Great American Novel

File:Edwin Longsden Long - Uncle Tom and Little Eva.JPG

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe is commonly cited as the Great American Novel—John William De Forest saw it as the closest possible novel.

The "Great American Novel" (sometimes abbreviated as GAN) is the term for a canonical novel that generally embodies and examines the essence and character of the United States. The term was coined by John William De Forest in an 1868 essay and later shortened to GAN. De Forest noted that the Great American Novel had most likely not been written yet.

Practically, the term refers to a small number of books that have historically been the nexus of discussion, including Moby-Dick (1851), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), The Great Gatsby (1925), and several others. Exactly what novel or novels warrant the title is without consensus and an assortment have been contended as the idea has evolved and continued into the modern age, with fluctuations in popular and critical regard. William Carlos Williams, Clyde Brion Davis and Philip Roth have all written novels about the Great American Novel—titled as such—with Roth's in the 1970s, a time of great interest in the concept.

Equivalents to and interpretations of the Great American Novel have arisen. Writers and academics have commented upon the term's pragmatics, the different types of novels befitting of title and the idea's relation to race and gender.

History

Background and origin of the term

The development of American literature coincided with the nation's development, especially of its identity.<ref name="Baym, Nina 2007">Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print.</ref> Calls for an "autonomous national literature" first appeared during the American Revolution,<ref>Buell (2014), p. 25.</ref> and, by the mid-19th century, the possibility of American literature exceeding its European counterparts began to take shape, as did that of the Great American Novel, this time being the genesis of novels that would later be considered the Great American Novel.<ref name=":92">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":12">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The term "Great American Novel" originated in an 1868 essay by American Civil War novelist John William De Forest. De Forest saw it serving as a "tableau" of American society,<ref name="Buell24">Buell (2014), p. 24.</ref> and said that the novel would "paint the American soul" and capture "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence".<ref name="ProspectShowalter" /> Similarly, Daniel Pierce Thompson said it had to be distinctly American.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Although De Forest espoused praise and critique for contemporaneous novels, he ultimately concluded that the Great American Novel had yet to be written.<ref name=":6" /><ref name="writer">Template:Cite news</ref> The essay's publication coincided with the rising prestige of the novel. Previously, only five percent of American books were marked as novels, with most fictional works given the self-effacing title of a "tale".<ref>Buell (2014), pp. 24—25.</ref> In 1880, writer Henry James simplified the term with the initialism "GAN".<ref name=ProspectShowalter>Template:Cite news</ref>

Development

The term soon became popular, its ubiquity considered a cliché and disparaged by literary critics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lawrence Buell stated that the concept was seen as a part of a larger national, cultural and political consolidation.<ref name="Buell 2008" /> According to JSTOR Daily's Grant Shreve, as the concept grew, concrete criteria for the Great American Novel developed:

• It must encompass the entire nation and not be too consumed with a particular region.
• It must be democratic in spirit and form.
• Its author must have been born in the United States or have adopted the country as his or her own.
• Its true cultural worth must not be recognized upon its publication.

Additionally, Shreve states, referencing Buell, that "several 'templates' or 'recipes' for the Great American Novel emerged.Template:Nbsp... Recipe 1 is to write a novel that is 'subjected to a series of memorable rewritings.'Template:Nbsp... Recipe 2 is what Buell calls 'the romance of the divide.' Novels of this kindTemplate:Nbsp... imagine national (and geographic) rifts in the 'form of a family history and/or heterosexual love affair.'Template:Nbsp... Recipe 3, a 'narrative centering on the lifeline of a socially paradigmatic figureTemplate:Nbsp... whose odyssey tilts on the one side toward picaresque and on the other toward a saga of personal transformation, or failure of such.'"<ref name=":6"/>

From the turn of the century to the mid-twentieth century, the idea eluded serious academic consideration, being dismissed as a "naively amateurish age-of-realism pipe dream" not aligned with the culture of that time.<ref name="Buell 20082">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":19">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":92"/> Writers such as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain were equally blasé. Frank Norris too saw the concept as not befitting the time, stating that the fact of a great work being American should be incidental.<ref name=":19"/> Edith Wharton complained that the Great American Novel concept held a narrow view of the nation, simply being concerned with "Main Street".<ref name=":19"/> At this time, it also grew to become associated with masculine values.<ref name=":0" />

A cover the Roth's novel reading "The Great American Novel"

Philip Roth satirized the term with his 1973 novel The Great American Novel.

