I have a degree in English/American literature, so watching this made me nostalgic for my college days. I would have added Washington Irving to the list because he is credited as being the Father of American literary tradition. Thank you!
Thank you for being so kind about American authors. Sadly, I get scared anytime a European is going to review anything about my country because they are usually quite critical. I, on the other hand, love all things European. It often feels like an unrequited love. Your video is the nicest thing I've watched in a long time; not because I thought you were "trying" to be nice - I know that's not your style - but because someone as intelligent and well-read as yourself was genuinely appreciating something from my culture. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Why are you afraid? American writers won many nobel prizes in literature Country which has writers like edgar po,jack london,william Faulkner, ernest hemingway,John Steinbeck and many others Should make you proud
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, Sinclair Lewis' The Jungle, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness, any Flannery O'Connor or Zora Neale Hurston. Also, Edgar Allan Poe wrote the first detective novel I believe, The Letters in the Rue Morgue.
A personal favorite of mine is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, perhaps the best novel of my lifetime so far. I'm rather surprised that Uncle Tom's Cabin didn't make the cut; it spawned the idea of the Great American Novel and is perhaps the most successful attempt at it. A third is The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, a panoramic and eye-opening look at race, class and regional culture in America.
I came across Uncle Tom's Cabin when reading a Dutch novel. I think it should've been included for its historical value and how it shifted public opinions in America about slavery. I have heard a great about The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien so will check it out. Again thanks for the great feedback!
Twain, Melville, Poe, Hemingway, Hawthorne, Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Jones, Robert Penn Warren, Booth Tarkington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret Mitchell, Faulkner, John Bunyan, Washington Irving, Zane Grey, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Henry David Thoreau, John Grisham.
Great video! If I would make list like that, I would definitely put to the list Ken Kesey “sometimes a great notion” and James Jones “From here to eternity”. I also would put “blood meridian” instead of “the road”. Thanks for Vonnegut, it’s my favorite author.
Glad you mentioned Philip Roth at the end. I’d definitely put American Pastoral on the list. Maybe some Hawthorne as well. All in all though, great job trying to narrow this down to just 20.
Love Roth as well (though I've only read a handful of his books), but though Pastoral is his big one, I found it a boring family drama. I much rather preferred The Plot Against America, or Operation Shylock or Nemesis.
Fantastic video, before it began, I scribbled down what I thought would be on the list, and then watched your video... So if it was fun and educational 😊
Great video! Keeping with the same authors you chose, I’d substitute “The Road” for “Blood Meridian” and “The Recognitions” for “JR”, but that’s why these lists and videos are great - Different opinions and (hopefully) great discussions.
Valid points on two alternatives. My reason for choosing the recognitions was art as a theme always interests me and found it quite close to my heart I mean Proust. As far the Road I read it loved it but the violence and dog eat dog kind of dark world was a bit too much for me so decided not to read a novel with blood in the title (superficial I am) too terrified. I read no country for old men. I’ve a weak stomach so can’t digest violence that be avoided. Really appreciate your feedback.
@@Fiction_Beast I hope that you feel more relaxed and fully proud of the tremedous work you have done. Regarding Amitav Ghosh, although I have read most of his books, the one I really enjoyed was his first one 'The Glass Palace'. Thanks again for the enlightenment.
Great list, but I feel you left off Pynchon, DeLillo and Nicholson Baker. Not to mention Barth, Burroughs and Fante. I know they are more postmodern (not Fante), but it feels like we live in a postmodern time here in the States. Very cool list, some amazing heavy hitters on here. Great Video!
Totally agree with you about the censorship of these great works. Censorship is evil and currently only one political party wholeheartedly embraces it. People must educate themselves and vote according or else lose access to everything.
I'm gonna have to agree with Gatsby, i had the same take on the novel when i read it. Story wise and sometimes even writing wise, it was underwhelming for me. But i respect people's sentiment towards it.
@@Fiction_Beast Bingo. It was strange, it felt like it was nothing worth reading. Maybe I was too young? But I also read Brave New Word and 1984 and was blown away so maybe Gatsby was just boring. 😅
If you are interested in Indian culture ...then pls do read R k NARYAN ' s " Guide" ..Anurandhati Roy 's " God of small things .., v.s naipaul 's " A house for Mr. Bishwas"
Indian literature is the shiznit. Have read all of Adiga. Just finished Murugan's ONE PART WOMAN. Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE is a knockout -- everyone's above someone, and below someone! I've read 3 times, still think about those 2 tailors on the train.
Steinbeck's East of Eden. I keep reading it again and again. Character development - characters who learn and grow - pathos and beauty - it has it all... such a wonderful novel. Grapes of Wrath, in my mind, has less depth and warmth than either Of Mice and Men or East of Eden. I've often been confused why GOW has always been considered the greater of Steibeck's novels.
FAVORITE AUTHORS 1) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) 2) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot) 4) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 5) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew) 6) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit) 7) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire) 8) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) 9) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) 10) George Eliot (Silas Marner) Where some of their books fall on the list: 12) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov 18) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain 44) "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain 52) “The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus” by Joel Chandler Harris 76) "White Fang" by Jack London 84) "Pudd'n Head Wilson" by Mark Twain 85) "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote 107) "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London I do need to read "The Old Man and the Sea," as I haven't yet. I like "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" better than "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I think we differ on that. If you want to read Ray Bradbury, I'd suggest "The Martian Chronicles" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" before the one you mentioned. I'd say you missed Joel Chandler Harris, whose characters are world famous, though it is a very grown up children stories as the animals have wives and mistresses for when their wives aren't looking. Even more so, you missed my favorite American author: Isaac Asimov. But, more than anything this video makes me want to read "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote.
