American Literature

[tbach24]

I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest right now and am really enjoying it.

I need one more American literature book to read for school.

I'm taking standard English but in the packet they have books for AP students. They are:

Grapes of Wrath- Steinbeck
Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang- Joyce Carol Oates
Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
All the Pretty Horses- Cormac McCarthy
Shipping News- Annie Proulx

Any other suggestions welcome

I want short and entertaining as I'm pretty impatient. Not too short where it's apparant I only read it for length though. I'll be a junior.

[bisonbison]

Read Catch-22.

[hoopsie44]

Too Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

[istewart]

These aren't all AP English books, but:

Reefer Madness - Eric Schlosser
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
Cobb - Al Stump (you'll like this one)

AND

Matilda - Roald Dahl (you'll like this one too - pwned tbach)

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
Too Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

[/ QUOTE ]

I love this book but unfortunately it's freshman reading.

[Thythe]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a very good choice. I'd also recommend 1984.

[thatpfunk]

Catch 22 is a good choice also The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I'm not sure if these count since they are by American writers but not based in the US?

Huck Finn is always a good choice. I doubt you will be dissapointed with Great Gatsby.

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct.

Gatsby is an easy read and you shouldn't become an adult w/out having read it.

"The Old Man and the Sea" is a long story/short book by Hemingway that kicks so much ass it's scary.

[spamuell]

I'd also recommend 1984.

It's excellent but Orwell was British.

[shadow29]

Here's a short but easy one:

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.

Nobel winner, too.

[ClaytonN]

Walden

[Thythe]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd also recommend 1984.

It's excellent but Orwell was British.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whoops...guess I didn't read the original post too well. I'll slink back to my cave.

[edtost]

"the crying of lot 49" - thomas pynchon

its quite short and is 'entertaining'; it was my favorite book from my modern american lit class in college (besides possibly invisible man, which is quite lengthy), but could definitely be read by a hs student.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
Gatsby is an easy read and you shouldn't become an adult w/out having read it.

[/ QUOTE ]

true, but if you're reading fitzgerald, "this side of paradise" or preferably "tender is the night" (can we call this american lit even though it was written and set in france?) are far better novels than gatsby, imo.

[Anders_G]

While we're already mentioning old-school science-fiction
* Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
* Huxley - Brave New World

Ok, huxley is brittish but whatever.
I also recommend Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

[tbach24]

I've read F451 and was kinda meh on it (although admittedly I didn't make it to the end because I thought it was very boring).

I really liked The Old Man and the Sea.

I think I'll definitely read both Catch-22 and Great Gatsby, and if I make it through those, HP6 and my history assignment I'll look to the rest.

Thanks to the suggestions, I hope to read them all at some point.

Edit- just finished part 1 of OFOTCN and it was the greatest thing ever. That last little segment is so amazing. I got a big grin reading it.

[RicktheRuler]

Light in August, by William Faulkner.

[M2d]

cat's cradle

[Pocket Trips]

not sure ifd it will qualify but you would enjoy "catcher in the rye"

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
not sure ifd it will qualify but you would enjoy "catcher in the rye"

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this the one about the kid who runs away from prep school?

[Pocket Trips]

yes thats y I figured it'd be perfect for you /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
yes thats y I figured it'd be perfect for you /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, I actually ran away from my theraputic school.

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Gatsby is an easy read and you shouldn't become an adult w/out having read it.

[/ QUOTE ]

true, but if you're reading fitzgerald, "this side of paradise" or preferably "tender is the night" (can we call this american lit even though it was written and set in france?) are far better novels than gatsby, imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

As long as we're reading Fitzgerald and we have a short attention span like our friend tbach here, let's read the short stories, beginning with "Babylon Revisited".

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]

Edit- just finished part 1 of OFOTCN and it was the greatest thing ever. That last little segment is so amazing. I got a big grin reading it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stuff like this makes me happy.

[mmbt0ne]

Confederacy of Dunces is an awesome book.

[Mayhap]

A Man in Full -- Tom Wolfe

[Phoenix1010]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll be the fourth to agree with this. Maybe my favorite book, definitely in my top 3.