Despite this critical disregard, many writers, prepped with "templates" and "recipes" for the matter, sought to create the next Great American Novel; Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis both sought to create the Great American Novel with The Jungle (1906) and Babbit (1924), respectively.<ref name="Buell 2014, pp. 3—4">Buell (2014), pp. 3—4.</ref><ref name=":6" /> William Carlos Williams and Clyde Brion Davis released satirical explorations both entitled The Great American Novel – Philip Roth would later release a novel of the same name.<ref name=":19"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":5" /> Bernard F. Jr. Rogers said that Kurt Vonnegut's "entire career might be characterised as an attempt to produce something like 'the GAN,' but of its own time".<ref name=":92"/> The 1970s saw a general resurgence of the concept, with The New York Times using the phrase the most in their history, a total of 71 times.<ref name=":11">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Efn The revival was perhaps the result of social change and related anxieties and the pursuit of a plateau between them.<ref name=":11" />

In the 21st century, retaining its contention and derision, the concept has moved towards a more populist attitude, functioning as "catnip for a listicle-obsessed internet".<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Buell (2014), pp. 5,9.</ref>Template:Efn Adam Kirsch noted that books such as Roth's American Pastoral (1997) indicate that writers are still interested in creating the Great American Novel.<ref name="KirschHarvard" /> Commenting upon the Great American Novel's place in the 21st century, Stephens Shapiro said that "Maybe the GAN is a theme that rises in interest when the existing world system is amidst transformation, as America's greatness of all kinds swiftly fades away."<ref name=":12"/> When asked in a 2004 interview if the Great American Novel could be written, Norman Mailer—who had long been interested in the idea<ref name=":3" />—said it could not, for the United States had become too developed of a nation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tony Tulathimutte similarly dismissed it as "a comforting romantic myth, which wrongly assumes that commonality is more significant than individuality".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Analysis

Racial and gender commentary

Multiple commentators have noted the concept's relation to racial and national identity, be it influence from by large-scale immigration, which brought forth authors closely aligned with the Great American Novel or novels detailing marginalized peoples, some furthermore trying to "bridge the racial divide".<ref name=":7" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="KirschHarvard" /> Commenting upon the idea's racial aspects and presence in popular consciousness, Hugh Kenner wrote in a 1953 issue of Perspective that:

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Perrin, Andrew Hoberek and Barbara Probst Solomon all noted that the '70s saw Jews pursue the GAN. Perrin said it was a boom decade for, what Hoberek called, the "Jewish GAN". Solomon was by 1972 sick of "nice Jewish sons who are writing the GAN". Aaron Latham, in a 1971 article, highlighted Roth and Mailer as Jews who wanted to the write the next GJN and GAN, respectively.<ref name=":11" />

The Great American Novel's relation to masculinity was seen as a problem by female writers. Gertrude Stein once lamented that, as a lesbian Jewish woman, she would be unable to compose the Great American Novel. Joyce Carol Oates similarly felt that "a woman could write it, but then it wouldn't be the GAN".<ref name=":0" /> Viet Thanh Nguyen said that Template:Nowrap of the unspoken silences of the Great American Novel is the assumption that it can only be written by white men".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Laura Miller wrote, in a Salon article, that "The presumption and the belligerence embodied in this ideal have put off many American women writers". She also noted that many characters in Great American Novel candidates are male: "the notion that a female figure might serve the same purpose undermines the very concept of the Great American Novel".<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> Although British analyst Faye Hammill noted that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos, was one of the few that 'doesn't stink'.<ref name=":18" /> Emily Temple of Literary Hub suggested that if the protagonist of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) were male it would likely be considered more seriously as a Great American Novel contender.<ref name="Temple">Template:Cite web</ref>

Interpretations

There are several different interpretations of what makes a Great American Novel. Some say that it depicts a diverse group facing issues representative of "epoch-defining public events or crises."<ref name="ProspectShowalter" /> John Scalzi felt that for a novel to be the Great American Novel it had to be ubiquitous and notable, and analyze the United States through a moral context.<ref name=":2" /> De Forest similarly saw the Great American Novel as having to capture the "essence" of America, its quality irrelevant.<ref name=":8" /> Norris considered the musings upon what made a novel "great" and/or "American" to showcase patriotic insecurity.<ref name=":19"/> Mohsin Hamid echoed the idea that the GAN is indicative of insecurity, connecting it to a "colonial legacy".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Commentators have said that the concept is exclusively American in nature.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> Journalist John Walsh offered a national equal in the form of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1869); Buell felt that Australia was the only country to replicate America's search.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":12" />Template:Efn Scholes said that the Great American Novel has always been thought of adjacent to European literature.<ref name=":7" /> David Vann was of the belief that they had to be "anti-American".<ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref> Rogers felt that it does not need to have American protagonists or be set in the United States and should not espouse patriotism or nationalism.<ref name=":92"/>

