I know I come off as highly opinionated about a lot of different strange things. Sometimes at bars or parties or on buses, I will occasionally shout about topics with my outdoor voice. And I may or may not have threatened to break up with a boy because he didn't like Finding Nemo and therefore had no heart.
But when it comes to actual things worth having opinions about, I fully admit my inadequacy to tackle this topic. I will, because I love you, but please do not yell too much at me because your doctoral thesis was about how people who idolize Fitzgerald are ruining American literature. My doctoral thesis is currently about Should I continue watching American Idol even though ANTM is back on, because I already started that shit. So, you win by default.
In no particular order, here are ten books that I think of as the quintessential Americana.
1) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger,RD.
3) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
4) The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
5) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
6) O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
7)The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8) On the Road by Jack Kerouac
9) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
10) Beloved by Toni Morrison
I know these are all novels about American History now. But whether or not you like the American character in Tropic of Cancer, it rings true. Selfish, decadent, decrepit, soul seeking, confused, drunken, weeping, whoring, desperate, evil, futile, beauty in our faults, murder for ourselves, clawing our way from the fields, disappointing our forefathers True. History of the Empire True.
My favorite American short stories (which I think are harder to write when they are truly memorable, like ships in bottles) are by Flannery O'Connor, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, and Asimov. Yes, I'm counting him. I claim him for country.
And the quintessential American short story winner is The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I would like to have that story tattooed on my back, scroll-like.
PS I would have Margaret Atwood's "Rape Fantasies" tattooed on my torso and inner thighs, but she's Canadian, so you know.