[Pocket Trips]

you can also try "A seperate peace" or "the Red Badge of Courage" Both by Steinbeck I believe.

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
you can also try "A seperate peace" or "the Red Badge of Courage" Both by Steinbeck I believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was Red Badge of Courage the one where the soldier imagines his own death or something odd like that? If so, I've read it.

[mmbt0ne]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:</font><hr />
you can also try "A seperate peace" or "the Red Badge of Courage" Both by Steinbeck I believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, 0 for 2.

John Knowles
Stephen Crane

[Pocket Trips]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
you can also try "A seperate peace" or "the Red Badge of Courage" Both by Steinbeck I believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, 0 for 2.

John Knowles
Stephen Crane

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey its been 20 years almost since HS.. at least I read the books even if i don't remember the authors lol

[morgant]

hemmingway-to have and have not- perfect, short, exciting, fantastic

[Ulysses]

FWIW, I didn't think Catch 22 was that great.

[brettbrettr]

[ QUOTE ]
I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest right now and am really enjoying it.

I need one more American literature book to read for school.

I'm taking standard English but in the packet they have books for AP students. They are:

Grapes of Wrath- Steinbeck
Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang- Joyce Carol Oates
Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
All the Pretty Horses- Cormac McCarthy
Shipping News- Annie Proulx

Any other suggestions welcome

I want short and entertaining as I'm pretty impatient. Not too short where it's apparant I only read it for length though. I'll be a junior.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gatsby fits the bill. In addition to being short and very entertaining its a fantastic book.

[brettbrettr]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I didn't think Catch 22 was that great.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW is key here.

[StevieG]

"Cannery Row" by Steinbeck is a lot more fun than "Grapes of Wrath."

[pshreck]

"An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser. Maybe a little bit above highschool level reading, and 900 pages long, but simply an amazing book. Its commentary about American society in the early 20th century is so well done.

Any short story (or anything for that matter) by Hemingway. Read "Hills Like White Elephants" for quite possibly the greatest short story ever written. It's only about 3 pages long so everyone should have read this.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

I most heartily agree.

I'd also recommend Tropic of Cancer. Finding what books a society bans is a good way to understand what a society is really all about.

I saw Great Gatsby as one of the listed choices. That's a real must-read.

I imagine you've already read Huckleberry Finn, but if not, that's also an American must- read. And Catcher in the Rye.

[brettbrettr]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd also recommend Tropic of Cancer. Finding what books a society bans is a good way to understand what a society is really all about.

[/ QUOTE ]

nh.

[Rushmore]

I haven't read the other responses, but I have read all of the books on your list.

The Great Gatsby is a fantastic book, and my choice from this list. It's almost impossible not to enjoy, from every perspective.

Btw, if you've never read The Catcher in the Rye, you should. I don't care if it's on the list or not. Just fail the class and read The Catcher in the Rye instead.

[Cumulonimbus]

I'm halfway through On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Very good so far - kinda like the movie Easy Rider (drugs and traveling.)

[AsiaKurosawa]

Morrison, Beloved
Pynchon, Crying of Lot 49
Kerouac, On the Road
Eliot, The Waste Land
Cisneros, House on Mango Street
Raymond Carver, (short story collex)
Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Miller, Canticle for Leibowitz
Chang-Rae Lee, Native Speaker
Anais Nin /images/graemlins/wink.gif
Nabokov, Lolita
Faulkner, Sound &amp; the Fury

Moby Dick, but not short /images/graemlins/smile.gif And Invisible Man, since it's my favorite and already mentioned ^

[nothumb]

Let me second "The Sun Also Rises." Just a great, great book, and also from an academic standpoint not hard at all to talk about.

I also really like (but some snobs will probably shoot down) "The World According to Garp" by John Irving. A lot of the books mentioned so far are better but I was looking for something nobody had recommended and I do like this book a lot.

NT

[Paluka]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Blarg]

As to Raymond Carver, he's easily one of the top few American short story writers of the last half century, if not century.

I'd skip the collected works, though, and go see what made him explode into prominence, the collection called, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." Unbelievable stories. That book will show you why he became the most imitated American writer, even more so than Hemingway, whose line he was in, and why The New Yorker said that during the 80's, 90% of the stories they got were Raymond Carver imitations.