Martin Eden by Jack London is also a great novel. I've also read The call of the wild which is also amazing one. Thanks a lot for this video. I added some of them to my list to read.
JD Salinger wrote many books. I prefer Franny and Zooey much more than The Catcher in the Rye. If I have any critique of this list, it seems like most books are 250 pages or less... which misses MANY great books... and so most are Short Stories or novelettes, not truly novels.
I get what you're saying about The Road, and I agree with you; however, I think that's part of what made the ending so impactful. The ending showed that despite society falling apart, we can slowly build our way back to civilization.
Man, I could feel the tinge of subtle fun poking at the "in the last 150 years," part of the intro. Like wow we really haven't been around for shit, the United States is just a little kid compared to the world xD
Dean Moriarty (on the road)... a real person, turns up again in one of my favorite novels. Electric Coolaid Acid Test...really a total nutcase who is immortalized in two great novels.. Just a little trivia! Great video!
You did a really fine job here. You left out my favorite writer who is perhaps the most ground breaking and seminal mind of this century--Thomas Wolfe--whose primary work Of Time And trhe River had to be wheeled into Max Perkins office. At hat point of submission it was 5,000 pages in length.
I know you couldn't include them all, but some extra novels would be worth mentioning in regards to American Literature: 1. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper 2.The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 3. Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs 4. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein 5.Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, I will admit these were more novels that I personally enjoyed but still thought it might be worth noting.
Faulkner and Morrison should absolutely be on this list. Hemingway's short stories are also world class. And McCarthy's Blood Meridian is one of the greatest works of literature of the last 50 years, way better than The Road IMO.
Thanks, Matt. I love your channel and always appreciate your videos. I'm reading Steinbeck's "To a God Unknown" right now which brought me to this video. Nice connection between "As I Lay Dying" and "Pedro Páramo." I'm on my second go through "Pedro Páramo" but in Spanish so it is slow going. I love your thoughts that perhaps half the novel was stripped away to leave just the bare bones, as death does also. Perhaps with Juan Rulfo and the first narrator, Juan Preciado, death is an unburdening, too.
14:37 Exactly, a person is a character. They are NOT their race. You can't tell if a person is a physicist or a black belt (in Kempo) by looking at them and seeing the color of their skin. Also, skin-tone does not indicate race (in the modern era).
Since we're including foreign-born, I must add IB Singer, who exudes humility, and understands women. My bae Philip Roth grabs my heart on Newark, his loving family, mortality ("Wellness" is just a marketing gimmick, folks. Nothing will save us!). I don't like his writing on his two bad marriages, nor 70s dating mores, but still. For me, "The" Great American Novel is Thomas Wolfe's LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL.
The thing is, my favorite American authors and my favorite American novels would be two different lists. My favorite American writers, H.P. Lovecraft Cormac McCarthy Hunter S. Thompson Thomas Pynchon Richard Brautigan Edgar Alan Poe Bret Easton Ellis Philip Roth Donna Tartt Chuck Palahniuk Truman Capote J.D. Salinger Elmore Leonard James Baldwin Flannery O'Connor Whereas my favorite American novels are, *House of Leaves (M.Z. Danielewski) *Pale Fire (though of course Nabokov himself was not orginally American, hence I didn't include him on the above list, though he's easily one of my favorite writers) *Blood Meridian (McCarthy) *In Watermelon Sugar (R. Brautigan) *At The Mountains of Madness (Lovecraft) *The Virgin Suicides (J. Eugenides) *The Bell Jar (S. Plath) *Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (H.S. Thompson) *American Psycho (Bret Ellis) *Glamorama (Bret Ellis) *Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) *The Plot Against America (Roth) *In Cold Blood (Capote) *The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) *Red Harvest (D. Hammett) *Wise Blood (O'Connor) *A Confederacy of Dunces (J.K. Toole) Also...really, Bukowski? He's the only mediocrity on an otherwise solid list.
Another correction, Catcher in the Rye itself was published in 1951. Earlier versions/drafts of two of the chapters first appeared as short stories, the first one in 1945, hence the mistake in the video.
I think you missed more than a few writers-but American Literature is a difficult choice. Besides the authors you listed as missing, what about Thomas Pynchon? And what about important early writers like Charles Brokden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, or Nathaniel Hawthorne? All in all I very much liked this list of authors, but don't always agree with the titles you chose. Difficult choices, but valiant effort. Thank you for this survey.
Just my personal opinion but American literature didn’t really find its own identity and voice until Poe and Twain. While everyone loves Finn, Twain greatest influence in American literature was the mastery of creative nonfiction. So I think out of all the threads of literature, short stories and creative nonfiction seem to be predominantly American creations.
Happy to see The Recognitions by Gaddis on your list. It's tremendous. Difficult, but worth the effort. We all have our lists. Of authors not on your list, mine (exceeding 20) would include: The Collected Stories of Flannery O'Connor Rabbit Run / Redux / is Rich / at Rest by John Updike Zuckerman Bound (plus all novels that Zuckerman is in) by Philip Roth Seize the Day by Saul Bellow A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Native Son by Richard Wright The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories White Noise by Don Delillo Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
@@jeffreylewis8019 yeah but i was just writing to someone to strike up a connection/convo about literature given i thought with the authors you named you would dig it- and considering how overlooked he can be it felt pertinent
I think American authors strove to have a unique voice. . I'm searching for the availability of Raymond Carver's short story collection in my online app . . I'm planning to order soon. . .
@@Fiction_Beast Correct, he is not very famous but he was a great writer, funny, genuine with a real soul. In particular I love him because he was born in America but his parents were Italian, like me, and he often describes how a person tries to balance his roots with a new culture in which he wants to be recognized. He often writes about his desire and ambition to become a great writer with all the ups and many downs to try to achieve this goal.
