I appreciated the discussion about The Great American Novel. I would add Augie March to the honorable mention category, along with a handful of Cather’s works and two of Toni Morrison’s. I also don’t think Hemingway’s use of European backdrops makes him less American; expat fiction is itself a feature of American letters in a way that it isn’t for French or British writers (Henry James of course, but others who never shed their Americanness, Fitzgerald included).
I also think American lit is regional in a way that French and English novels are not. A Western novel is not a Southern novel is not a New England novel. It gives us a varied canon but it makes it difficult for a single novel to represent the whole.
oooh ... love that comment about Nick's prose being an expression of longing for something transcendent.
FYI, David, should you ever venture to San Marcos, Texas, Texas State University, The Wittliff Collections has a permanent exhibit of memorabilia from the TV series Lonesome Dove. People come to, I'll just say, the corpse, and weep. Also, I know children named for Gus and Call. I definitely think it belongs in the Mount Rushmore discussion because you can't talk about America without talking about the West.
I appreciated the discussion about The Great American Novel. I would add Augie March to the honorable mention category, along with a handful of Cather’s works and two of Toni Morrison’s. I also don’t think Hemingway’s use of European backdrops makes him less American; expat fiction is itself a feature of American letters in a way that it isn’t for French or British writers (Henry James of course, but others who never shed their Americanness, Fitzgerald included).
I also think American lit is regional in a way that French and English novels are not. A Western novel is not a Southern novel is not a New England novel. It gives us a varied canon but it makes it difficult for a single novel to represent the whole.
oooh ... love that comment about Nick's prose being an expression of longing for something transcendent.
FYI, David, should you ever venture to San Marcos, Texas, Texas State University, The Wittliff Collections has a permanent exhibit of memorabilia from the TV series Lonesome Dove. People come to, I'll just say, the corpse, and weep. Also, I know children named for Gus and Call. I definitely think it belongs in the Mount Rushmore discussion because you can't talk about America without talking about the West.
Yes, agreed. I think it’s as likely as any novel of the last 75 years to last.