Please recommend great American novels!

Revolutionary Road

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Given your tastes with mid-century literary novels, coming of age, and close and specific communities, I suggest the following:

Ask The Dust - John Fante

Goodbye Columbus - Phillip Roth

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

Marjorie Morningstar - Herman Wouk

Wise Blood - Flannery O’Connor

Feel free to ask me any questions!

OP, I loved The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - please read it and come back to post about it OP.

Not American, but The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch is fantastic. 1973, if that helps, OP.

Well, of course I was going to say The Catcher in the Rye, Lol.

The Great Gatsby. I just reread it. Beautiful and poignant.

If you like plays, I also love Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real.

Usually, I prefer buying books with a nice cover! I'd even spend a bit more on a book with a nice cover.

I wanted to read Night of the Lonely Hunter anyway!

R5 I have that one at home. I remember watching it on a list of best first novels and decided to buy it. Ellison is not well known in my country but i suppose it was not uncommon, a lot of novels were not translated back then and even Baldwin is not that well known

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Leaving Las Vegas, a 1990 semi-biographical novel by John O'Brien about his struggles with alcoholism.

O'Brien died of a self-inflicted gunshot within weeks of signing away the film rights. The 1995 movie won Nicolas Cage an Oscar.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Last Exit to Brooklyn- Hubert Selby Jr.

Also, you would probably very much enjoy the short stories of John Cheever.

Ross Macdonald‘s series of Lew Archer detective novels (The Drowning Pool, The Barbarous Coast, etc.), really evoke 1950s to ‘70s Southern California, and are a lot of fun to read. Highfalutin escapism.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

On the road by Jack Kerouac. Bromance, touching story but he was a Canadian writer. Not bad on the eyes either imo.

The Lonely Lady by Harold Robbins

A trilogy by Reynolds Price should suit your preferences, OP: The Surface of Earth, The Source of Light, and The Promise of Rest.

The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

Gone Girl

A Shore Thing by Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi

OP that is very much my literary taste and I could make all kinds of recommendations but there are already a lot of good ones on this thread already and I don't want to bog you down with too many titles. But if you want to go on the more literary side of the ledger here are a couple:

Don DeLillo, "Americana" (1971) -- a disaffected young TV exec in NYC bails on his high-pressure career to drive around the country with vague plans of making a documentary film, hooks up with some strange characters. It might make you think of "Mad Men" at times. Not a lot HAPPENS in DeLillo's books but the writing is beautiful and cool and bewitching. He shares some turf with Didion but I believe is a deeper thinker.

Toni Morrison, "Song of Solomon" (1977) -- The son of an upper-middle-class Black family in Michigan in the '50s explores his family's secrets as his best friend gets involved in domestic terrorism. I've read this twice in the last couple years and could pick it up again anytime. It's so good.

And if I could reiterate another poster's recommendation here -- read Ellison's "Invisible Man." You also can't go wrong with Saul Bellow, especially "The Adventures of Augie March" or "Henderson the Rain King." I would also say, if you like DeLillo and Morrison -- keep reading. They both wrote at least a half dozen stone cold classics.

Two related books by from the 1950s by John Knowles. Phineas and a Separate Peace. I read them in high school English class. They may allude to feelings between young males. My English teacher was gay, so there you go.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Moby Dick, as much as you may hate them

The Scarlet Letter

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Stoner by John Williams

Falconer by John Cheever fits most of your criteria, OP: murder, young men in crisis, philandering bored suburban housewives.

If you're looking for something less dark, try Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is uniquely funny and touching.

‘Play It As It Lays’ by Joan Didion.

Americans have written such a huge amount of great literature. What do you mean by great American novels? Great novels written by Americans or great novels that speak of the American experience. Another genre American writers seem to excel is short stories.

‘The Informers’ by Bret Easton Ellis, another dystopian California work influenced by Joan Didion.

More decadent dystopian American youth coming-of-age story - East Coast Preppy version: Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’.

Some of my favorite American novels are Cormac McCarthy’s Border trilogy and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series.

Gone With the Wind, Mitchell To Kill A Mockingbird. :Lee The Great Gatsby. otzgetald The Fountainhead. Rand ..... all American greats.

