Great American Novels

I'm writing a novel at the moment which is from the point of view of an American, and I want to stay true to the literary background and style of an American novel.

I haven't read many great American novels- I wonder if any one could suggest a few for me to read?

So far I've only managed 'The Catcher in the Rye' and half of 'The Great Gatsby.'

Any suggestions?

You could read some William Faulkner. He has a lot of great classics:

--The Sound and the Fury

--As I Lay Dying

Or Upton Sinclair:

--The Jungle (great book from the point of view of an immigrant. This book also affected American history in many ways.

--Oil! (a great portrait of the California Oil industry and socialist movement.

From the point of view of an American? There isn't really an "American" literature style, unless you count American style as varying.

The Road, and No Country for Old Men. They're quite southern in form, but great books that make the characters seem so American.

Best
Blinky

I echo Blink. Also check out John Steinbeck. Extremely American. The Grapes Of Wrath focuses on America's labor struggle, while East of Eden is a kind of epic retelling of the book of genesis set against the backdrop of America.

-Kylan

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. One of the best books I've ever read, and it really focuses in on the racial issues in America during the early 1900s. I don't know which part of the American spirit you're trying to capture, but I'll bet you'll find something in this book.

Although I never got around to finishing it, I'd also recommend Unle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. And maybe The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

Brilliant. All the suggestions are great.


Better get reading then- or at least, going to the library!

xxxx

yes Steinbeck and McCarthy are prob the most american you can get in terms of great writing
make sure if you read McCarthy get The Road or No Country for Old Men
Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath (you can breeze through them)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

And you'll be okay with anything by Ernest Hemingway. I suggest A Farewell to Arms.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Okay, I'd take ANY excuse to reccomend this book, but the characters truly follow the American spirit - They're hard working, independent, really strong larger-than-life heroes. There's one passage that particularily stands out to me, describing how Nat Taggart's great grandaughter, Dagny, reflects on how he founded the Taggart Transcontinental railroad company:

"Dominating the concourse, but ignored by the travelers as a habitual sight, stood a statue of Nathanial Taggart... To look at the statue whenever she crossed the concourse, was he only form of prayer she knew.

Nathaniel Taggart had been a penniless adventurer who had come from somewhere in New England and built a railroad across a continentent, in the days of the first steel rails. His railroad still stood; his battle to build it had dissolved into a legend, because people preffered not to understand it or to believe it possible.

He was a man who had never accepted the creed that others had the right to stop him. He set his goal and moved toward it, his way as straight as one of his rails. He never sought any loans, bonds, subsidies, land grants or legislative favors from the government. He obtained money from the men who owned it, going from door to door - from the mahogany doors of bankers to the clapboard doors of lonely farmhouses. He never talked about the public good. He merely told people that they would make big profits on his railroad, he told them why he expected the profits and he gave his reasons. He had good reasons...

In his lifetime, the name 'Nat Taggart' was not famous, but notorious; it was repeated, not in homage, but in resentful curiosity; and if anyone admited him, it was as one admire a successful bandit. Yet no penny of his wealth had been obtained by force or fraud; he was guilty of nothing, except that he earned his own fortune and never forgot that it was his."

How much more American can you get? He built everything from nothing. That's so awesome and inspiring.

Definitely To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sound and the Fury, The Colour Purple (Alice Walker), O Pioneers (Willa Cather), anything by Sherwood Andershon.

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne is suburb, My Antonia by Willa Cather is one of my favorite books, and will give you a view of "frontier life" in Nebraska. Ethon Frome isn't horrible, but not outstanding either. I can't remember the other at the moment... I second Steinbeck. And of course The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald is fun!

If I think of more I'll be sure to let you know.

I thought the Outsiders was good. Catcher in the rye was a bit of a yawn.