His previous collection was called, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please. Also very good.

His last collection included a rewrite of a particularly cruel story that made it more "friendly" and marketable and a little less deterministic, and his stories are so bracing and brutal that his mid-cult admirers, in no way really used to or comfortable with such fare, thought that story was a step up, a relief, and a sign of maturation. I feel it was a step back and a caving in, and a sad attempt to please. The author did not need to cave in. There were other good stories in that last collection, though.

We lost a lot -- a truly enormously important and irreplaceable American talent -- when Carver died. Read the whole of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

[Blarg]

The Sun Also Rises is a very good book and also an absolute must-read.

I agree with the guy who said to read as many Hemingway short stories as you can get your hands on, too.

[Mano]

A couple of my favorites are:

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

and

Catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger

[deacsoft]

[ QUOTE ]
I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest right now and am really enjoying it.

[/ QUOTE ]

They made a book out of that?

[bholdr]

In order to make a good reccomendation, I'd really have to know what it was about the books you've read that you enjoyed; If it's the entertaining story, then my reccomandations would be very different from what they would be if you enjoyed the WRITING, the flow of the words and the imagrey that they weave.

You can't go wrong with Catch-22, but there are probably some other books that you'd get more out of.

If you enjoy fast-paced, politically vibrant, eclectic writing, try Vonnegut. "Breakfast of Champions" is a good place to start, it's hard to NOT read that one in one sitting. "slaughterhouse 5" requires a slightly more careful read, but it's well worth it- throughout the book, Vonnegut uses his sublime sense of the absurd to make some very real points about war and even the nature of reality. IMO, slaughterhouse 5 is required reading. It is one of the most poingiant and moving anti-war statements ever written, and it does it without any trace of the preachy self-reightousness that characterizes most anti-war novels. "The Sirens of Titan", his first major work, is far more eccentric than either of the others, but brilliant in it's own esoteric way. "mother night" is more serious, and more personal, it's worth reading, too. save "cat's Cradle" until you're sure you like his style.

Somebody mentioned F451: I am personally a huge fan of Bradbury- the martian chronicles, R is for Rocket, A medicine for meloncholy, and The Illustrated Man are all good places to start. You won't enjoy F451 or most of his newer stuff until you're familliar with his writing- it's best to start off with his short stories and acclimate to his style. He is considered a Sci-fi writer, but tends to lean more towards fantasy.

I could go on reccomending books for hours, but the simpson's will be on shortly, and i have to roll a doobie before that. I'll leave you with this:

If I could only reccomend ONE BOOK, ever, it would easily be "No-No Boy" by John Okada. In my opinion, It is one of the most important (and THE most underrated) peices of american lit. The storytelling is fantastic, the author is skillful enough able to switch between the third person and first person perspectives (even some second person- very difficult) at will, often letting his characters delve into long stream-of-conciousness jags that seem too real to be fiction. The book, on the surface, appears to be political: He touches on War, politics, the nature and promise of the ideas behind America and a mulit-racial society, and so on, but at it's core, it's about freindship, internal demons and redemption, and family. Chapter six is still the most moving things that I've ever written, and it's completly non-self concious. The prose is elegantly understated, like hemmingway but intentionally less poetic.

Written in 1957, it was the first peice of literature written by and about a japanese-american. It went unnoticed for a couple decades, until a playwright discovered a copy in a used book store and brought it to light.

He talks about the very biggest things; life and death, love and family, freidship, persecution, guilt and deliverance, in short sentances and quiet passages that are more telling than any wordy, complicated expression could ever be. Most authors that attempt to tackle such a wide range of issues and meanings come off as preachy, cheap, or trying-too-hard; Okada is simply sublime. Very few books have ever affected me anywhere near as much. If you PM me, I'll send you a copy if you'd like.

[Aytumious]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest right now and am really enjoying it.

[/ QUOTE ]

They made a book out of that?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really hope you are kidding.

[deacsoft]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest right now and am really enjoying it.

