* Obviously, if you’re not ‘Murican, answer with a novel of the country in which you live or are familiar with. I don’t know enough about ‘Murican novels to answer this question definitively, so I certainly can’t do it for other countries! I’ve read some books that might be considered the Great __________ (insert your country here) Novel, but I don’t know. Is War and Peace the Great Russian Novel? I’ve read that. Unless it’s Crime and Punishment, which I also read (and loathed). Is a Dickens book the Great English Novel? I’ve read Bleak House and Great Expectations. Is Madame Bovary or Notre-Dame de Paris the Great French Novel, because I’ve read both of those. Ali and Nino is considered the Great Azerbaijani Novel, and I’ve read that. I’m not sure if Cry, the Beloved Country is the Great South African Novel, but I’ve read that. You get the gist!
Anyway, it’s been a while since I had a Question of the Week, and I’m bummed about that. During the week, I think of some occasionally, but it’s when I’m driving or something, and I forget about them later. I’m going to try to ask them more often, though, and this week, I’m wondering about the mythical Great American Novel. 
It seems like critics always want to find a Great American Novel, and I’m not sure why. It’s fun, I guess, to try to figure out one book that sums up a country’s entire existence, but it’s also profoundly silly. But we’re all about silliness here at the blog, aren’t we? So let’s dive right in!
Most people seem to think the Great American Novel is something like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which isn’t a bad choice. It’s a very good book, and it delves deeply into what the country was like in the 1840s, and Huck does struggle with what it means to be ‘Murican. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but I don’t have a problem with it being considered the Great American Novel. I guess To Kill a Mockingbird is another common choice, and that seems like a good one. I’ve never read it, so I can’t say. Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby could also be considered, and I can get behind both those choices. Moby-Dick, as I noted recently, is a tremendous book, and while it has a lot about what the country was like at the time, I’m not sure it’s a strictly “American” novel. Gatsby is a better choice, even if it’s not quite as good a book, because it is very much about the depravity of 1920s ‘Murica. On the Wikipedia page for “Great American Novel,” some candidates are listed. Some I’ve read, and some I haven’t. Neither of my choices is listed, which bums me right out.
One of the books listed is Underworld, Don DeLillo’s epic 1997 book that begins with the home run that Bobby Thomson hit in October 1951 to win the New York Giants the pennant and then follows the life of the boy who eventually ended up with the ball. DeLillo is my favorite author, so I very much like Underworld, but I still think White Noise is a more “Great American Novel” kind of book than Underworld. DeLillo obviously wanted to write an epic about ‘Murica with Underworld, and while he largely succeeded, it almost feels like too much of an attempt to write a Great American Novel. White Noise was, and remains, a fantastic portrait of modern ‘Murica, with its weird consumerism, its bland love affairs, the dislocation of the characters, the black humor, the blended families, and the absurdity of almost everything in it. It’s written with a wry unattachment, as if DeLillo is chronicling everything that crosses his vision without worrying about whether it fits into a narrative, but it’s also very tightly written, and as you go through it, it becomes clear how particular DeLillo is about every word. 
I first read it in a Postmodern Literature class in Melbourne in 1992, and it became, and remains, my favorite book. I just think it not only sums up the ‘Murican experience in the 1980s, but continues to do so, 40 years later. It still feels completely contemporary, and that’s not easy to do.
Another candidate, in my mind, is Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. It’s a marvelous book, telling two stories simultaneously, one of them taking place in the early 1970s (the book was published in 1971), as a historian digs into the lives of his grandparents of a century before, which is the other story. Stegner, who loves writing about the West, gives us a magnificent historical epic that feels very ‘Murican, but the modern story is the more emotionally gripping, as Lyman Ward tries to come to terms with his life and the way the country has changed. Thanks to this back-and-forth between time periods, the book is a sweeping examination of what makes someone ‘Murican and what that means across the generations. This is the only book by Stegner I’ve read (although I’m a quarter of the way through another one right now), but it’s really terrific, and feels like a good candidate for the Great American Novel.
So those are my two main choices. Obviously, the other ones I noted are good choices, and I’m sure there are plenty of others. What do you think is the Great American Novel? And if you’re not ‘Murican (for shame!!!!), what’s the Great Novel of your country or people? Fire away!
Hi Greg, great idea for a question of the week!
As you outlined, it can be quite difficult to separate ‘great book written by an American’ to a book that captures the essence of being American.
I love Moby-Dick but I’m not sure it is a ‘Great American Novel’ as it really only deals with a certain cross-section of society at that time. It does say a lot, but of a certain place/time. I would also say Blood Meridian is a great novel, but again more representative of a certain place and time of the US. The Grapes of Wrath would also be a good candidate in my opinion, and remains frighteningly relevant.
Being Scottish, I would try to choose the ‘Great Scottish Novel’ rather than British, Many of the leading English candidates for the title of ‘Great British Novel’ are heavily England-focused, and relate mainly to the classes and manners of that country. For Scotland, a good candidate is Trainspotting, which captures the Scottish experience of the 90s exceptionally well and remains relevant. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks is another novel that should be under discussion. Not sure if it says a lot about Scotland or about me that both of these books are quite disturbing in different ways! Also, Sir Walter Scott should of course be mentioned, being perhaps the greatest Scottish writer, but the only one of the Waverly novels I have read is the Bride of Lammermoor. Other potential choices are Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown (captures the mixed up history of Scotland very well) and The Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Tranter, exceptional novels based on the life and campaigns of Robert the Bruce. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, The Crow Road by Iain Banks, and Lanark by Alasdair Gray are others I would consider.
