In THE NEW YORKER, last week, Adam Gopnick wrote that American writers have produced three exceptional novels: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE GREAT GATSBY, and CATCHER IN THE RYE. He goes on to say that only the last has touched the adolescent heart around the world, however.
I agree with last statement more than the first, I guess.
Are these the U.S' three finest novels? What about MOBY DICK, A FAREWELL TO ARMS, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. Or THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND and other stories, THE SOUND AND THE FURY. Or (the play) THE CRUCIBLE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, or GRAPES OF WRATH, LOLITA, NATIVE SON. You get the point.
I must admit that HUCK FINN is not my cuppa tea. I can't get past the dialect, for one thing. What three would you name? Is CATCHER IN THE RYE even Salinger's best. I'd vote for NINE STORIES personally.
46 comments:
I'd got An American Tragedy, Gatsby, Red Badge of Courage.
Boy, An American Tragedy was such a great book. Does anyone still read it?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Ooh, an original thinker. I had no idea you were a post-modernist, George.
A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story. And The Crucible a play.
I would definetly agree with Huckleberry Finn. My favorite novel of all time.
George-I am also a big fan of Sot Weed Factor.
It's really hard to narrow something down like this to only 3. A lot depends on what you've read last.
I think a Faulkner book is essential. More than Salinger. Because a book touches us in our youth, does not make it one of the three greatest US books of all times. Still don't get Huck Finn. Twain's greatness eludes me.
Of those I have only read Gatsby, and have no desire to read the others. At this point Catcher in the Rye is a book that refuse to read-- just because so many people have told me that I should.
Having admitted that I haven't read a lot of the "classics" (mostly because in high school I got the 'all you will read in college is dead white men, so you are going to read minority writers. Of course when I got to college it was 'All you read in high school was dead white men'), for me the three greatest American novels have to be:
The Big Sleep, L.A. Confidential, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay.
I'd go Huckleberry Finn, Lolita and The Scarlett Letter. They are all masterpieces and are commentaries about the time in which they were written. Although I hate to narrow it down to three. An impossible task.
Iren-I love Chandler but don't feel its his best novel. Its too patchwork. I prefer The Long Goodbye.
Hmmm, here's my thinking. Jazz is a uniquely American thing that has contributed to the overall global music vocabulary. When I think of American writers, I trend toward books and/or writers that have contributed a uniquely American outlook upon the overall literature of the world.
That's why I'll still keep Huck Finn on my list: an American author speaking about the American character in the 19th Century.
The second book on my list would be Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. He took a genre whose most famous practitioners, at the time, were British, and Americanized it. Everyone--Spillane, Chandler, Lehane, and even subsequent British and other global authors--write in Hammett's shadow.
The American West is also something that's uniquely American. Thus, for me, you need a Western in there. Why not go with one that is as wide open as the West itself: Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. He took all the tales of the West and distilled into an unforgettable epic.
Wow. Interesting. I'm so glad George mentioned The Sot-Weed Factor, one of my favorites.
But top three? I'm too much of a street-learned autodidact to know what should be in the top three.It's, as they say, beyond my pay grade.
But I'd put The Sunlight Dialogues or October Light in the top ten, just to be contrary. Or maybe Rabbit Run.
Huck Finn is like Citizen Kane; it's in everyone's top three for good reason. Count me a fan.
And I'm with Patti on the Nine Stories. Goddam that's good.
Patti, I like NINE STORIES too but look at the title. The category was "American novels." I've never read Dreiser, I must admit.
I wouldn't put Chandler in my top 3 either, but if I did it would be FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, not LONG GOODBYE.
Sorry, but not a John Barth fan either. And I still like THE SUN ALSO RISES. If that makes me lowbrow, so be it.
Jeff M.
I remember how many people read John Gardner today. He was so crucial in the seventies and October Light was my favorite.
But the Nine Stories function as a novel-so I'd make an exception.(IMHO).
Of course, no literary person would allow a genre novel but in a way Chandler and McMurtry captured something pretty important to American. The Sun Also Rises does not make you a low-brow, Jeff. I think most people would include that book.
I gotta read Cavalier and Clay-every guy under forty loves that book. Must be a reason.
Three is an impossible task. Ten maybe would capture it.
Although HUCK FINN would not make my list, my husband read it to our children some time ago and they were all falling about laughing (my husband is very good with voices) and, in some spots, crying. So it must still touch a chord. Perhaps with the increasing popularity of audio books, some of these classics will be "read" more often.
