To me, the Great American Novel doesn’t really exist in a literal sense; however, I do think it’s an interesting conversation topic to bring up because each of us has a unique definition for the GAN.
To me, *Moby Dick* is the closest candidate to being the Great American Novel, partially because it’s so re-readable and I think holds a special place in our literature for not just being a work of prose that can be compared to say the Divine Comedy or Hamlet IMO , but also producing an encyclopedic narrative around a diverse cast of characters representative of the backgrounds of many an American.
Compared to say, *To Kill a Mockingbird*, *The Great Gatsby*, or *The Grapes of Wrath*, I personally feel that the book has that fantastical narrative and nature as a narrative epic that makes it a better candidate for being the GAN than those other works.
As a reader, for me, the closest novels that come to being comparable to *Moby Dick* are *Blood Meridian* and *Gravity’s Rainbow*,
EDIT: *Blood Meridian* for not just being some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read by an American author outside of Melville and Pynchon, but also because of how it frames its narrative around the violence committed in the early days of US expansion.
EDIT 2: *Gravity’s Rainbow* for also having equally beautiful prose, but also for being so all-encompassing in its grand narrative surrounding the American government and the corporations birthed inside its borders as having a true monopoly on violence in the second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st.
by wiz28ultra
42 Comments
I was going to say The Great Gatsby, but upon reflection, I agree that it’s Moby Dick. The Great Gatsby holds 1st place in my heart, though.
For me so far Lonesome Dove, I have a lot of american classics left to read but so far that would be it hands down. What represents ‘america’ more than cowboys and indians, saloons and prostitutes, westward expansion and the dream of making money. It has love, comedy, irony, sorrow and triumph. It is the american novel in my mind.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Huck Finn! Addresses America’s growing pains pre-civil war, issues of slavery, and forming one’s own identity.
A Confederacy Of Dunces
East of Eden. The family and everything they went through are quintessentially American.
Blood Meridian
A brutally honest depiction of what “American Exceptionalism” really is.
It’s Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner tackles themes of race, war, ancestry, gender relations, southern pride, the toxicity that comes with that pride, and the idea that history is written by the victors—and then challenging that idea
Toni Morrison’s Beloved. It feel like an intimate ghost story at first, but it’s really about the massive effects of generational trauma spreading from the time of slavery to the present day. That book is so masterfully crafted.
The Great Gatsby – The American Dream was always a lie and if you get to high up, they will always try to push you back down.
Also, the only way anyone can get rich is to inherit or commit crimes. Find the lie.
not American, Canadian here, but let me chime in. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. because it represents the facades of being a self made man and the American dream. it shows that we are all striving for more even the people who seem to have it all like J Gatsby.
I always like to argue William Gaddis’s *JR* in this conversation. A beautiful, experimental, funny takedown of the absurd capital culture of the United States that deserves much wider readership (which I guess for now prevents it from GAN status).
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.
Whilst I agree with many saying The Great Gatsby is the Great American Novel, which to me it definitely is, I’d also add The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Essentially the dangers of living life in expectation of an inheritance (amongst many other themes) – and when finally that inheritance is yours, it is not really yours because you are wasting away on a boat.
Their Eyes were Watching God.
My vote goes to Catch 22. It’s just so different and I think is as well written as any other novel but in a very American voice. When I think great American authors I think of Heller, Vonnegut, and Bradbury.
I think the “great American novel” might be Catch-22. Someone else mentioned A Confederacy of Dunces which is also in the mix. I honestly think the great American novel has to be comedy, not because we are the only (or most) funny nation, but because our whole national identity is fairly absurd, and the great American novel has to capture that absurdity.
And I know I’ll catch some flack for this, but Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is also in the conversation for me.
I think it is Huckleberry Finn. Two powerless people just trying to survive in a country that hates them because of how they were born.
Oh the Places you Go. Perfectly encapsulates American exceptionalism and manifest destiny.
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Many good answers but I submit two for consideration.
All the kings men, for obvious reasons
My Antonia. At first it may not seem to be the great American novel, but it’s about an immigrant who came here for a better life and endures poverty and hardship. Not everyone can be special; most are ordinary and small, but perhaps beautiful anyway. It’s also told through the eyes of a privileged narrator who probably loves her but would never marry her bc of her class, so it’s also complex and political.
One I don’t see mentioned: Little Women
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Blood Meridian took me such a long time to read, not because of the story but because of how its written. I wish I could understand it better but i would never read that book again. Cormac McCarthy is a great writer of course.
I’m not American but I would have guessed something like The Catcher in the Rye or The Outsiders or anything by Jack Kerouac 🤷🏻♀️
as a non American I think John updikes “rabbit” novels. there are four of them.
I’ve read a lot of books and about 40% of them probably American. I just can’t think of anything that gives such a detailed and *comprehensive* picture of American society or the cold war era, as seen through the eyes and in the mind of yer average white American man. they’re a huge achievement.