It might be surprising to see Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle omitted, who I would argue are more influential than those listed above and did obviously write exceptional books, but who didn’t really write novels based on the Scottish experience.
I hope you noticed I wrote “Great ENGLISH Novel” when referring to Dickens, because I certainly didn’t want to encompass all the Britains when writing of him! I forgot that Scott was Scottish, but I’ve only read Ivanhoe, and that’s definitely not Scottish. I like your modern choices — I guess Scotland is just disturbing!!!! 🙂
Of course, thank you for distinguishing between British and English! The classic ‘English’ novel is so much different from the Scots that they deserve their own category. Interestingly Sir Walter Scott was also a proponent of Scotland retaining our own bank notes, successfully lobbying against the Bank of England trying to discontinue them. To this day Scottish banks are allowed to issue their own banknotes (although having them accepted in some parts of southern England can be a challenge!). His fiction isn’t as widely read now but his influence is strong, and his legacy lives on in street names (particularly in Edinburgh) and through the Scott Monument, one of the main landmark’s in Edinburgh’s New Town.
Good question. My favorite is Slaughterhouse-Five, but I’m not sure it fits the remit.
I love Slaughterhouse-5, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count, unless you want to count it because it’s a great novel written by an American! 🙂
I’m probably not the best person to pick the Great English novel as I’m very focussed on genre fiction (though, of course, some fantasy/science fiction can reflect the real world through metaphor)
maybe (for a classic)
the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
or, for something more modern (with human protagonists) but less famous, maybe
the Brentford Triangle by Robert Rankin
I haven’t read the latter, but The Wind in the Willows isn’t a bad choice!
I’ll go with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston!
Shattering, life-affirming, and not an ounce of pretense.
That’s a good one. I haven’t read it, but my wife liked it a lot!
I have not read Moby-Dick but I want to get around to it. Melville’s short fiction and even his poetry is quite fascinating and surprised me with how “modern” it feels.
I HAVE read The Great Gatsby, and it seems like a good answer to this question. In some ways it does chronicle a uniquely American experience, very evocative of its era but still really resonant today.
In some ways, I think Winesburg, Ohio has a strong case, if you count it as a novel. In the stories that comprise the novel, you get a range of American neuroses: religion-instilled guilt and shame, obsession with yet repression of sex, the anxiety that comes with wanting to have the comfort of a small community but always knowing there is something bigger and ostensibly better out there…
There are parts of me that want to throw out some of the greatest genre novels: Ubik, Red Harvest, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Dark Tower, some of James Ellroy’s LA novels…
I could also sound smart and list some postmodern works of genius that still lie half-finished on my bookshelf, like Infinite Jest, Mason & Dixon, or The Recognitions…
I also have to give some love to some classics I read as a kid that stuck with me. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Louis Sachar’s Holes honestly should get some consideration. It might raise some eyebrows to group these all together, but they all stick together in my mind as books that are gripping and exciting to read as well as having some serious relevant themes embedded in their tricky narratives. I don’t know if they are quite as sprawling in scope as I envision the Great American Novel to be, though.
In the end, I might have to go with Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. It is a story about the American character that unfolds in an epic odyssey of sorts. The imagery in that book could only work in America and it’s still recognizable 70 years after publication. I haven’t reread it in years, I might have to very soon.
I don’t love Song of Solomon — I like Beloved a lot more — but Winesburg, Ohio and Invisible Man are excellent choices. Both feel contemporary (Invisible Man a bit more, but it’s impressive how modern Winesburg, Ohio feels) and both really speak to what it means to be an American.
A book that’s criminally overlooked is Little, Big by John Crowley.
A genre novel, for sure, poetic and haunting, grounded in reality and also ungrounded in unreality, I’ve read it many times and I’m not sure it didn’t tell me a different tale each time.
I don’t really have enough words to describe it here, it’s worth looking up some of the online reviews.
Man, it’s been a loooong time since I read Little, Big. A fine choice, sir!
If you want the “Great Mexican Novel”….I don’t know if there is one, but the one that to me, captures a big part of México is “Pedro Paramo” de Juan Rulfo.
Actually, I love more El Llano en Llamas(from the same author) but that is a short collection of short stories, so no great novel. I mean, Pedro Paramo IS also short(like 120 pages or so) and is great, but el llano en llamas is my jam(I think the english title is “The Burning Plain and Other Stories”. And it basically captures 1910’s-1940’s rural México to a T. Well, actually it still captures modern rural México pretty much perfectly, but that’s not the point.
To me, Rulfo is THE Mexican author. There are other great books, but even when I haven’t read El llano in some time I can still recall some of those stories. I don’t know if those stories translate well to english, but who knows, maybe they do. And if they don’t hey, at least is a short reading.
I’m unfamiliar with his work, but now I’m intrigued. I’ll have to check him out and hope there’s a good translation! 🙂