Readers name the best American novels

Spoiler alert: No Hemingway or Fitzgerald

A while back, I laid out arguments for My Ántonia as the top American novel.

Just because they make you read this book in high school doesn’t mean it’s not literary greatness! (Sorry for the double negative, Strunk & White.)

I proposed that a century after publication, Willa Cather’s masterpiece remains relevant to our moment.

Last month I asked All Predictions Wrong readers to state their own cases for best American novel. Below are a sampling of many replies. This isn’t any kind of literary ranking, just, what was on the minds of All Predictions Wrong subscribers.

Photo by Bethany Laird on Unsplash

Jay Raman of Arlington, Virginia, proposes Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man, published 1964.

In my view, a Great American Novel must accomplish two things: celebrate the American Experiment and reckon with the collateral damage it caused. Berger’s Little Big Man -- set in the late 1800s -- does both brilliantly.

The novel’s anchor is the Plains Indians, who are aware their way of life is ending yet not resigned to this. Their resilience reminds us that many “American” values pre-date the arrival of Europeans.

The main character is an ideal American anti-hero: someone who struggles but never quite earns our sympathy. He spends his time between the white and Indian worlds and isn’t fully accepted by either. He is a victim of fate and master of his destiny.