would somebody please explain what's so great about sodding Gatsby.
) The more you look into it the more you find, the more it offers. Real er, 'hidden depths'. Got me slightly obsessed with the history of whaling and Nantucket, too......Would somebody please explain what's so great about sodding Gatsby.
Structaural
in Chatsubo
Jim Harrison does it for me, and I hate most american writing. The Woman Lit by Fireflies and Legends of the Fall are superb. I couldn't possibly say they were great, as only wankers can be that assertive.
Fucking hell, that's a bit of a sweeping statement! What - everything from Willa Cather to Maya Angelou to Don Delillo, and everything in between, before and after then??
Paulie Tandoori
shut it you egg!
Last Exit to Brooklyn is very good, almost something to read peeking through your fingers at times due to the searingly graphic awfulness that occurs.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Although (IMHO) compared to "The Room", "Last Exit..." is light entertainment.
Paulie Tandoori
shut it you egg!
Laney
Got Faith?
Fucking hell, that's a bit of a sweeping statement! What - everything from Willa Cather to Maya Angelou to Don Delillo, and everything in between, before and after then??
Nah, course not... I really meant that I avoid American writing due to disliking a few books, not that I've read it all and hate it all!
Like Violent Panda pointed out with Gatsby... it's the 'style' I don't like.
mitochondria
full-on emptiness
agree with Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath and Kerouac - On the Road.
but the ultimate Great American Novel for me is Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
but the ultimate Great American Novel for me is Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Nah, course not... I really meant that I avoid American writing due to disliking a few books, not that I've read it all and hate it all!
The 'american' style.
Nah, course not... I really meant that I avoid American writing due to disliking a few books, not that I've read it all and hate it all!
But the 'style' varies wildly
You're closing off so many avenues of pleasure by doing that
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
The 'american' style.
Nowt to do with it being "American", everything to do with it being over-polished at the expense of the story.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
If by American, you mean North American, I think there is an identifiable American style that covers almost all of the books mentioned so far that I've read (Steinbeck is an exception) – I've not read Roth or Melville, so cannot comment on them.
The individual exists in near-isolation, and the author's take on that may be idealistic, nihilistic or ironic depending on their temperament. I like US fiction a lot, but very little of it has the scope or ambition of, say, the great Russian or Latin American novelists who address the whole society rather than simply individuals within it. Maybe it is peculiarly North American not to be able to conceive of the whole society.
The individual exists in near-isolation, and the author's take on that may be idealistic, nihilistic or ironic depending on their temperament. I like US fiction a lot, but very little of it has the scope or ambition of, say, the great Russian or Latin American novelists who address the whole society rather than simply individuals within it. Maybe it is peculiarly North American not to be able to conceive of the whole society.
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