Buell identifies multiple types of Great American Novels. First is one who is subject to mysticism and stands the test of time.<ref name=":16">Template:Cite journal</ref> The second is "the romance of the divide", which imagines national rifts in the "form of a family history and/or heterosexual love affair"—race often plays a role.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":16" /> The third variety encapsulates the American Dream and see its protagonist rise from obscurity.<ref name=":11" /> Fourthly, novels which are composed of a diverse cast of characters "imagined as social microcosms or vanguards" and who are placed with events and crises that serve to "constitute an image of 'democratic' promise or dysfunction". Buell also said speculative science fiction may be the basis for a possible fifth archetype.<ref name=":12" />

Kasia Boddy wrote that, Template:Nowrap its initial formulation", the concept "has always been more about inspiration than achievement; the very fact that it has been attempted but remains 'unwritten' providing a spur to future engagement with both nation and national literature".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Speculating on De Forest's intentions when devising the notion of the Great American Novel and commenting upon its development, Cheryl Strayed wrote that:

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Denoting an apocryphal state, film critic A. O. Scott compared the GAN to the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster and the Sasquatch.<ref name="Scott 2006" />

Notable candidates

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Year	Cover or title page	Novel	Portrait	Author	Commentary	Template:Abbr
1826	File:The Last of the Mohicans 1826.jpg	Template:Sort	A drawn portrait of James Fenimore Cooper, based on a photograph	Template:Sort	Although John William De Forest critiqued Cooper's writing as boring, many consider The Last of the Mohicans to be the first GAN. It was influential in defining American literature and addresses themes which are common in later American works, including rugged individualism and freedom.	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1850	File:Title page for The Scarlet Letter.jpg	Template:Sort	A black-and-white photograph of Nathaniel Hawthorne, bearing a mustache and medium-length hair	Template:Sort	Although John William De Forest thought The Scarlet Letter unworthy of the label of GAN, it is now widely included on most lists.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Lawrence Buell recognized it as a "reluctant master text"—his first GAN script.<ref name=":16"/>	<ref name="Buell1">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1851	File:Moby-Dick FE title page.jpg	Moby-Dick	A photograph of Herman Melville seated at a chair, arms crossed and sporting combed-back hair and a blocky beard	Template:Sort	According to Hester Blum of Penn State University, "What makes Moby-Dick the Greatest American Novel, in other words, is that Melville can invoke the preposterous image of a sobbing, heart-stricken moose and we think, yes, I have come to know exactly what that sounds like, and I know what world of meaning is contained within that terrific sound".<ref name="Millions" />	<ref name="Buell 2008">Template:Cite journal (Melville compared Ahab's shout to the moose's sound.)</ref><ref name="KirschHarvard" />
1852	File:UncleTomsCabinCover.jpg	Uncle Tom's Cabin	A photograph of a seated Harriet Beecher Stowe, wearing a dress and a shawl	Template:Sort	Lawrence Buell claimed it to be the first novel to receive the acclaim of the GAN and that it was widely accepted that it was 'nearest approach to the desired phenomenon'.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Buell (2014), p. 4.</ref> John William De Forest noted it as the only possible contender and as "a picture of American life".<ref name="writer"/>	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1868	File:Houghton AC85.Aℓ194L.1869 pt.2aa - Little Women, title.jpg	Template:Sort	A hazy photograph of Louisa May Alcott, with dark hair wearing a dress	Template:Sort	According to Marlowe Daly-Galeano, what makes Little Women "such an amazing novel [and possible contender for the GAN] is that it gives women's voices and women's stories the prime position in a way that...[was] very new and fresh to readers in the...late 1860s," and suggests that the "strongest mark of Little WomenTemplate:'s influence" lies in subsequent stories told about "circles of women" and "cool girl protagonists" which all seem to have a "direct link" to Little Women. Gregory Eiselein remarks that several aspects of Little Women (its inclusion of colloquialisms and grammatical errors in its dialogue, the familiarity of the March girls' struggles, etc.) make it "one of the founding documents of American literary realism."	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1884	File:Huckleberry Finn book.JPG	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	A hazy photograph of Mark Twain, with white hair and mustache in a light-colored suit	Template:Sort	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the first American novels to utilize a regional vernacular.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1935, Ernest Hemingway stated that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn'."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> William van O'Connor wrote, in a 1955 issue of College English, that "we are informed, from a variety of critical positions, that [it] is the truly American novel".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Millions">Template:Cite web</ref>