You’re making a really good case for me to explore him more and possibly cover his work in a future video. I love people on the fringe of society who tries artistic goals in life.
My feelings toward The Great Gatsby are similar to yours, so-so story, great writing. But I don't know why you included Fahrenheit 451, which really isn't that great a book and you don't seem to think much of it either. I think For Whom the Bells Toll is Hemingway's masterpiece among his novels, though The Sun Also Rises is my favorite of his. A Farewell to Arms is meh. Great descriptive writing, cringy dialogue, so-so story.
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” ---Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
I don't think that any country's literature can be defined in one sentence. Too much variety exists, even when things seem to be the same. And I like your list a great deal. The one book I might have included would be 'Cat's Cradle' by Kurt Vonnegut (I first read it when I was in school and it floored me that any important novel could be structured in such a way). I know 'Slaughterhouse-Five' is on your list, but I just wanted to shine a light on that one. Oh, and let me add a few others: 'Seize the Day' - Saul Bellow (a novella; his short stories I always found much stronger) 'If Beale Street Could Talk' - James Baldwin (I prefer his essays) 'The Day of the Locust' - Nathanial West 'The Sellout' - Paul Beatty 'A Confederacy of Dunces' - John Kennedy Toole (read about the history of the book and how his mother got it published) 'A Death in the Family' - James Agee (great film critic, too) 'Jazz' - Toni Morrison 'Open City' - Teju Cole 'The Assistant' - Bernard Malamud (his short stories are excellent, too) 'Tortilla Flat' - John Steinbeck (his first 'hit' and a very funny and honest book about down and out people). Not in chronological order, but this should help (ten for your twenty).
Day of the Locust yes yes and yes. Also, it's nice to see someone mention my all time fav, A Confed of Dunces. The Wayward Bus is another great one by Steinbeck. His The Pearl is important to anyone seeking to be published. Oh, and another one for wanabe authors: The Plague by Camus. What the author did to his manuscript, and then the aftermath! Still cracks me up after all these years.
@@MrUndersolo Anybody who reads and recommends "The Day of the Locust" needs to read "The Plague" by Camus. I guarantee you you will not be disappointed.
My list would be : A Turn of the Screw (Henry James) Washington Square (Henry James) Complete Short Stories (Edgar Allan Poe) Complete Short Stories (John Cheever) Complete Short Stories (Roald Dahl) Complete Short Stories (Flannery O'Connor) Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor) A Tree of Night (Truman Capote) Complete Short Stories (Paul Bowles) The Sheltered Sky (Paul Bowles) Knockemstiff (Donald Ray Pollock) The Devil All the Time (Donald Ray Pollock) The Pugilist at Rest (Thom Jones) Cold Snap (Thom Jones) Sony Liston Was a Friend of Mine (Thom Jones) The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford) The Demon (Hubert Selby Jr.) The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) A Moveable Feast (Hemingway) Laughter in the Dark (Nabokov) The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin) The Moth (James Cain) A Singular Man (J. P. Donleavy) A Fairy Tale in New York (Donleavy) The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brian) East of Eden (John Steinbeck) Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton) We Have Always Lived at the Castle (Shirley Jackson) The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner) Wild Palms (Faulkner) Diary (Chuck Pahlaniuk) V (Thomas Pynchon) The Magician of Lublin (Isaac Bashevis Singer) A Crown of Feathers (Bashevis Singer) Hard Rain Falling (Don Carpenter) Wonder Boys (Michael Chabon) The Road (Jack Kerouac) Not a Good Country for Old Men (McKormack) ... And then maybe I should also add... ..Short Stories (Lucía Berlín) Fancies and Goodnights (John Collier) Short Stories (Tobias Wolff), The Sports Writer (Richard Ford), and will stop here. Because did not like so much Buckovsky or Henry Miller. Though I was told to read The Maroussi Colossus of H. Miller. Perhaps I will. They said it was his best. Keep on reading, feed your brain, as the Wise Man said...💎👍❤️
"This list is an abortion!" is how Iggy would put it. If you know to whom I'm referring, you know it's a crime to omit his magnum opus from any Best American Novels list longer than five. Also, you've included F. Scott Fitzgerald but no Faulkner??
OK, I see that you included "As I Lay Dying." Very nice. The townsfolk waving their pitchforks at the travelers finally explaining why those black birds kept trailing them. After a couple three pages it hits you: the smell. Hehe. I still say Faulkner's best is Absolom, Absolom!! And those are his exclamation marks, not mine!! Or The Sound and the Fury, take your pick.
Where was Philip Roth? The greatest novelist of his generation. Winner of Pulitzer Prize, Kafka prize, National book award (twice), PEN award (three times) etc etc
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou seems like a very glaring omission. Angelou is read in almost every English class. “Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne should probably also be there too. It is probably the best example of early Puritan life.
Id add In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, his pose is so elogant. And I rather enjoy T. E. D. Klein novel The Events at Poroth Farm and his longer novel The Ceremonies, an extention on Events at Poroth Farm.
No Pynchon or Nabokov? Melville is probably my favorite on your list. He was very passionate about writing and took risks writing Moby Dick, even receiving accusations of blasphemy. It ended up being highly controversial for Melville, who was raised in a Puritan household. Might of been that chapter where the whaler slips the foreskin of a sperm whale over himself for protection while the other sailors chant bible leaves! bible leaves! For all the arduous effort it requires, there's a one of a kind experience to be had.
@@Fiction_Beast Blood Meridian is definitely McCarthy's best. Tough to get through cuz the violence in it is intense, but still worthwhile if you can get through the bloodier moments
Some of these comments are harsh. I'm sorry people are being so rude about you sharing your opinions on American literature that you like and that you feel define the voice of American literature. This goes against your description/definition of the voice of American literature, BUT I'd still like to suggest reading indigenous American authors. Some well known ones include: Louis Erdritch, Tommy Orange, Scott Momaday, and Joy Harjo just to name a few.