Tod Moran series by Howard Pease

The World According to Garp

Another vote for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Written in 1940 and set in 1938 Georgia. So much in it reflects our current reality. Little seems to have changed in 80 years.

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

The Professor’s House by Willa Cather

Little Women

Another vote for House of Mirth.

Also, For Whom The Bell Tolls by Hemingway.

John Updike's Rabbit novels

[quote] Stoner by John Williams

R26 knows good writing. John Williams is one of the greats.

r41, I love books about bunnies! Does that one have a lot of big words? I hope not.

You should like them, R43. There's a lot of screwing around, and sex between a man and his daughter-in-law, so almost right up your alley.

R42. I agree. I just retired after teaching college for forty years. Williams had the culture dead to rights.

Scruples.

They Shoot Horses Don't They by Horace McCoy; and though his writing style is dated and takes a bit to get used to, check out Main Street, Babbitt and Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis.

Washington Square by Henry James. No-one agrees with me, but it’s a perfect book.

r48, I love that book. You're not alone.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

R48 The movie adaptation with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ben Chaplin was also excellent. And while I'm on the subject of adaptations, Gillian Anderson was wonderful in The House of Mirth.

Ten North Frederick, John O’Hara

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Anything by Joseph Wambaugh, known as the Grand Master of Police Novels In America; e.g., The Onion Field, The Choirboys

Anything by Joseph Wambaugh, known as the Grand Master of Police Novels In America; e.g., The Onion Field, The Choirboys

Alas, Babylon - about a group of people in a small 1950s town who survive a nuclear attack on America

Stranger in a Strange Land. Robert Heinlein

Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov

Cities in Flight, James Blish

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LrGuin

It's Ursula K. LeGuin ^

Another Country by James Baldwin

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Butterfield 8 by John O'Hara

Not a book, but a fantastic household tool is a ball-peen hammer, OP! Hope that helps!

Another vote for A Separate Peace.

Of Mice and Men hasn't been mentioned yet, has it? I don't think you could go wrong with any of Steinbeck's major works.

Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment.

James A Michener's Tales of the South Pacific might be worth including, though of course it's not so much about American suburbia. Chesapeake could be worth a look as well.

I would not recommend The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter if you're at all prone to depression. It's a great book, but bleak as hell.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The best American WWII book, I think.

The American/Henry James

The Rise of David Levinsky/Abraham Cahan

McTeague/Frank Norris

U.S.A. trilogy/John Dos Passos

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym/Edgar Allan Poe

An American Tragedy/Theodore Dreiser

A Mother's Kisses/Bruce Jay Friedman

Lolita

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. Set in a surreal and satirical version of early-to-mid 60s California, it follows a suburban housewife on her journey to settle an ex-lover's estate, which plunges her into a world of conspiracy theories.

Bright Lights, Big City

American Psycho, the book, *not* the movie.

It's been mentioned, but I'd highly recommend John Updike's Rabbit series. The first one is a bit difficult to get into, but the rest are more accessible and exactly what you want: small town/middle-class American portraits, written beautifully.

....

Yep, the “Rabbit” books are right up OP’s street. There’s even a few Pennsylvania Dutch words sprinkled in, you’ll feel right at home.

As mentioned up thread - Stoner by John Williams. Add to that Butcher’s Crossing. The man could write and eclectically and remains criminally under sung.

Yes, Falconer by John Cheever also. His diaries are fascinating, if bleak, as well.

City of Night - John Rechy

Popism - Andy Warhol

Hells Angels - Hunter S Thompson

Naked Lunch - William Burroughs

I've read Stoner, but aging college professors are boring. I ordered Alber Camus' The Stranger, Of Mice and Men and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

The Rabbit Series is so long and has 1500 pages!

Thank you for your tips!

PS: Little Children with Kate Winslet is one of my favourite American suburbia movies!

Uh, GGG, so you just went with the novel you were already inclined to get, then another Steinbeck, and finally a French novel to boot.

Yeah, what the hell with "The Stranger"? English version of a French book?

R74 R75 Well, I already ordered them yesterday. I just wanted to get more inspiration and have already added some titles on my wish list, including Falconer.