As for me: Moby Dick, The Sound & the Fury, and An American Tragedy. If we could count all of Flannery O'Connor's short stories as one very long novel, I'd replace Tragedy with O'Connor.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Old Man and the Sea
The third one is pretty hard to place but I think I am going with...
Deliverance
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD-just reread it a year ago and it held up wonderfully. Never had the nerve to read DELIVERANCE after seeing it.
I'm curious as to why The New Yorker limited themselves to just three? Three is such a limiting number (considering how many great books there are out there), but as for the ones chosen by the New Yorker, I'm fine with them. All great books that tell stories that reflect back upon the country as a whole at a certain time. Lots of other books could be nominated (many mentioned in the comments section already) and are just as worthy. Native Son would be up there for me, as well.
Making any kind of "list of bests" is a bizarre and subjective exercise, especially when you think more carefully about the superlative (and exclusive) sense of the words "finest" or "best." As for the argument that superlatives cannot extend beyond embracing a single item, I'll leave it for another time, and play along here (sort of) by suggesting that anyone who names "three finest American novels" does so by drawing upon books he or she has actually read, which means that hundreds (or thousands) of others never get considered. I would also add that historical perspective means something here: after all, MOBY-DICK was a failure when it was published (and ignored for a long time afterwards), and now is considered among the "finest"; at the same time, many of the "finest" novels of the 1850s--as assessed by people in the 1850s--are largely ignored by people in 2010. Well, with all of that having been said--as grist for the mill--I offer my three books for this exercise: Ernest Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES, Flannery O'Connor's WISE BLOOD, and (just to demonstrate how idiosyncratic such lists can be) Richard Brautigan's TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA.
I think it may have just been Adam Gopnick that limited it to three books--not sure why. I'll have to look at the piece again to see if he said why.
WISE BLOOD-that's what I should have chosen.
Never read TROUT FISHING so that wouldn't make my list for exactly your point. Also why I shouldn't have included MOBY DICK-have never made it through.
Adam Gopnick says (though I think he is wrong for a number of reasons, including--certainly--the label of "perfect" books that "speak to every reader and condition"):
In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition: “Huckleberry Finn,” “The Great Gatsby,” and “The Catcher in the Rye.”
His statement, taken out of context, deserves careful analysis and repudiation. Gopnick is simply wrong on many levels.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/02/08/100208ta_talk_gopnik#ixzz0exR0fbxa
So I guess the number was three because he felt there were only three perfect books that spoke to us. I think that statement is just too global--if that's the right word. There is no book that speaks to all of us above all others. Nor even three.
I guess I was asleep when this was posted. So I'm coming in too late, but here goes anyway. I'd take Gatsby off, it's good but not the great American novel. I don't think Catcher should be there either. Would it have been 10 years ago? It's inclusion is likely because Salinger just passed away. I'm okay with Finn.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Sinclair Lewis. I'd have thought BABBIT would deserve mention. Also, no mention of ATLAS SHRUGGED?
TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA is not worthy of mention. I stumbled upon it on my shelves and reread it just a couple months ago, though I could barely get through it. What seemed so great back when seemed silly through my 2009 eyes.
Certainly, Hemingway and Steinbeck both deserve mention, and Faulkner's SOUND AND THE FURY or INTRUDER IN THE DUST should be one of the three.
One more thought - how about A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole?
Ah, I see an objection to Brautigan's novel. You've found me out since I included that title just to tweak a few noses (with humor) and underscore the subjective, personal, idiosyncratic nature of all lists of so-called "greats," "bests," or "most exceptional" novels.
When I first read Brautigan (long, long ago), I was also under the spell of Vonnegut, Robbins, and a few others of a similar ilk. Do I now think Brautigan wrote "fine" novels? That remains a debatable point. Of course, you never know what will emerge fifty years from now as the "best" novels of the middle or late 20th century.
By the way, a few of the titles mentioned by others in this string of comments are--by my estimate--unreadable and unworthy.
Now, what do our differences of opinions say about lists of "bests" and ourselves as readers? The answer is worth considering.
I wonder if any two people would agree on the same three books. And I also wonder if the three anyone of us chose today is what we'd choose a year or even six months from now.
Huck Finn is the Blazing Saddles of its day. (And it's glaringly obvious Mark Twain would have helped out on that script had he been around in 1973.) When you see how the more bigoted characters behave, you have to wonder just who Twain was sticking it to from his past. Same with the actors playing the rednecks in Blazing Saddles.
Huck Finn taps into America's inner smart ass, something that needs to be coaxed out, nurtured, and allowed to run amok once more.
