The best American author of the 20th century is....

[edtost]

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Pynchon or Delillo. Still haven't read any Faulkner novels though. I don't think Hemingway is right.

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pynchon is awesome, delillo not so much. faulkner is good, hemingway i'm not a huge fan of but i can recognize that he did things in a completely new way and respect that.

no mention of ellison or fitzgerald so far?

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Not Delillo? Just surprised is all considering you like Pynchon. I do confess that I'm an ex baseball player I the first 60 pages of Underworld just blew me away.

With you on Ellison and Fitzgerald but I don't think they were prolific enough? Granted, I've only read Invisible Man and Gatsby.

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they probably aren't prolific enough to be near the top of the list, but i was just suprised no one had mentioned either one yet.

as far as delillo is concerned, maybe i should give underworld a shot; the only one of his i've read is white noise and i considered it kinda meh at the time, though part of that may have been having to read it in a week for a lit class.

for pynchon, the crying of lot 49 is probably my favorite book ever, but i enjoyed gravity's rainbow enough to finish it.

[The Ocho]

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i'm partial to cassady and kerouac, i think going with hemmingway is a little too obvious

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Aside from Neal Cassady being a badass, which he was, he wasn't really a great author.

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Point in fact, he was horrendous. Most "Beat" literature was pretty terrible. Even the best only had like a 25% success rate.

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i'm partial to cassady and kerouac, i think going with hemmingway is a little too obvious

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Aside from Neal Cassady being a badass, which he was, he wasn't really a great author.

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kerouac wasn't all that great either.

[Michael Davis]

Well, unfortunately he didn't write much, but if quantity isn't a consideration, Ralph Ellison is vying for the top spot.

-Michael

[Matt Flynn]

Gary Trudeau

[gumpzilla]

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as far as delillo is concerned, maybe i should give underworld a shot; the only one of his i've read is white noise and i considered it kinda meh at the time, though part of that may have been having to read it in a week for a lit class.

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I've read White Noise and Ratner's Star, and found them both pretty thoroughly unremarkable. I don't get the hype, in DeLillo's case.

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for pynchon, the crying of lot 49 is probably my favorite book ever, but i enjoyed gravity's rainbow enough to finish it.

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I liked Gravity's Rainbow more, but I can't say it made too much sense, obviously.

To toss out a name that I don't think I've seen mentioned yet but seems to not infrequently enter these discussions, how about Toni Morrison? The only thing of hers that I've read is Song of Solomon, but I thought that was quite good. And I'd also like to read some Dos Passos at some point.

[sam h]

Obviously it is all just subjective, but I would rank Faulkner first due to creativity + pathos + unique American idiom.

Other favorites:

Bellow
Fitzgerald
O'Connor
Ellison
Exley

[Danenania]

I'm surprised that people dislike White Noise. I actually think it's a better novel than Underworld.

[edtost]

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To toss out a name that I don't think I've seen mentioned yet but seems to not infrequently enter these discussions, how about Toni Morrison? The only thing of hers that I've read is Song of Solomon, but I thought that was quite good.

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the only one of hers i've read is beloved, and i hated it, though i don't even think i made it all the way through, so maybe she deserves a little more consideration that that.

[UseThePeenEnd]

Cant complain about Flannery O'Connor