American novelists

We're sitting in the pub, waiting for our soup to arrive, too tired to talk much, when I hear a voice behind me.

"You should read Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind". I still remember the opening lines. It's the best American novel there is."

"What other American novelists are there?" asks her companion.

"There's only one other, " the voice behind me continues. "JD Salinger who wrote "Catcher in the Rye", but Margaret Mitchell is much better."

I almost splatter over the coke I'm drinking. Only one other. Immediately I think of Henry James, not one of my favourite authors, but much filmed so should be reasonably well known. As time goes on more & more names come pouring into my mind. Hemingway. Steinbeck. Raymond Chandler. Toni Morrison. Alice Walker. Dashiell Hammett. Stephen King. Mark Twain. And so the list goes on.

Over dinner in the evening, I ask the Fox which he regards as the greatest American novel. After some consideration, his answer is "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.

Which would I consider the greatest American novel? I'm not sure. It depends on my mood. I admit to a soft spot for Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women", an essential part of my childhood & still often re-read, along with "Good Wives", "Jo's Boys" & "Little Men". For more adult reading, I would go for something like Hemingway's "The Old Man & the Sea", or one of Steinbeck's novels, either "Grapes of Wrath" or "East of Eden".

I can certainly think of more than just two American novelists. How about Fenimore Cooper, Scott Fitzgerald, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Patricia Highsmith ..................