1895	File:TheRedBadgeOfCourage.jpg	Template:Sort	A photograph Stephen Crane in a suit, with parted hair and a mustache	Template:Sort	Crane was among the earliest generation of American novelists to be influenced by John William De Forest and consciously strove to produce a "National Novel".<ref>Martin (1967), p. 55.</ref> Critic Robert Barr had named him the "most likely to produce the great American novel" only two years before Crane died suddenly at the age of 28.<ref>Martin (1967), p. 56, fn. 68.</ref> According to Yale professor of literature Jay Martin, Crane's war novel The Red Badge of Courage, set during the Civil War, "marks the culmination of the Great American Novel".<ref name="martin35">Martin (1967), p. 35.</ref>	<ref name="martin35"/>
1925	File:The Great Gatsby Cover 1925 Retouched.jpg	Template:Sort	A photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald with a slight smile and parted, slicked-back hair	Template:Sort	Emory Elliott wrote, in 1991, that it is "still frequently nominated as the GAN".<ref name="Emory">Emory Elliott et al. (eds.) (1991). The Columbia History of the American Novel Template:Webarchive. Columbia University Press. p. 323. "The Great Gatsby (1925), a work still frequently nominated as 'the great American novel' ..."</ref> Kirsch, in 2013, said it to be "one of the first titles to come to mind whenever the Great American Novel is mentioned".<ref name="KirschHarvard" /> Deirdre Donahue of USA Today and Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West III felt that its "embodiment of the American spirit", relevance and prose were the reasons as to why it's the GAN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1925	File:Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Cover 1926 Restored.jpg	Template:Sort	A photograph of Anita Loos, wearing a fur-lined dress and a large dress hat	Template:Sort	Edith Wharton and Frank Crowninshield proclaimed the novel to be the GAN.<ref name=":17">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":18">"One of the few books that doesn't stink': The Intellectuals, the Masses and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Faye Hammill. Critical Survey. Vol. 17, No. 3. 2005. Accessed March 24, 2021.</ref>	<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":18" />
1936	File:Absalom, Absalom! (1936 1st ed cover).jpg	Absalom, Absalom!	A photograph of William Faulkner in a suit and with a mustached, reclined against a brick wall	Template:Sort	Absalom, Absalom! has been said to represent Lawrence Buell's "romance of the divide".<ref name="KirschHarvard" />	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=KirschHarvard>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1939	File:The Grapes of Wrath (1939 1st ed cover).jpg	Template:Sort	A photo of John Steinbeck. His hair is slicked-back and closely shaved on the sides. He has a mustache and facial hair on his chin.	Template:Sort	Jay Parini identified it as "a great American novel" due to its focus on United States during a crisis and the eclectic depiction of American life. Richard Rodriguez, similarly, felt that it was "the great American novel that everyone keeps waiting for" because of how it showed "the losers in America".<ref name="Big Read"/> Bill Kauffman declared it one of three possible candidates for the GAN.Template:Citation needed	<ref name="Big Read">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Nixon quotes John Springer, author of The Fondas (Citadel, 1973), a book about Henry Fonda and his role in film version of The Grapes of Wrath: "The Great American Novel made one of the few enduring Great American Motion Pictures."</ref>
1951	File:The Catcher in the Rye (1951, first edition cover).jpg	Template:Sort	A photograph of J.D. Salinger, wearing a suit and sporting dark, combed hair	Template:Sort	The Catcher in the Rye is an example of a writer setting out to write the GAN and receiving such praise.<ref name=":14" />	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":14">Template:Cite news</ref>