I'm sorry, but an American list without Faulkner can't be considered legitimate, especially with inclusions of the likes of bukowski and Vonnegut. I would have also have liked to have seen some hidden American geniuses like Gene Wolfe, R.A. Lafferty, and one who's pretty obvious, Flannery O'Connor. Having McCarthy on this list without his most prominent influences (Faulkner and O'Connor) is baffling.
Would no doubt have mentioned : The Sound and the Fury (W. Faulkner) V (Thomas Pynchon) Laughter in the Dark (Nabokov) A Moveable Feast (E. Hemingway) Giovanni's Room James Baldwin) Flannery O'connor (Short Stories). The Demon (Hubert Selby) All the King's Men (R. Penn Warren). All of them excellent works. 💎👍❤️
No Hemingway? No Faulkner? Strange to see them missing along with James Baldwin but the inclusion of writers like Alice Walker. Raymond Carver is one if my favorite writers ever, but it’s a bold pick to choose him over Pynchon, DeLilo, or Wallace, especially considering Carver never wrote a novel. I love Harper Lee and Charles Bukowski, but they didn’t even write the best books in their decades, much less to be on the best of American authors list. All that being said, I appreciate that this list is clearly a product of your own views and not weighted down by the court of public opinion.
Wonderful list, however ponder these. An American Tragedy by Dreiser is the last word on American greed. Day of the Locust by Nathanael West satire of Hollywood. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, also The Big Sleep, it’s “Pulp Fiction,” but Anthony Burgess thinks it’s a great novel.
I have a degree in English/American literature, so watching this made me nostalgic for my college days. I would have added Washington Irving to the list because he is credited as being the Father of American literary tradition. Thank you!
Good shout!
James Baldwin?!!
Thank you for being so kind about American authors. Sadly, I get scared anytime a European is going to review anything about my country because they are usually quite critical. I, on the other hand, love all things European. It often feels like an unrequited love. Your video is the nicest thing I've watched in a long time; not because I thought you were "trying" to be nice - I know that's not your style - but because someone as intelligent and well-read as yourself was genuinely appreciating something from my culture. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Really appreciate it. I'm currenly making a list of 50 novels from Europe. Give them a watch if you like.
@@Fiction_Beast I’ve already watched the first episode. I love it!!!
Wonderful. Episode 2 is also out.
Why are you afraid?
American writers won many nobel prizes in literature
Country which has writers like edgar po,jack london,william Faulkner, ernest hemingway,John Steinbeck and many others
Should make you proud
@@Billiethekid8Bob Dylan won Nobel Prize too for his words.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, Sinclair Lewis' The Jungle, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness, any Flannery O'Connor or Zora Neale Hurston. Also, Edgar Allan Poe wrote the first detective novel I believe, The Letters in the Rue Morgue.
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle
Yep the Scarlet Letter should have been included.
The murders in the rue Morgue.
The Jungle is by Upton Sinclair not by Sinclair Lewis if I remember correctly. What a book however and whisoerrs,
I thought it was The Purloined Letter.
A personal favorite of mine is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, perhaps the best novel of my lifetime so far. I'm rather surprised that Uncle Tom's Cabin didn't make the cut; it spawned the idea of the Great American Novel and is perhaps the most successful attempt at it. A third is The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, a panoramic and eye-opening look at race, class and regional culture in America.
I came across Uncle Tom's Cabin when reading a Dutch novel. I think it should've been included for its historical value and how it shifted public opinions in America about slavery. I have heard a great about The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien so will check it out. Again thanks for the great feedback!
Have you read LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL by Thomas Wolfe? If not, get ready to have your mind blown.
Tim O'Brien always gets to me. Almost makes me wish he was not so articulate about the Vietnam War and what it did to an entire generation.
A much ignored masterpiece.
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith is one of the best books I’ve ever read and should get a mention.
Loved it too.
I really need to read this.
Bugs Bunny approved
Twain, Melville, Poe, Hemingway, Hawthorne, Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Jones, Robert Penn Warren, Booth Tarkington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret Mitchell, Faulkner, John Bunyan, Washington Irving, Zane Grey, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Henry David Thoreau, John Grisham.
some of these names I have not read, so thanks for including them. Great list.
John Bunyon? The 17th c. Puritan?
Great video! If I would make list like that, I would definitely put to the list Ken Kesey “sometimes a great notion” and James Jones “From here to eternity”. I also would put “blood meridian” instead of “the road”.
Thanks for Vonnegut, it’s my favorite author.
Glad you mentioned Philip Roth at the end. I’d definitely put American Pastoral on the list. Maybe some Hawthorne as well. All in all though, great job trying to narrow this down to just 20.
Love Roth as well (though I've only read a handful of his books), but though Pastoral is his big one, I found it a boring family drama. I much rather preferred The Plot Against America, or Operation Shylock or Nemesis.
Thank for this interessant list, I was surprised not to find "In Cold Blood" and "The sound and the fury" in the list.
In Cold Blood is non-fiction.
Fantastic video, before it began, I scribbled down what I thought would be on the list, and then watched your video... So if it was fun and educational 😊
I think you missed a very important novel.
The heart is a lonely hunter. This novel is a giant. She was a giant.
PS love your content
Thanks for the recommendation. I will check it out.
Great video! Keeping with the same authors you chose, I’d substitute “The Road” for “Blood Meridian” and “The Recognitions” for “JR”, but that’s why these lists and videos are great - Different opinions and (hopefully) great discussions.