Preferably through someone who isn't a political "expert."
As a foreigner I don´t feel I have read enough American literature to suggest the three best, but To Kill a Mockingbird is my personal favourite.
(And something less serious but very teachable: One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest).
I should probably try Huck again.
Oh, yes, I bet non-Americans would have a different list entirely. Dorte-what are the three essential Danish books? Any of them translated into English?
When it comes to the Big Sleep, I only really think it's great, because it, like Gatsby, is about the wealthy and how they don't feel they should play by or be held accountable the rules that rest of society has to.
R.T. - you succeeded, and it was a treat to see the Brautigan title just so I could mention my recent re=reading of it and my opinion thereof.
Dorte - or "European" novels, or classics you were exposed to as such.
As I have been Anglofile since I had my first English class nearly forty years ago, I think I will settle for one American and two British then:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
But what is the great Danish novel? We need some enlightenment here. Always meant to read OUR MUTUAL FRIEND. Have read all of Austen multiple times.
Perhaps Pelle, the Conqueror. Loved that movie. One of the few films I have ever rated a 10.
Though he did not write many novels, I will put Hans Christian Andersen on top of my list for his fairy tales. A favourite = The Ugly Duckling.
Nexø´s novel Pelle the Conquerer certainly deserves to be on a list of great Danish classics so let me put him as no two.
My third choice is not a novel either but a novella written by Steen Steensen Blicher, Hosekræmmeren (The Hosier).
And as my older daughter says, my first choice should have been Johannes V. Jensen, The Fall of the King (another one I have not read).
Or, as my younger daughter says, I should just put Astrid Lindgren on the list though she is Swedish.
I definitely didn't care for A catcher in the rye, and it didn't speak to me when I was an adolsescent. I don't know what 3 I'd pick. Huckleberry finn, maybe. Moby dick, probably. the scarlet letter. there are quite a few to chose from.
Now that Dorte has opened the door to British novelists, I'd have to give a nod to Joseph Conrad, particularly HEART OF DARKNESS, LORD JIM and THE SHADOW LINE all favorites.
This is where George jumps back in and suggests Henry James.........
This Canadian also wants to tweak a few people so how come no one has mentioned The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged?
THE SHADOW LINE. Will have to check that out.
I devoured THE FOUNTAIN HEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED as a youth. Haven't read them since though.
Rick, I like your idea of CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and I also like LONESOME DOVE a lot, though not top 3 worth. And I agree on TROUT FISHING, a book that was too light 40 years ago.
How about SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE or another I'm surprised has gone unmentioned, since I know a lot of people love it, CATCH-22?
Jeff M.
I think TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD could get the highest percentage of agreement.
And George might go for Trollope if we include British writers.
Jeff M.
To Kill covers a lot of bases for Americans: racism, youth, politics, goodness, evil...the gamut, a particular era in America. Hard to beat it.
Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post has a regular feature called Second Reading in which he reexamines important books. He brings to this task a rare erudition and superb judgment. Here you will find his deeply negative review of The Catcher in the Rye; a very positive one of Gatsby. Many other of the books mentioned here are covered. If you want to see a truly gifted critic at work, read his critique of Edna Ferber's Giant, seen from a modern perspective.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/19/LI2005041903474_1.html
I almost put his list up a few weeks ago, Richard. Very interesting reading.
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN was, along with BILLY BUDD which I like almost as much as "Bartleby the Scrivener" and really have to get to MOBY DICK some day, one of the first domestic attempts to get to the real heart of darkness, and the light first chapters and the strained last ones aren't the important part of the book, of course.
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES is precisely as good as Ayn Rand. I'd put some of the lesser works of Stephen King ahead of either. This is saying a lot. Richard Brautigan livens the list a bit, though I like THE ABORTION...
Three books because Gopnick thought that would be charmingly challenging, yet more manageable than ten (which of course would still be ridiculous).
Hm. Three Yank books I like better than CATCHER and about as well as GATSBY and FINN which attempt to say large truths about life, and do so masterfully:
Joanna Russ, THE FEMALE MAN
Kurt Vonnegut, BLUEBEARD
and, though it could just as easily been any number of others, as well, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, THE TRACK OF THE CAT
Then there are those Canadians...and the Argentines...and...
I'm surprised you didn't mention REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Patti.
Faulkner and Hemingway, I agree, both belong on the list. So does Dreiser. Farewell to Gatsby, Huck, and Catcher in the Rye. I say Sound and Fury, Farewell to Arms, and An American Tragedy.
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