[/ QUOTE ]

They made a book out of that?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really hope you are kidding.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am, indeed. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[dutchbrodymoss]

JD Salinger - The Catcher In the Rye

[blatz]

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, which she amazingly wrote when she was 23 or so. Personally, it's one of the few books by a female author that I really like.

I went to check out the spelling of her name at Amazon, and apparently this was an Oprah Winfrey book of the month. The reviews are hilarious, everyone who read it because Oprah told them to, hated it.

"I really didn't like the book . The reason I didn't like the story is because it was too confusing . In the beginning the story is a little boring . I didn't like the ending because it was too sad . I also though the characters were unrealistic. I don't think this would ever happen in real life."


Stick with the opinions of those who don't get their intellectual stimulation through Oprah.

[Blarg]

Hehehe, good call.

[sfer]

I'm particularly fond of "Where I'm Calling From."

[Little Fishy]

The Things We Carried is good

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
Faulkner, Sound &amp; the Fury

[/ QUOTE ]

You COULD decide to read this over the summer, or you could decide to chew your foot off. Your call.

I have a shiny nickel I would like to wager that tbach would be back on OOT within 20 pages to challenge you to a fight.

[Grivan]

I'm in shock that this thread has gone so long and no one has mentioned Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It is a little long though.

[Blarg]

Don't recall the plot of that one off hand, but I do remember really loving pretty much the whole darn book, with an especial fondness for Why Don't You Dance and for the title story. The only one I wasn't completely sold on was So Much Water So Close to Home, as I recall. I also really liked the individual story, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please.

I've read some of those stories at least a dozen times, and some extremely carefully. Carver was an amazingly good writer, just on another level than most of his contemporaries, both thematically and in terms of what to me was literally a flat out awe-inspiring level of craftsmanship. Sometimes you bump into a writer and realize you're in the hands of an absolute master, and it doesn't happen often. There was no doubt with Carver.

Damn, thinking about those stories again makes me want to dig through my boxes and find his collections. I used to read them over again every year.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm halfway through On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Very good so far - kinda like the movie Easy Rider (drugs and traveling.)

[/ QUOTE ]

To be honest, when I was 17, I thought that was one of the greatest things ever written, but have since come to regard it as fairly overwrought, overwritten, and overblown (much as Kerouac himself ended up).

Fear and Loathing in las Vegas, another book I loved back then and which involves drugs and travelling, DOES stand up, on the other hand.

If you haven't read it, you should.

I would also recommend Money, by Martin Amis, which has at least something in common with the best aspects in each of these others.

[hobbsmann]

I'm finding it hard to believe that a teacher would let somebody read tropic of cancer even though I think it is an amazing book.

I'm pretty impartial to Kerouac and would recommend Dharma Bums or on the road. Both are fairly short, fast paced reads that really give an interesting perspective on post WWII America (more so on the road).

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm halfway through On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Very good so far - kinda like the movie Easy Rider (drugs and traveling.)

[/ QUOTE ]

To be honest, when I was 17, I thought that was one of the greatest things ever written, but have since come to regard it as fairly overwrought, overwritten, and overblown (much as Kerouac himself ended up).


[/ QUOTE ]

Ever hear the famous Dorothy Parker line about On the Road?--"It's not writing; it's typing."

[RunDownHouse]

I'll second Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy O'Toole. Ditto just about anything by Morrison.

From your original list, I'd pick Cormac McCarthy. All three of those novels in the loosely-connected "Border Trilogy" (is that what they're called?) are really, really good, and I think you'll get more enjoyment out of reading those than you would out of a lot of these other books. With the possible exception of Catch-22.

I actually had a passage from The Crossing as one of the essays for my AP Lit test way back when.

[Blarg]

I picked up Tropic of Cancer on my own. I liked it enough to read just about everything else Miller ever wrote. I really loved "The Air Conditioned Nightmare," Tropic of Capricorn, and Black Spring, a book of his short stories.

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in shock that this thread has gone so long and no one has mentioned Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It is a little long though.

[/ QUOTE ]

The fact that she was born in Russia leaves her in limbo as to what type of literature she is. I'm not sure if she is ever taught in American lit classes.