Valid points on two alternatives. My reason for choosing the recognitions was art as a theme always interests me and found it quite close to my heart I mean Proust. As far the Road I read it loved it but the violence and dog eat dog kind of dark world was a bit too much for me so decided not to read a novel with blood in the title (superficial I am) too terrified. I read no country for old men. I’ve a weak stomach so can’t digest violence that be avoided.
Really appreciate your feedback.
@@Fiction_Beast I get that, for sure. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Appreciate you watching and commenting.
The Catcher in The Rye is referring to a poem called Comi’ Thro’ the Rye by Robert Burns
I am surprised that James Baldwin did not make the cut. What a mind!
Good shout!
This is a huge effort that you have undertaken. Thank you. I will use it as a reference guide.
I didnt shower for days to get this project done :) Thank you for appreciating the effort.
@@Fiction_Beast I hope that you feel more relaxed and fully proud of the tremedous work you have done. Regarding Amitav Ghosh, although I have read most of his books, the one I really enjoyed was his first one 'The Glass Palace'. Thanks again for the enlightenment.
Thank you! Yes I’m relaxed and now reading Kafka.
That’s great! Now I know I have to read the glass palace.
Great list, but I feel you left off Pynchon, DeLillo and Nicholson Baker. Not to mention Barth, Burroughs and Fante. I know they are more postmodern (not Fante), but it feels like we live in a postmodern time here in the States. Very cool list, some amazing heavy hitters on here. Great Video!
Love your descriptive accounts and language
How you relate one novel to another is mind-blowing, man❤
Totally agree with you about the censorship of these great works. Censorship is evil and currently only one political party wholeheartedly embraces it. People must educate themselves and vote according or else lose access to everything.
yes, people should be able to read so they can judge the content for themslves.
How about The Sound And The Fury by William Faulkner?
I had hard time choosing Sound vs Dying.
Good stuff. Please keep on posting more great reads.
Thanks, will do!
I'm gonna have to agree with Gatsby, i had the same take on the novel when i read it. Story wise and sometimes even writing wise, it was underwhelming for me. But i respect people's sentiment towards it.
Great to hear you share the same feeling about gatsby.
@@Fiction_Beast Bingo. It was strange, it felt like it was nothing worth reading. Maybe I was too young? But I also read Brave New Word and 1984 and was blown away so maybe Gatsby was just boring. 😅
Hello! Loved the video. Have you announced the winner of that book give-away you did in the Russian literature video?
Thank you! Yes, I announced the winner in the community tab here.
If you are interested in Indian culture ...then pls do read R k NARYAN ' s " Guide" ..Anurandhati Roy 's " God of small things .., v.s naipaul 's " A house for Mr. Bishwas"
Wonderful suggestions. I read the cod of small things. It’s beautifully written.
Indian literature is the shiznit. Have read all of Adiga. Just finished Murugan's ONE PART WOMAN. Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE is a knockout -- everyone's above someone, and below someone! I've read 3 times, still think about those 2 tailors on the train.
@@rubyparchment5523 thanks a lot ..these novels I have not read yet but will read them soon ..thanks through you I got to know about them
Steinbeck's East of Eden. I keep reading it again and again. Character development - characters who learn and grow - pathos and beauty - it has it all... such a wonderful novel. Grapes of Wrath, in my mind, has less depth and warmth than either Of Mice and Men or East of Eden. I've often been confused why GOW has always been considered the greater of Steibeck's novels.
I read it and reread it many times.
Very useful and informative video
FAVORITE AUTHORS
1) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons)
2) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)
3) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot)
4) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)
5) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew)
6) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)
7) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire)
8) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
9) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
10) George Eliot (Silas Marner)
Where some of their books fall on the list:
12) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
18) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain
44) "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain
52) “The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus” by Joel Chandler Harris
76) "White Fang" by Jack London
84) "Pudd'n Head Wilson" by Mark Twain
85) "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
107) "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London
I do need to read "The Old Man and the Sea," as I haven't yet. I like "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" better than "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I think we differ on that.
If you want to read Ray Bradbury, I'd suggest "The Martian Chronicles" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" before the one you mentioned.
I'd say you missed Joel Chandler Harris, whose characters are world famous, though it is a very grown up children stories as the animals have wives and mistresses for when their wives aren't looking. Even more so, you missed my favorite American author: Isaac Asimov.
But, more than anything this video makes me want to read "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote.
"The Old Man and the Sea" was required reading in high school. I didn't understand then and don't know today why this was ever called a "great" book.
Martin Eden by Jack London is also a great novel. I've also read The call of the wild which is also amazing one. Thanks a lot for this video. I added some of them to my list to read.
Great!
Such a great video. I was wondering about Tropic of Caner.
That was amazing. Liked and sub’d. Thanks for sharing!
JD Salinger wrote many books. I prefer Franny and Zooey much more than The Catcher in the Rye. If I have any critique of this list, it seems like most books are 250 pages or less... which misses MANY great books... and so most are Short Stories or novelettes, not truly novels.
Life’s short so today most people don’t have time to read the bigger books. My channel is trying to encourage people, not scare!
What do you think of Eugene O'Neil (I have read "Beyond the horizon" )? and Arthur Miller (death of the salesman)?
A notable omission is Thomas Pynchon, arguably the greatest living American novelist.
Good point.
Yes. Liked V.
Great list and great argument!❤
I get what you're saying about The Road, and I agree with you; however, I think that's part of what made the ending so impactful. The ending showed that despite society falling apart, we can slowly build our way back to civilization.
I agree that ending is pretty strong. Light at the end the tunnel.
Man, I could feel the tinge of subtle fun poking at the "in the last 150 years," part of the intro. Like wow we really haven't been around for shit, the United States is just a little kid compared to the world xD
Dean Moriarty (on the road)... a real person, turns up again in one of my favorite novels. Electric Coolaid Acid Test...really a total nutcase who is immortalized in two great novels..
