Desert Protocol - Atlas Shrugs

originally posted by Otto Nieminen:

Why is Ayn Rand so popular?
Click to expand...

Maybe because she was the Eckhart Tolle of her generation?

You should definitely read Pynchon, but you might want to start with The Crying of Lot 49 ( a fun book) or V (an inspiring book) before wading into Gravity's Rainbow, a beautiful book and one of my favorite examples of the ways that the American language differs from the English language.

I would also recommend that you go back further and find The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos. A contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Dos Passos seems to be ignored these days, but these three books are enlightening, educational, and enjoyable to read.

I'm a fan of De Lillo's Underworld and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay but though they may not be heavy enough to qualify as "great literature", they illuminate parts of the American psyche that are worth having light shown on them.

You could knock off everything Nathaniel West wrote before dinnertime, and Raymond Chandler, Sinclair Lewis, Ray Bradbury, and William T Vollmann offer plenty of well-ordered words to get lost in (and I mean that in a good way).

-Eden (there's never enough time to read what I want to read)
 
Blood Meridian is an essential book, especially if Moby Dick is your thing. I'll second any Nabokov (particularly Pale Fire) and Pynchon (minus Against the Day, which I skipped) and I think Mason and Dixon is the best thing he produced. Paul Bowles is a favorite of mine, but he belongs to a tradition that can't really be considered "American." His wife Jane is also worth reading, but there isn't much of it. White Noise is fantastic as an intro to DeLillo like Crying of Lot 49 is for Pynchon, menaing if you don't care for either don't bother with the rest of the authors' works.

Rahsaan nalied Rand perfectly.
 
Great suggestions already. I didn't ignore Dos Passos, and enjoyed the USA Trilogy. White Noise, Lolita, Pale Fire, Blood Meridian, and Ray Bradbury FTW.

I didn't care for Kavalier and Clay, but I'd strongly recommend Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude.
 
Oddly, I do agree with Cory about Mason & Dixon. An original and quite enjoyable work of American white-male fiction.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Jewish prankster.
 
Lots of excellent suggestions, particularly Joe's recommendation of Twain. Otto, if you haven't read it, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be first on your list.

Among things that haven't been mentioned, I'm partial to Bellow (I like Humboldt's Gift), Malamud (I like his short stories), and Updike's The Centaur, a nice evocation of a place and time.
 
The Things They Carried.

I haven't read much fiction lately, and this is not new, but it is utterly American and wonderful.

I'm also a fan of Richard Ford. In fact, I adopted a way of life from the Sportswriter for several years.
 
originally posted by Cory Cartwright:
White Noise is fantastic as an intro to DeLillo like ... menaing if you don't care for either don't bother with the rest of the authors' works.
Click to expand...

I think that White Noise is DeLillo's high point. I can't get through Underworld or Mao II. I don't know why.
 
This thread has turned great!

I would add, plunging back in time, Edith Wharton and Henry James (The Aspern Papers is a huge favorite). Mid-last century, let's not forget John Cheever, especially the short stories.
 
originally posted by VLM:
I think that White Noise is DeLillo's high point. I can't get through Underworld or Mao II. I don't know why.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, there.

Similarly, I always start Bellow with delight and peter out just a dozen or two pages in.
 
James and Wharton are favorites of mine as well although I tend to forget they are. Roth is good bbut keep in mind that he is far, far more entertaining as a young writer so start there.

I'll throw Philip K. Dick in the ring despite him being a rather poor prose stylist.
 
I'm on board with all (or nearly all) of the above. But, while your reading Mason & Dixon you shouldn't neglect that part of the country south of the Mason-Dixon:

Faulkner (just read the short stories if you have neither the time nor the English for Light in August). Walker Percy (everything). Crazy ol' Harry Crews (a minor and often funny voice of the poor, rural white south). To Kill a Mockingbird (no matter who wrote it). Invisible Man, Black Boy, Native Son.
 
Also, Otto, not all your reading of American lit. need by great and serious works. American crime novels are where it's at. Chandler is the master. But look for Hammet (his Continental Op character is one of the great figures in American popular fiction), James Ellroy, Mickey Spillane, and (I always get yelled at for this) John D. McDonald (a window into sixties and seventies pop lit).

Also Chabon's attempt at the genre is serious and fun--The Yiddish Policemen's Union is wonderful.

This thread alone should keep you busy for the next decade, I guess.

Musar rose is great. Never had the reds but I believe I will soon be having a 94. I love LdH and the 81 LdH Bosconia is one of the great wines of the last couple of years for me.
 
I'm glad to see so much Mason & Dixon love on this board. To me, it's Pynchon's most underrated work, as if people refuse to accept it as a Great American novel just because it doesn't have quite the same amount of ambition as Gravity's Rainbow. And, to be honest, I found it more enjoyable to read than Gravity's Rainbow.

And speaking of Raymonds, Raymond Carver should also be on the list. His short stories are great. Cathedral is wonderful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top