I’d take a look at the works of both Marilynne Robinson and Wendell Berry.

So Dark the Waves on Biscayne Bay - Barbara Thorndyke

No Vonnegut mentioned?!

Another vote for Toni Morrison, all her novels are great, but “Beloved” is my personal favorite.

For beautiful, straightforward narrative writing that captures a distinctly American Zeitgeist my votes are Wallace Stegner and Willa Cather. With Willa Cather my faves are most people’s favorites “My Antonia” and “Death Comes for the Archbishop.” Wallace Stegner on the other hand I prefer his later works “All the Little Live Things” and “Crossing to Safety.” But all of their novels are a pleasure to read.

And Herman Melville can be a lot of fun.

I don't feel like scanning the thread but the collection of Truman Capote's stories, the one containing Hand Carved Coffins, is really good, mein OP. Also, he doesn't use big words, so you won't have to have a dictionary to look up words.

Actually, I just did a google search and there is a volume of his complete short stories. I'd go for that one. If you read it, please give us your opinion.

R81 I'm a bottom, so I like my words big!

Has anyone read Other Voices, Other Rooms? It sounds interesting and I like Capote.

William Faulkner - one of America's greatest writers

The Sound and the Fury

As I lay Dying

R84 I tried them both, but I hated them. I read SatF exactly one year ago, it has such a beautiful cover and the story seemed interesting, but I didn't get it at all and needed to google in order to be able to follow the book, I thought it would get better, but I got lost immediately. I wanted to like it though. I kind of hate Faulkner.

It could be that these novels have no cultural importance to you, GermanGGuy.

Southern Gothic at it's best. The fall of post Civil War South, reconstruction followed by Jim Crow laws and segregation.

R86 It's not a question of importance, i don't doubt Faulkner's talent but i didn't liked As i lay dying at all

I haven't read all that much that fits your genre requests. The only thing I can think of is "In Cold Blood" which loosely fits "non-fiction about serial killers" (they were killers but not serial killers). I think at least one other DLer mentioned it, too.

R88 I read it when I was 17 and I loved it! I'd prefer novels similar to that one! I also love Crime and Punishment, but l Iike The Talented Mr. Ripley more!

The Big Sky and The Way West, both by A.B. Guthrie.

The first is about mountain men in the West/Pacific Northwest in the 1820s/1830s. The second is about a wagon train on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. (One character links the two novels.)

The Way West won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. They're both very well-written.

No mention of John Irving yet? Some of his more sweeping novels cover a the time period you mention OP. Cider House Rules is perhaps his masterpiece and a Prayer for a Owen Meany.

Toni Morrison is Faulkner’s stylistic heir. If you didn’t like him, don’t bother with her.

I just don't like that stream of consciousness style of Faulkner.

The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West

Seconding Lonesome Dove

Anything by Jodi Picoult!

R92 Sorry but no, i loved Beloved and i really like her style and i didn't like Faulkner at all. And it's not a problem with southern gothic either, i really like Carson McCullers too.

Sometimes you just don't connect with a writer's style, that doesn't mean you can appreciate he or she is a good writer but you simply don't like him

I guess if you like Capote and New York settings, you've probably read Breakfast at Tiffany's. If not, it's brilliant. It's also nice and short, which seems to be one of your many criteria.

Any novel by James Baldwin.

James Baldwin's Another Country, O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra, Holleran's Dancer from the Dance and Grief, Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Carol. And if you want to expand to short stories, don't ignore Eudora Welty, Jean Stafford, and Katherine Ann Porter.

I believe Mrs. Bridge may meet some of OP’s criteria. I have it checked out from the library and will be reading it after I finish Hamnet.

I was going to recommend Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment. Then I started to reread it, and after a hundred pages or so, I decided I couldn't stand Aurora Greenway—whom I had always visualized as Bea Arthur, BTW—and her control issues.

Have you looked at the latest Philip Roth thread, OP?

Oh, and you really ought to read Dancer from the Dance.

DO NOT sleep on Toni Morrison just because of the Faulkner comparison. Some of her later work can be difficult to penetrate but her first five novels (Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved) are all pretty accessible! And by the time you get to her later stuff the early books will have trained you to read her.