Just a little trivia! Great video!
You did a really fine job here. You left out my favorite writer who is perhaps the most ground breaking and seminal mind of this century--Thomas Wolfe--whose primary work Of Time And trhe River had to be wheeled into Max Perkins office. At hat point of submission it was 5,000 pages in length.
Thank you! I’ll check him out.
I know you couldn't include them all, but some extra novels would be worth mentioning in regards to American Literature:
1. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
2.The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
3. Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
4. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
5.Patriot Games by Tom Clancy,
I will admit these were more novels that I personally enjoyed but still thought it might be worth noting.
Faulkner and Morrison should absolutely be on this list. Hemingway's short stories are also world class. And McCarthy's Blood Meridian is one of the greatest works of literature of the last 50 years, way better than The Road IMO.
Great video!
Thank you!
No Hemingway? And I think Raymond Chandler is a good shout
Hemingway is there.
I love your humorous comments. Thank you for fantastic work you are doing. All the best!
Thank you!
The Turn of the Screw is the father of hundreds of modern horror movies.
The most literary ghost story out there, i guess?
@@Fiction_Beast The scenario of moving into a house that is haunted. Done many many times since.
I think it’s the best ghost story; l also favor Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting.
I consider Pynchon to be the best American author. That being said - I loved your list and can't argue with any of your choices.
Beautiful images - beyond beautful really. Two of my favorites - Another Country byJames Baldwin and An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.
Thanks, Matt. I love your channel and always appreciate your videos. I'm reading Steinbeck's "To a God Unknown" right now which brought me to this video. Nice connection between "As I Lay Dying" and "Pedro Páramo." I'm on my second go through "Pedro Páramo" but in Spanish so it is slow going. I love your thoughts that perhaps half the novel was stripped away to leave just the bare bones, as death does also. Perhaps with Juan Rulfo and the first narrator, Juan Preciado, death is an unburdening, too.
Thank you! It’s been a while since I read you comments. They are always great. Pedro paramo is just awesome.
I felt in love with some american values and ways of being, specialy in California, amazing best country ever
Awesome!
14:37 Exactly, a person is a character. They are NOT their race. You can't tell if a person is a physicist or a black belt (in Kempo) by looking at them and seeing the color of their skin. Also, skin-tone does not indicate race (in the modern era).
Add Thomas Wolfe and this is a good list 😎
Since we're including foreign-born, I must add IB Singer, who exudes humility, and understands women. My bae Philip Roth grabs my heart on Newark, his loving family, mortality ("Wellness" is just a marketing gimmick, folks. Nothing will save us!). I don't like his writing on his two bad marriages, nor 70s dating mores, but still. For me, "The" Great American Novel is Thomas Wolfe's LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL.
Great suggestions. I read a few of Roth's shorter novels, I relaly enjoyed them. I liked his sense of humour.
Good work.
Legendary video
Thank you so much!
You should added Lovecraft because of him he create a new horror sub-genre; cosmic horror
What about The Sound and the Fury or Absalom Absalom, by William Faulkner?
Flannery O'Connor... Walker Percy... John Kennedy Toole...
The thing is, my favorite American authors and my favorite American novels would be two different lists.
My favorite American writers,
H.P. Lovecraft
Cormac McCarthy
Hunter S. Thompson
Thomas Pynchon
Richard Brautigan
Edgar Alan Poe
Bret Easton Ellis
Philip Roth
Donna Tartt
Chuck Palahniuk
Truman Capote
J.D. Salinger
Elmore Leonard
James Baldwin
Flannery O'Connor
Whereas my favorite American novels are,
*House of Leaves (M.Z. Danielewski)
*Pale Fire (though of course Nabokov himself was not orginally American, hence I didn't include him on the above list, though he's easily one of my favorite writers)
*Blood Meridian (McCarthy)
*In Watermelon Sugar (R. Brautigan)
*At The Mountains of Madness (Lovecraft)
*The Virgin Suicides (J. Eugenides)
*The Bell Jar (S. Plath)
*Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (H.S. Thompson)
*American Psycho (Bret Ellis)
*Glamorama (Bret Ellis)
*Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
*The Plot Against America (Roth)
*In Cold Blood (Capote)
*The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
*Red Harvest (D. Hammett)
*Wise Blood (O'Connor)
*A Confederacy of Dunces (J.K. Toole)
Also...really, Bukowski? He's the only mediocrity on an otherwise solid list.
Another correction, Catcher in the Rye itself was published in 1951. Earlier versions/drafts of two of the chapters first appeared as short stories, the first one in 1945, hence the mistake in the video.
I think you missed more than a few writers-but American Literature is a difficult choice. Besides the authors you listed as missing, what about Thomas Pynchon? And what about important early writers like Charles Brokden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, or Nathaniel Hawthorne? All in all I very much liked this list of authors, but don't always agree with the titles you chose. Difficult choices, but valiant effort. Thank you for this survey.
I appreciate your feedback. It is not an exhaustive list for sure. There are so many great American novels out there.
I've been watching your videos. I love them.
By the way, 1:10 seems to be Mexico though.
stock footage i thought it was the US. Oops!
Where is William Faulkner？ He is hands down one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century.
He's in there. "As I lay dying".
You literally didn't watch the video?
Don’t ai know it. American Lit as a collage fresh, Shepard was BIG on Faulkner. I was big on Vonnegut
He’s in the first third of the video…
Just my personal opinion but American literature didn’t really find its own identity and voice until Poe and Twain. While everyone loves Finn, Twain greatest influence in American literature was the mastery of creative nonfiction.
So I think out of all the threads of literature, short stories and creative nonfiction seem to be predominantly American creations.
