Last time I wrote about what the Great American Novel is, where it came from and whether it was still needed or even possible.
Everyone, including me, has their own definition of the Great American Novel. But at its heart, the idea is simple: a book that captures the spirit, contradictions, and complexity of America.
An important qualifying factor is that it is not only about literary brilliance. It’s more than that. It’s about resonance. The novels below reflect the American psyche, telling us who we are, who we were, and sometimes who we want to be.
Here are my 15 contenders that have shaped the conversation. Each is paired with a quote and a reason why it still matters.
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
This book proves the Great American Novel doesn’t have to be huge—just 180 pages of brilliance.
A Jazz Age tragedy wrapped in shimmering prose, Gatsby is about money, longing, reinvention, and the hollowness of the American Dream. It captures the illusions and delusions at the heart of success, and how even the dreamers cannot escape their pasts. Get the book.
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
2. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
A story about obsession and the unknowable, wrapped in American mythology and seafaring grit. Melville's novel is a sprawling meditation on fate, industry, and the sublime terror of nature.
Written before the phrase "Great American Novel" even existed, it stretches before us like the ocean on which it's set. Its vastness is part of its power. Get the book.
"Call me Ishmael."
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
A modern take on the Great American Novel—one that challenges American mythology by confronting one of the nation’s most shameful legacies.
A devastating reckoning with the legacy of slavery, Morrison's novel blends realism and ghost story in unforgettable ways. It reclaims a history too often erased and gives it shape, voice, and unbearable beauty. Get the book.
"Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another."
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
A personal favourite. A war novel turned satire of bureaucracy and madness. The phrase "Catch-22" became part of the language for a reason.
It captures the illogic of institutions and the cost of survival in a world turned inside out. Still darkly funny—and depressingly relevant. Get the book.
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
Another favourite. A countercultural anthem of jazz, highways, friendship, and the search for meaning in post-war America.
It gave voice to a generation of wanderers and rebels, redefining the literary road trip forever. Get the book.
"The only people for me are the mad ones..."
6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Controversial, lyrical, disturbing. Nabokov's portrait of obsession is also a meditation on language and control. A brilliant, unreliable narrative voice explores the darkest corners of desire and art. Get the book.
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul."
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
A truly original coming-of-age story. Holden Caulfield's voice remains one of the most iconic in American fiction.
A novel of alienation and rebellion that shaped generations of adolescent discontent. Get the book.
"Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
8. Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
A portrait of post-war suburban restlessness, masculinity, and spiritual yearning. Updike’s prose is razor-sharp, capturing the beauty and boredom of middle-class life.
Some are put off by the dense writing—but it's worth the effort. Get the book.
"If you have the guts to be yourself, other people’ll pay your price."
9. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
A maximalist masterpiece of paranoia, war, and conspiracy. It maps the absurdities of modern life and technology in dazzling, exhausting detail.
I found it tough, but worth it—ambitious, weird, brilliant. Get the book.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers."
10. Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)
If anyone set out to write a Great American Novel in the modern era, it’s DeLillo.
The novel spans decades of American life—from baseball games to nuclear paranoia. It’s a meditation on memory, waste, and the stories that bind a nation together. Get the book.
"There is a world inside the world."
11. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)
A brash, wandering, and wonderfully alive picaresque about self-invention and American optimism. Augie is a Zelig-like character through whom Bellow examines freedom and identity. Get the book.
"I am an American, Chicago born... and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way..."
12. The Great American Novel by Philip Roth (1973)
Roth’s riotous metafictional romp through baseball, politics, and identity skewers the very idea of literary grandeur. It’s smart, irreverent, and a brilliant parody of the myth-making impulse. Get the book.
"Anything can happen to anyone, but it usually doesn’t. Except when it does."
13. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (1826)
One of the earliest attempts to mythologise the American frontier. Though dated in some ways, it helped shape the nation’s sense of itself and its relationship to land, conflict, and narrative. It was also beautifully adapted into a stunning film with Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe. Get the book.
"History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness."
14. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
Dismissed by some as a genre novel, but it’s a masterpiece. Like Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, it's an unforgettable journey through the American West.
A sprawling Western epic that captures the beauty, brutality, and absurdity of frontier life. One of the most moving stories of friendship I’ve ever read. Get the book.
"If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment."
15. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
A tour de force of voice and metaphor, chronicling a search for meaning in a country that refuses to see.
A searing, surreal journey through race, identity, and invisibility in 20th-century America. Get the book.
"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."
This is not a definitive list. It never could be. It's mine, and it is that of many many others. But these novels all stretch toward something immense: the soul of a nation. They ask the hard questions and offer no easy answers. Get the book.
In that sense, every great American novel is also a great American argument.
So—what’s your pick for the Great American Novel?
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