Great American Novel
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Have You Met Stoner? July 08, 2024
It is a book both well-known and unknown, which is a weird thing to say. It is known by its devotees, of course, and by people who care a lot about 20th-century American literature. But it is not known by the general public — as The Great Gatsby, say...
Zach Bryan Won't Be Your Jukebox Hero July 05, 2024
I happen to believe that great American novels are written by osmosis, an accumulation of the stories you hear if you spend enough time in your neighborhood bar. At least that’s my excuse. I go to the Lighthouse Tavern, where the carpets are stained,...
Garth Risk Hallberg Takes On the Life-and-Times Novel May 28, 2024
The Great American Novel is a long-dead cultural aspiration, extinguished by a healthy realization that the country is too big and too varied to generate any singular, definitive volume. American novelists tend, in our time, to earn public recognitio...
From Misogyny to No Man's Land May 13, 2024
In 1963, Mary McCarthy published The Group. A ranging social novel that follows eight female friends after their graduation from Vassar College in 1933, The Group was a smashing success, soaring to the top of the New York Times best-seller list and b...
The Great American Novels March 15, 2024
In 1868, a little-known writer by the name of John William DeForest proposed a new type of literature, a collective artistic project for a nation just emerging from an existential conflict: a work of fiction that accomplished “the task of painting th...
Under the Surface March 14, 2024
Percival Everett’s James is being marketed as a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but—in keeping with Everett’s history as a jazz musician—it’s more like an improvisation on Twain’s theme. In the original, considered by many to be the ...