[sam h]

A Fan's Notes - by Frederick Exley


If you liked One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, this book is somewhat similar but really much better. I have never met anybody who didn't like this book.

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
I have never met anybody who didn't like this book.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to have met somebody who has read it for that to happen.

[Grivan]

Well considering it was written in english after she had immigrated. I would be more likely to say it is an American novel then to say it is a Russian novel.

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
Well considering it was written in english after she had immigrated. I would be more likely to say it is an American novel then to say it is a Russian novel.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree 100%, and so does anyone, but you'd be surprised how weird scholars are about defining these things. T.S. Eliot is not taught as much as he should be in standard english classes because no one is sure as whether or not to put him in American Lit or Brit Lit.

[hobbsmann]

if you're really enjoying reading a book written by Ken Keasy you should read a book about him.

The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe is pure insanity with Keasy the leader of this band of hippies expanding minds via acid/speed/grass/peyote etc. and freaking out the establishment. The book is nonfiction and set from 1964-1969 and is a pretty raw and amazing glimpse into the culture of that time.

[sam h]

[ QUOTE ]
You have to have met somebody who has read it for that to happen.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know lots of people who have read it.

[hobbsmann]

also ayn rand is a fairly hard read, especially atlas shrugged. While I enjoyed the book it can be tedious at times and at 1100 pages it doesn't quite fit into the short and fast paced standard requested.

[moondogg]

See if you can get away with The Godfather. Not too long, damn entertaining, and probably classic and influential enough to be considered "literature".

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
See if you can get away with The Godfather. Not too long, damn entertaining, and probably classic and influential enough to be considered "literature".

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say thats a stretch. I think this is one of the rare novels where the movie made from it does a better job of telling the story.

[RunDownHouse]

[ QUOTE ]
also ayn rand is a fairly hard read

[/ QUOTE ]
!

[Olof]

Seize the Day - Saul Bellow
Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth
Players - Don Delillo

All fairly short.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Ever hear the famous Dorothy Parker line about On the Road?--"It's not writing; it's typing."

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, and I think it's far too dismissive.

Affected and overwrought as he was, Kerouac still had something to say, and said it in a distinctive way.

Unfortunately, what he had to say was ultimately not particularly relevant, and the "distinctive way" in which he put it was a little affected and not only a little annoying.

This post would be a decent argument, it would seem, for his value as a writer, as I seem to be debating myself.

[Blarg]

The catch in your declarations comes when you say it was not "relevant." That kind of thing is entirely a personal matter unless we're talking about something like determining the answers to a scientific equation. What's relevant to one person is very personal, and changes a lot over time, too. And something we'd probably all like to do or think ourselves capable of doing is rule on what it is that really matters. But we can't with intellectual honesty do it.

We can, however, beat them over the head with our opinions and declare them facts. /images/graemlins/smile.gif That's good enough for me!

[pokertonbear1]

I am an English Lit major at FSU with a concentration on American Lit. I would definitely say that any work by an American author whether it is set in the US or abroad falls under the heading of American Literature. It's more about style than setting...

Definitely read some Hemingway...
Either The Sun also Rises or For Whom the Bell Tolls
But if you want to be blown away, try the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
The catch in your declarations comes when you say it was not "relevant." That kind of thing is entirely a personal matter unless we're talking about something like determining the answers to a scientific equation. What's relevant to one person is very personal, and changes a lot over time, too. And something we'd probably all like to do or think ourselves capable of doing is rule on what it is that really matters. But we can't with intellectual honesty do it.

We can, however, beat them over the head with our opinions and declare them facts. That's good enough for me!

[/ QUOTE ]

Every single word in your post is correct.

I think what I meant to say was that Kerouac's stuff screams at you in such a way that it must be assumed that there is some great revelation in every sentence.

I suppose by declaring it irrelevant, I meant it in the context of work which has very lofty ideas about its own relevance. It was sort of like my own personal backlash against the pomposity of Kerouac's writing.

If that makes any sense. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[ArchAngel71857]

White Noise by Don Delillo.

-AA

[Blarg]

Yeah, it does. And as an aside, I have no opinion on Kerouac myself, having read only the odd paragraph or so.