The Great American Novel

1. East of Eden- John Steinbeck

   Readers said:
   "captivating and thought-provoking", "beautiful and flawless", "a true american epic", "absorbing to follow"
    

   A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America's most enduring authors
   In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families-the Trasks and the Hamiltons-whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
   The masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: t ...Read More

    
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2. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

   Readers said:
   "lyrical and flowed", "short and deceptively simple", "flowery and descriptive", "slow and boring"
    

   Invited to an extravagantly lavish party in a Long Island mansion, Nick Carraway, a young bachelor who has just settled in the neighbouring cottage, is intrigued by the mysterious host, Jay Gatsby, a flamboyant but reserved self-made man with murky business interests and a shadowy past. As the two men strike up an unlikely friendship, details of Gatsby's impossible love for a married woman emerge, until events spiral into tragedy.
   Regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Great Gatsby is a vivid chronicle of the excesses and decadence of the "Jazz Age", as well as a timeless cautionary critique of the American dream. ...Read More

    
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3. The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck

   Readers said:
   "short, thematic chapters", "a timeless classic", "a literary masterpiece", "tragic and melancholy tale"
    

   The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized-and sometimes outraged-millions of readers. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read
   First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads-driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral visi ...Read More

    
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4. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West- Cormac McCarthy

   Readers said:
   "gritty and gruesome", "macabre magical realism", "profound and intense", "lyrical and dark prose"
    

   An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west."
   Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving. ...Read More

    
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5. Moby Dick- Herman Melville

   Readers said:
   "dense, luscious writing", "chasing the white whale", "a romping good yarn", "a true classic"
    

   When the young Ishmael gets on board Captain Ahab's whaling ship, little does he suspect that the mission on which he is about to embark is the fulfilment of his master's obsessive desire for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who has already claimed countless human victims and destroyed many fleets. With some sinister crew members in their midst and the hazardous conditions of the sea to contend with, the expedition becomes increasingly dangerous the closer it gets to its quarry.
   One of the great American novels, if not the greatest, Moby Dick epically combines rip-roaring adventure, a meticulously realistic portrayal of the whaling trade and a profound philosophical disquisition on th ...Read More

    
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6. Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

   Readers said:
   "a fictionalized memoir", "entertaining and refreshing", "fresh postmodern language", "simple, laconic style"
    

   Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
   Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber's son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or ...Read More

    
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7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain

   Readers said:
   "humourous and satirical", "slavery in the south", "long and tedious", "comic and observant"
    

   Widely considered one of the greatest American novels, Adventures of Huckleberry
   Finn tells the story of Huck Finn and his companion, the slave Jim, as they journey down the Mississippi river after running away from Huck's alcoholic father and Jim's owners.
   As they travel, they encounter a floating house, feuding families and cunning grifters, but more importantly Huck gets to know Jim and regard him as a friend
   and equal, overcoming the racial prejudices of the time, in a landmark narrative which poignantly addresses the issues of growing up and finding freedom. ...Read More

    
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8. Catch-22- Joseph Heller

   Readers said:
   "20th century absurdist", "bureaucracy and war", "wry and witty", "satirical anti-war novel"
    

   Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.
   Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.
   Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest-and most celebrated-books of all time. In recent years it has been named to "best novels" lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
   Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem ...Read More

    
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9. Lonesome Dove- Larry McMurtry

   Readers said:
   "gentle humour and compassion", "a long story", "it flowed so nicely", "a great adventure"
    

   The Pulitzer Prize--winning American classic of the American West that follows two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.
   Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember. ...Read More

    
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10. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

    Readers said:
    "fluid and prose beautiful", "crisp, wry, and spot-on", "vivid and beautiful", "an amazing novel"
     

    As seen through the eyes of his children, this is the legendary, wrenching story of lawyer Atticus Finch, who takes on a case that cuts deeply into the heart of racism in the 1930s Deep South. Mature content*
    * Title may contain language or content considered inappropriate for younger readers. ...Read More

     
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