A flicker in the water is creative non-fiction.
Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne …. No author comes out of nothing.
Mine is To kill a Mockingbird
Happy to see The Recognitions by Gaddis on your list. It's tremendous. Difficult, but worth the effort.
We all have our lists. Of authors not on your list, mine (exceeding 20) would include:
The Collected Stories of Flannery O'Connor
Rabbit Run / Redux / is Rich / at Rest by John Updike
Zuckerman Bound (plus all novels that Zuckerman is in) by Philip Roth
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories
White Noise by Don Delillo
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
These are great suggestions. America is blessed with great novelists.
have you read journey to the end of the night?
@@harryjones84 Yes. Celine is French, though, and the list is about American authors.
@@jeffreylewis8019 yeah but i was just writing to someone to strike up a connection/convo about literature given i thought with the authors you named you would dig it- and considering how overlooked he can be it felt pertinent
I think American authors strove to have a unique voice. . I'm searching for the availability of Raymond Carver's short story collection in my online app . . I'm planning to order soon. . .
Awesome! I think you will enjoy it.
I think the Coming of Age story is the quintessential American genre. Your Finding Independence summary probably includes that
Does anyone knows John Fante?
I came across his name when reading Bukowski. But have not read anything by him. Bukowski rated him highly.
@@Fiction_Beast Correct, he is not very famous but he was a great writer, funny, genuine with a real soul. In particular I love him because he was born in America but his parents were Italian, like me, and he often describes how a person tries to balance his roots with a new culture in which he wants to be recognized. He often writes about his desire and ambition to become a great writer with all the ups and many downs to try to achieve this goal.
You’re making a really good case for me to explore him more and possibly cover his work in a future video. I love people on the fringe of society who tries artistic goals in life.
@@Fiction_Beast great! I would recommend Ask the dust. Anyways yours is a great video!
Awesome. Thanks.
My feelings toward The Great Gatsby are similar to yours, so-so story, great writing. But I don't know why you included Fahrenheit 451, which really isn't that great a book and you don't seem to think much of it either. I think For Whom the Bells Toll is Hemingway's masterpiece among his novels, though The Sun Also Rises is my favorite of his. A Farewell to Arms is meh. Great descriptive writing, cringy dialogue, so-so story.
I personally think The Old Man and the Sea is his best work
18:41 just fyi a Zebra is black with white stripes.
Your analogy still stands, just a tidbit for those who care.
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
---Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
It's refreshing to hear someone who isn't American compliment American literature
I don't think that any country's literature can be defined in one sentence. Too much variety exists, even when things seem to be the same.
And I like your list a great deal. The one book I might have included would be 'Cat's Cradle' by Kurt Vonnegut (I first read it when I was in school and it floored me that any important novel could be structured in such a way). I know 'Slaughterhouse-Five' is on your list, but I just wanted to shine a light on that one.
Oh, and let me add a few others:
'Seize the Day' - Saul Bellow (a novella; his short stories I always found much stronger)
'If Beale Street Could Talk' - James Baldwin (I prefer his essays)
'The Day of the Locust' - Nathanial West
'The Sellout' - Paul Beatty
'A Confederacy of Dunces' - John Kennedy Toole (read about the history of the book and how his mother got it published)
'A Death in the Family' - James Agee (great film critic, too)
'Jazz' - Toni Morrison
'Open City' - Teju Cole
'The Assistant' - Bernard Malamud (his short stories are excellent, too)
'Tortilla Flat' - John Steinbeck (his first 'hit' and a very funny and honest book about down and out people).
Not in chronological order, but this should help (ten for your twenty).
Day of the Locust yes yes and yes. Also, it's nice to see someone mention my all time fav, A Confed of Dunces. The Wayward Bus is another great one by Steinbeck. His The Pearl is important to anyone seeking to be published. Oh, and another one for wanabe authors: The Plague by Camus. What the author did to his manuscript, and then the aftermath! Still cracks me up after all these years.
@@tarico4436I only focused on American authors here, but I like Camus!
@@MrUndersolo Anybody who reads and recommends "The Day of the Locust" needs to read "The Plague" by Camus. I guarantee you you will not be disappointed.
Cormac?
My list would be :
A Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
Washington Square (Henry James)
Complete Short Stories (Edgar Allan Poe)
Complete Short Stories (John Cheever)
Complete Short Stories (Roald Dahl)
Complete Short Stories (Flannery O'Connor)
Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor)
A Tree of Night (Truman Capote)
Complete Short Stories (Paul Bowles)
The Sheltered Sky (Paul Bowles)
Knockemstiff (Donald Ray Pollock)
The Devil All the Time (Donald Ray Pollock)
The Pugilist at Rest (Thom Jones)
Cold Snap (Thom Jones)
Sony Liston Was a Friend of Mine (Thom Jones)
The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford)
The Demon (Hubert Selby Jr.)
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
A Moveable Feast (Hemingway)
Laughter in the Dark (Nabokov)
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin)
The Moth (James Cain)
A Singular Man (J. P. Donleavy)
A Fairy Tale in New York (Donleavy)
The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brian)
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)
We Have Always Lived at the Castle (Shirley Jackson)
The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)
The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)
Wild Palms (Faulkner)
Diary (Chuck Pahlaniuk)
V (Thomas Pynchon)
The Magician of Lublin (Isaac Bashevis Singer)
A Crown of Feathers (Bashevis Singer)
Hard Rain Falling (Don Carpenter)
Wonder Boys (Michael Chabon)
The Road (Jack Kerouac)
Not a Good Country for Old Men (McKormack) ... And then maybe I should also add...
