Before we take a trip around the world for Summer Reading, let's reflect one the greatest literary debates this side of the Atlantic- the Great American Novel.
There is more criteria to the Great American Novel than just masterful writing.
The Great American Novel should capture the most elusive of literary elements - the spirit of the age in which it was written.
Many novels have been called the Great American Novel through the years, and more will be added to the list as contemporary writers tap into the zeitgeist of American life in the here and now. We've created a display with some of the major contenders alongside Great American Novel favorites William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway including members of the old guard:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
And the new guard:
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
The Naked and the Dead by Normal Mailer
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
as well as some of the latest writers to enter the ring:
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
What do you think is the Great American Novel?
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