I’m currently reading Moby Dick and absolutely love it. Sure the prose is hard sometimes, but sometimes it’s just beautiful:
“While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked.”
That being said, I love me some Steinbeck. East of Eden, wow. Cannery Row, wow. Of Mice and Men, wow.
You describing Moby Dick as an easy read gave me a chuckle. A LOT of people would disagree with it being easy and more so just unbearably tedious.
The US is much too broad and diverse to have only one great novel. The ones that spring immediately to mind are Huck Finn, Sound and Fury, Beloved and Invisible Man.
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I think *The Great Gatsby* is a good candidate because it takes a microcosm (Long Island society), enlarges it to a somewhat epic scope (through the eponymous Jay Gatsby), and then makes it relatable (by telling an intimate story about a larger than life character).
That’s what Americans try to do with everything — make it relatable. It doesn’t matter if it’s Donald Trump and his business practices, Bill Gates and his technology, or Jesus Christ and his philosophy; Americans want to pull down something they deem “lofty” and make it something they can do, too. Heck, on LinkedIn you can see a whole range of “influencers” who study celebrities in a given field to try and distill practices or hacks to help the Everyman be more like the heavy hitters.
Fitzgerald manages to do all of that in just over 200 pages while codifying the start of the brief period of time in which America had something resembling a unique culture pre-globalization and mass commercialization/exportation of American celebrities. That’s half the length of *Moby Dick* and less than a third of *Ulysses*.
The problem with determining a GAN is that America as a country developed a little too quickly to develop such pieces of culture. European nations, each with almost 1,000 years of peace and monoculturalism, had plenty of time to write epic literature and music that embodied their cultural aesthetics and values. America, being the melting pot, hasn’t truly *settled* into what being American means. We haven’t solved the race issues that plague our infrastructure (the civil rights movement kicked into gear 60 years ago), we haven’t kicked out immigrants and foreigners (a la Japan for 400 years), and we haven’t had enough time to create art for art’s sake instead of mass commercialization (think Andy Warhol).
I’m kind of surprised Infinite Jest hasn’t been mentioned yet (unless I missed it.) I know it has fallen out of favor in recent years, and I go back and forth myself questioning if its a work of genius or utter nonsense, but isn’t that, like, America in a nutshell? Ha.
Also, it’s newish, but I think The Overstory by Richard Powers will be more peoples’ answer to this question in a few years.
Of Mice and Men perfectly captures the struggles of the working class, those with mental disorders, African-Americans, and women that are still problems to this day. It also perfectly depicts the futility of the American Dream…for everyone besides rich white men, of course.
*Naked Lunch,* William S. Burroughs. (1959) The rest of the story.
I’d like to give a nod to Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion. Thoroughly American and just beautiful.
No country for old men
Underworld
Against the Day
Moby Dick
One of those three. Probably Underworld.
E. Forgot it’s actually Absalom,Absalom.
The Grapes of Wrath. I’m not American but have lived in the US for most of my adult life and have spent significant time in Oklahoma. I made a concerted effort to educate myself about American classics as I didn’t go to school in the US and literature is such an important part of culture.
Moby Dick is also great, but it deals with more universal themes. I think of it under “world classics” rather than “American classics”.
I honestly don’t get the hype about The Great Gatsby, I was bored reading it and that doesn’t usually happen when I read classics (any, not only American ones).
No one has mentioned White Fang by Jack London.
It was progressive on its depiction of wolves for the time it was written. It has lessons about youth, development into maturity and nature vs nurture. There’s some references and depictions of Native Americans but (to my recollection) didn’t fall into being racist or offensive towards them which is not a test other great classics always pass.
It also showed the different sides of man, both kindness and cruelty. And it still has some of the fantastical in it since it’s from the perception of a wolf. It didn’t shy away from the violence and cruelty but still focuses on an overall optimistic view based on healing through love and kindness, which is a theme still present in a lot of American media today.
I do actually agree that The Great Gatsby is a strong contender. But if we are going to mention other classic works I think Jack London deserved a mention.
Stoner, without a doubt.
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Michael Chabon’s The Wonder Boys. I can’t believe no one has mentioned it. I think that in this new America in decline, run by old confused men who refuse to stop writing the novel of our lives and just goddamn retire, Chabon’s novel is The Great American novel of our ruined country. It is also a literary wonder. Masterfully written while seemingly effortless. If you haven’t read it, you should. Chabon’s is still alive and young. Imagine that, a Great American novel written by a living person. No dead men or half dead men required.
For me it’s The Grapes of Wrath by a mile. It remains relevant today (and will remain so for a long time) because it captures the effects of America’s economic systems on regular people. The battle of rich vs. poor was relevant back when it was released and it will still be relevant 50 years from today. It’s a critique of unregulated capitalism as told through the eyes of normal working folks just trying to get by and make a better life for themselves.
I think there are multiple Great American Novels, but I know that one of them is *Song of Solomon* by Toni Morrison.
Also: *The Recognitions* by William Gaddis.