..Short Stories (Lucía Berlín)
Fancies and Goodnights (John Collier)
Short Stories (Tobias Wolff),
The Sports Writer (Richard Ford), and will stop here. Because did not like so much Buckovsky or Henry Miller. Though I was told to read The Maroussi Colossus of H. Miller. Perhaps I will. They said it was his best. Keep on reading, feed your brain, as the Wise Man said...💎👍❤️
I would certainly put LOLITA on my list.
certainly. i have heard so much about it but i havent read it.
Was Nabokov american ?
@@gastondeveaux3783 Yes, he became an American citizen in 1945.
Where is Stephen crane, Thanks for including Jack london,
I don't see Faulkner.????
Walden Pond? Leaves of Grass? Poetry of Emily Dickinson?
Thank you!
You're welcome!
"This list is an abortion!" is how Iggy would put it. If you know to whom I'm referring, you know it's a crime to omit his magnum opus from any Best American Novels list longer than five. Also, you've included F. Scott Fitzgerald but no Faulkner??
I say you watch the whole video.
@@Fiction_Beast OK, I will.
OK, I see that you included "As I Lay Dying." Very nice. The townsfolk waving their pitchforks at the travelers finally explaining why those black birds kept trailing them. After a couple three pages it hits you: the smell. Hehe. I still say Faulkner's best is Absolom, Absolom!! And those are his exclamation marks, not mine!! Or The Sound and the Fury, take your pick.
Where was Philip Roth? The greatest novelist of his generation. Winner of Pulitzer Prize, Kafka prize, National book award (twice), PEN award (three times) etc etc
Good shout.
@@Fiction_BeastAmerican Pastoral is my favourite from him
Why Huck Finn over Tom Sawyer?
"Tom Sawyer" was written for young people, and isn't serious literature. "Huck Finn" is an anti-slavery novel.
I cannot believe that Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter is not on the list.
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou seems like a very glaring omission. Angelou is read in almost every English class.
“Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne should probably also be there too. It is probably the best example of early Puritan life.
Thomas C. Stuhr U.S. author. Unknown until you read some of his work. Check him out. ♥️
I will. Thanks so much.
Id add In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, his pose is so elogant. And I rather enjoy T. E. D. Klein novel The Events at Poroth Farm and his longer novel The Ceremonies, an extention on Events at Poroth Farm.
Good list, but the road instead of Blood Meridian and Slaughterhouse 5 instead of Gravity’s Rainbow is crazy imo
No Pynchon or Nabokov? Melville is probably my favorite on your list. He was very passionate about writing and took risks writing Moby Dick, even receiving accusations of blasphemy. It ended up being highly controversial for Melville, who was raised in a Puritan household. Might of been that chapter where the whaler slips the foreskin of a sperm whale over himself for protection while the other sailors chant bible leaves! bible leaves! For all the arduous effort it requires, there's a one of a kind experience to be had.
Maybe for a future video. Thanks for the feedback.
You Yanks have made some damn good literature just like ur cousins the English lads, Poe and Ellis are my fav.
admittedly somewhat surprised that you didn't choose Blood Meridian for McCarthy but The Road is a great choice nonetheless
Really appreciate your comment. I havent read Blood Meridian, now on my TBR list.
The Road is good but Blood Meridian is a masterpiece! Please move it to the top of your TBR list, look forward to your video about it.
Wonderful! Thank you!
@@Fiction_Beast Blood Meridian is definitely McCarthy's best. Tough to get through cuz the violence in it is intense, but still worthwhile if you can get through the bloodier moments
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin and Beloved by Toni Morrison
john stienbeck of mice and men... grapes of wrath
Lovely video - but you missed David Foster Wallace
Oops! Thanks for watching.
THEEE SOUND AND THE FURY??!
Some of these comments are harsh. I'm sorry people are being so rude about you sharing your opinions on American literature that you like and that you feel define the voice of American literature.
This goes against your description/definition of the voice of American literature, BUT I'd still like to suggest reading indigenous American authors. Some well known ones include: Louis Erdritch, Tommy Orange, Scott Momaday, and Joy Harjo just to name a few.
Really, no Updike, no Philip Roth? I am surprised.
Put Gaddis on the list. List valid 👍
I'm sorry, but an American list without Faulkner can't be considered legitimate, especially with inclusions of the likes of bukowski and Vonnegut. I would have also have liked to have seen some hidden American geniuses like Gene Wolfe, R.A. Lafferty, and one who's pretty obvious, Flannery O'Connor. Having McCarthy on this list without his most prominent influences (Faulkner and O'Connor) is baffling.
I think you missed parts of the video.
Would no doubt have mentioned :
The Sound and the Fury (W. Faulkner)
V (Thomas Pynchon)
Laughter in the Dark (Nabokov)
A Moveable Feast (E. Hemingway)
Giovanni's Room James Baldwin)
Flannery O'connor (Short Stories).
The Demon (Hubert Selby) All the King's Men (R. Penn Warren). All of them excellent works. 💎👍❤️
No Hemingway? No Faulkner? Strange to see them missing along with James Baldwin but the inclusion of writers like Alice Walker. Raymond Carver is one if my favorite writers ever, but it’s a bold pick to choose him over Pynchon, DeLilo, or Wallace, especially considering Carver never wrote a novel. I love Harper Lee and Charles Bukowski, but they didn’t even write the best books in their decades, much less to be on the best of American authors list. All that being said, I appreciate that this list is clearly a product of your own views and not weighted down by the court of public opinion.
Oh and crazy to champion McCarthy’s “the road”over “blood meridian”
Old Man and the Sea as well as As I Lay Dying were both listed though. I agree on James Baldwin.
Wonderful list, however ponder these. An American Tragedy by Dreiser is the last word on American greed. Day of the Locust by Nathanael West satire of Hollywood. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, also The Big Sleep, it’s “Pulp Fiction,” but Anthony Burgess thinks it’s a great novel.