If you liked "East of Eden," you should read "Angle of Repose" by the aforementioned Wallace Stegner.

Anything by Willa Cather. My Ántonia is a wonderful book.

Also, without reservation, I recommend Anita Loos' most successful book, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This is where Lorelei Lee first appeared. All on its own, it's a great book. But it has this extra feature of being the origin of a character who has stayed with us for nearly 100 years.

R96 I completely agree with you. She is the far superior writer. Beloved is one of my top ten favorite novels of all time. Faulkner isn’t even in the top hundred. That said they are both stream of consciousness writers with unreliable narrators who continually circle back to traumatic events. And you are absolutely correct about recognizing talent without enjoyment. That’s my feeling about Charles Dickens.

Based upon what GermanGayGuy has said about what he likes, I revise my Wallace Stegner recommendation for him to “Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

Another vote for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Wanted it to go on and on.

T.C. Boyle should be on this list. I've loved many of his novels, but would single out Water Music, East is East, and The Tortilla Curtain. He is a terrific writer.

At this point in history, The Tortilla Curtain should be on the required reading list in every college in America.

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Confederacy of Dunces. It is brilliant comic writing, and it still is relevant today.

[quote]young men in a crisis

OP You might enjoy some of the Robert Cormier novels: I am the Cheese, After the First Death, The Chocolate War

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

I've just finished reading We've Always Lived in a Castle by Shirley "The Lottery" Jackson. I found it weird but entertaining.

John Irving's "The World According to Garp" or "A Prayer for Owen Meany"

Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied, Sing"

Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night"

“Tinkers” by Paul Harding.

I don’t think it’s been mentioned, no one knows it, but it did receive a Pulitzer.

I prefer Tar Baby out of all of Toni’s books. The rest of her stuff is too dense and she goes off on these tangents, making it hard to follow.

Morrison's "Tar Baby" is so good! I think it is her most straightforward novel, it's almost soapy but also incredibly well-written.

True r116... “...he was accustomed to the best pussy in Florida....” my favorite line in the book. I may have misquoted it...

Stephen King

R114 It's my less favourite Pulitzer in recent times. Has a lot of good things but i found it uneven (and it's a quite short novel)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

"The Son" Philipp Meyer

As a native Texan, I wanted to like "The Son", but it just didn't work for me. I found none of the main characters likable. And I'm no prude, but the passages of vulgarity seemed so unnecessary and just took me out of the story.

R122 You don't find them likeable because they are not likeable (well the son is kind of a good person), anyway i think it's a great novel (way better than The goldfinch that won the Pulitzer that year)

The Great American [Frau] Novel:

OP, read John Dos Passos' U.S.A. Trilogy. Great writing illuminating a compelling time in American history.

I want to know why the gays hate Vonnegut!

Something about the OP is obnoxious.

Agree that The Son is great.

OP, read Gore Vidal's MYRA BRECKINRIDGE and its sequel, MYRON.

[quote]I want to know why the gays hate Vonnegut!

We do? I read all of his novels when I was a college sophomore. I didn't hate Kurt Vonnegut.

No one brought him up but me. I thought I was an anomaly.

And I loved his family's hardware store.

Agree with R26. Ernest Hemingway said "All American literature comes from one book ... Huckleberry Finn."

Catheter in the Eye

If you love reading about upper middle class suburban couples of 50’s and 60’s, you can’t beat Richard Yates. He’s one of my favorite writers of all time. Revolutionary Road has been recommended. The Easter Parade, Young Hearts Crying, Disturbing the Peace, and A Special Providence are all great.

His Eleven Kinds of Loneliness is my favorite book of short stories ever. If you can expand to Canada and like short stories, Alice Munro is my other favorite.

I think Vonnegut is probably great ... if you're a sophomore in college. I made the mistake of not picking up one of his books (Cat's Cradle) until I was an adult and it seemed shallow and pseudo-intellectual with wooden characters. I don't have anything against him but it made me not interested in picking him up again.

R127, I think it's partly his abundant use of exclamation points.

It’s a German thing. Add exclamation points after all imperatives! Follow this rule at all times!