20th century American Lit recommendations

[Equality72521]

Definately give The Sound and the Fury a chance. Its a little hard to get through, but very worth it. I am enjoying the Socratic Seminar we are having over it right now. It would probably be best for you to read it once - and just read it. Then read it again. Or you could start with the last two sections and then read the first, it all depends on how you read.

Um, Truman Capotes In Cold Blood is amazing. I loved reading that - I definately suggest it. Also The Grass Harp, not my favorite, but it wasn't bad.

The Kitchen Gods Wife, by Amy Tan.

I didn't personally like the novel, but Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath

[dfloyd]

Try Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt, Main Street, and Arrowsmith. Upton Sinclairs' the Jungle.

[Wilde woman]

Catch-22

[Mariamosis]

I have always liked Steinbeck, (Except The Grapes of Wrath)

Anything Steinbeck, and especially 'The Grapes of Wrath'.

Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner although I am not partial to him.
Catcher in the Rye; Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Slaughterhouse-five - Kurt Vonnegut
Herzog - Saul Bellow
The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
(some of these may be repeats)

[The Comedian]

Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey -- It's a great book, and Abbey's prose style is like a cold beer to person who likes books about alcoholics.

[Don Quixote Jr]

20th century American Lit recommendations
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Any (or all) novels by Raymond Chandler
Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London
Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
Short Stories by Mark Twain

[mayneverhave]

20th century American Lit recommendations
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Hah, sorry?

[JohnMelmoth]

What do people on the forum think of Gore Vidal? I have read a lot of his stuff. Last year I read about ten of his novels because he looked really ill and I didn't think he'd last out the year. I thought his outstanding novel was Lincoln and that's the one I would recommend. Julian was good. The City and the Pillar is a pretty good read and took courage to write and publish. Most of the other novels I found just OK, though I loved Live from Golgotha for its irreligiousity. His essays are truly excellent but his memoirs I found disappointing. He's a hero of mine.

[promtbr]

Herzog - Saul Bellow
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
V - Thomas Pynchon
Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
Where i'm calling from - Raymond Carver
Suttree - Cormac McCarthy
White Noise - Don DeLillo
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Independence Day - Richard Ford

Very Eerie!

If I were asked to suggest a survey or sampling of POST WWII 20th Century American Fiction to a friend, I would have listed the above works. Only with the exception that I would have swapped Blood Meridian with Suttree for McCarthy, and added a selection of Donald Barthelme's short stories, and added any early W.H. Gass.

If I were to make the "Survey Course" less ethnocentric, I would add any work by Toni Morrison and James Welch...

Less chauvanistic I would add Eudora Welty

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[PabloQ]

Kelby,
If you're going to accept Hemingway through his short fiction, by all means force yourself to read The Old Man and the Sea. If you don't like that, give him up. It's one of the most beautifully written stories and it's little more than a lengthy short story.
I nominate House of Mirth as Edith Wharton's contribution.
I second the motion for Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, but I don't recommend The Jungle unless you really want to be disappointed and depressed.
Enjoy the journey!!

[kelby_lake]

I think Moby Dick put me off fishy stories

[Frankie Anne]

I'm relieved to see that I am not the only person who didn't enjoy "The Grapes of Wrath." I nearly got banned from another forum for saying that.

I also recommend "Babbit" by Sinclair Lewis. Haven't gotten to "Main Street" yet. It is in the pile.

[kasie]

Someone has already suggested Bernard Malamud - may I suggest his The Assistant as an either/or/and title as well?

[JBI]

Any book of poetry by Richard Wilbur.

[mono]

What do people on the forum think of Gore Vidal? I have read a lot of his stuff. Last year I read about ten of his novels because he looked really ill and I didn't think he'd last out the year. I thought his outstanding novel was Lincoln and that's the one I would recommend. Julian was good. The City and the Pillar is a pretty good read and took courage to write and publish. Most of the other novels I found just OK, though I loved Live from Golgotha for its irreligiousity. His essays are truly excellent but his memoirs I found disappointing. He's a hero of mine.

I read Creation some time ago and The City and the Pillar a bit more recently, and as much as I understand how and why others love him, he honestly did not do a whole lot for me - nothing, in fact. I agree that I respected The City and the Pillar a bit more, due to its context and plot during its publication time, but Creation . . .
Ironic I should come across this post, because a good friend of mine and I got into a conversation the other day about Gore Vidal, and he also highly recommended Lincoln. Now that I have heard/seen it promoted in more than one place, perhaps I will give Vidal a third chance, if I feel up to it. Thanks JohnMelmoth.