The Best American Novel of the 20th Century?

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Xylene

Valued Senior Member
IMO, it's a close run between Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' and F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'. Any opinions on those or other candidates?
 
"The Tropic Of Cancer" by Henry Miller

"This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty..." That was Miller. In other words, it's a bum's manifesto, the greatest imaginable. Miller discourses on his life and lowlife in Paris, fashioning his experiences, reflections, orgasms and philosophizing into a shambling narrative. It's impossible to outdo George Orwell's wonderfully overstated appraisal of Miller in 1940 —"the only imaginative prose writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races in some time"—but it's hard not to agree. He's the thinking man's slacker, but his prose is a force multiplier—lucid, honest and unhampered by neurotic self-loathing. Tropic of Cancer was not published in the U.S. until 1961, where it set off an obscenity trial that is still one of the great episodes in the history of free speech. Before Kerouac, before Burroughs, Miller disputed all the imperatives of capitalism. He stood before the temple of money and raised the flag of happiness. You have a problem with that?—

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,tropic_of_cancer,00.html
 
The one 20th century US novel that you would have to have read, to have a handle on 20th century literature as well as insight into the distinctive nature of 20th century life, would be Catch 22.
 
Xylene said:
I don't know that this [the first Harry Potter book] would be classed as either an American novel, nor 20th Century--JK Rowling is Scottish, and she wrote the book there. I'm not sure when the first volume was published...:)
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The first in the series was published in 1997. That was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the U.S. market. The Scholastic Corporation, which bought the American rights for $105K, an astronomical figure for a children's book, assumed that American children would not read a book with "Philosopher" in the title.

The author's pen name is also the result of market research. Bloomsbury, the original British publisher, assumed that boys were the book's target audience and that boys would not be interested in a book by a female author. So Joanne Rowling, who has no middle name, became J. K. Rowling.

The seven books in the series, which were released once a year to match the passing of time in the story, have sold 400 million copies and are available in 67 languages. Each of the final four set a record as the fastest-selling book in history.

Rowling's life is as fantastic as the universe of her story. She was living on welfare before being published and now she's the twelfth richest woman in the UK. Her life was also full of losses--loved ones kicking the bucket right and left--which gave her the perspective to write so deeply and poignantly about the tragedies of the Hogwarts students, which motivated them to challenge Lord Voldemort, the quintessence of evil. Her background makes her very socially conscious and she's a tireless philanthropist.

So those of you who sniff at us who read her books can at least take comfort in the fact that our money is fighting poverty and illness and supporting starving artists.

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I seem to lack the enzyme to digest "great" literature. I got halfway through Huckleberry Finn and put it down because I still had no idea why the book is so famous.

But Mrs. Fraggle has a master's degree in English and I suspect she would vote for something by William Faulkner, with Saul Bellow perhaps a close runner-up. (I'm proud to say I read Henderson the Rain King, which she carefully picked for me, and enjoyed the hell out of it.) But I'm also fairly sure she would say that the more recent Latin American writers are the true giants of the 20th century, particularly Gabriel García Márquez. (And I'm embarrassed to say that I dragged myself halfway through One Hundred Years of Solitude, the subject of her thesis, and never had the faintest idea what was going on.)
 
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I liked Himingway's novels--particularly The Old Man and the Sea; I saw the movie when I was a kid.
 
Well, hmmmm. . . It's not MY personal favorite, but I would have to say, the book that has had the most influence on the American mind and the American character, is the book that is most favored and most read next to the Bible.

Also by the author that started the Philosophical movement that America is credited with, which most atheists on this board should be big fans of. . . namely, Objectivism.

That author would be Ayn Rand, and her Magnum Opus, which is most popular would be the 1,100-page Atlas Shrugged, that was published in 1957. If you really want to understand the U.S.A. and Americans, you MUST read it, no if's, and's, or but's. It is American culture to it's core.
atlas.jpg
 
Atlas might hold some value as far as American ideology concerning individualism and capitalist ideals but its hardly qualifies as one of the best American novel.

I agree with Cosmic. Henry Miller's Tropic was a ground breaking novel and a much better writer than Fitzgerald. Its certainly better than the Gatsby.
 
Xylene said:
I don't know that this would be classed as either an American novel, nor 20th Century--JK Rowling is Scottish, and she wrote the book there. I'm not sure when the first volume was published...:)
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i'm sure there is an American translation.

the first book is from 1997. well within the 20th century.
 
I'd suggest Catch-22, Animal Farm, The Sound and the Fury and Grapes of Wrath as contenders
 
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
The Bridges of Madison County- Robert James Waller
 
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