1952	File:Invisible Man (1952 1st ed jacket cover).jpg	Invisible Man	Ralph Ellison is pictured sitting in a chair before a bookcase. He is wearing a suit and has a mustache and receding hair-line.	Template:Sort	Joseph Fruscione said that Invisible Man was the GAN because it can be "many things to many readers".<ref name="Millions" />	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1953	File:The Adventures of Augie March Cover.jpg	Template:Sort	A photograph of Saul Bellow with an open book before a bookcase. He is wearing a suit and has somewhat curly hair.	Template:Sort	Martin Amis thought that The Adventures of Augie March was the GAN because of its "fantastic inclusiveness, its pluralism, its qualmless promiscuity".<ref name="Temple" />	<ref name=":7" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1955	File:Lolita 1955.JPG	Lolita	A photograph of Vladimir Nabokov. Wearing a collared shirt, Nabokov is pictured in his later years, with aging skin and white hair.	Template:Sort	Mary Elizabeth Williams called Lolita the GAN because of its prose and says "'Lolita' forever remains a thing of timeless beauty."<ref name="Millions" />	<ref name="Millions"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1960	File:To Kill a Mockingbird (first edition cover).jpg	To Kill a Mockingbird	A photograph of Harper Lee in an outdoor setting. She has short hair and appears to be examining something in the sand and grass.	Template:Sort	John Scalzi calls it a GAN in that it is a notable and ubiquitous work that also deals with morality and the American experience.<ref name=":2"/> Oprah Winfrey described it as "our national novel."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	<ref>Template:Cite news (Lee has since published a sequel, Go Set a Watchman.)</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref>
1973	The silhouette of a row of buildings is situated at the bottom of this bright orange cover. "Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon" is printed in bold text in the center.	Gravity's Rainbow	File:Thomas Pynchon, Navy Sailor.jpg	Template:Sort	Pynchon's postmodern novel of World War II is commonly cited as "the most important American novel" of the post-war era.<ref>Buell (2014), p. 426.</ref> It has been said to conform to Buell's fourth type of GAN.<ref name=":11" />	<ref>Buell (2014), pp. 426—427.</ref> <ref>Weisenburger (2006), pp 1—2.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1985	File:Blood Meridian (1985 1st ed half title page).jpg	Blood Meridian	A title page reading "Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West" with the author's name, "Cormac McCarthy", positioned below the title.	Template:Sort	David Vann felt that Blood Meridian was a GAN because it explored the United States’ genocide of Native American people.<ref name=":4" /> William Dalrymple states "this book [is] the Great American Novel. It's a beautifully written, dark, bleak western—but unlike any western I'd ever known."<ref name=":1" />	<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4" />
1987	File:Beloved (1987 1st ed dust jacket cover).jpg	Beloved	Toni Morrison is pictured in a turtle-neck. She is sporting an afro.	Template:Sort	The novel is noted for its depiction of the psychological effects of slavery and racism. When Beloved topped a poll seeking "the best work of American fiction" published from 1980 to 2005, A. O. Scott remarked that "Any other outcome would have been startling, since Morrison's novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals."<ref name="Scott 2006">Template:Cite web</ref> Beloved has been noted to align with Buell's third type of GAN.<ref name=":11" />	<ref name="Scott 2006" /><ref>Buell (2014), pp. 317—348.</ref>
1991	File:American Psycho Title.jpg	American Psycho	Bret Easton Ellis is pictured standing on front of a stone wall and greenery. He is wearing a blazer over a blue collared shirt and has a lanyard on his neck.	Template:Sort	Julia Keller saw the novel's inclusion of "brand names and sex and social anxiety" as part of the reason why it is the GAN.<ref name=":15" />	<ref name=":15">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1996	File:Infinite Jest 2.jpg	Infinite Jest	David Foster Wallace is pictured with shoulder-length hair and a short beard. Wearing frameless glasses, he is speaking at a microphone and is wearing a black denim jacket over a t-shirt.	Template:Sort	Lawrence Buell noted that "For an appreciable number of turn-of-the-twenty-first-century readers...Infinite Jest [is] the GAN of our days".<ref name="buell57">Buell (2014), p. 57.</ref>	<ref name="buell57"/><ref name="Temple"/>
1997	File:Underworld 4.jpg	Underworld	An elderly and spectacled Don DeLillo is pictured reading from paper at a microphone. He is wearing a sweater over a collared shirt.	Template:Sort	According to Robert McCrum, it developed a reputation as the GAN almost immediately after its publication.<ref name=":13" />	<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":13">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2010	File:Freedom (2010 title page, signed by Jonathan Franzen).jpg	Freedom	A spectacled Jonathan Franzen is pictured in a tuxedo on a Time magazine red carpet. His short hair is somewhat untidy.	Template:Sort	Lawrence Buell described it as the "most widely acclaimed GAN contender...post-9/11".<ref name="Buell 2014, pp. 3—4"/>	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":7" />
2012	File:Telegraph Avenue 2.jpg	Telegraph Avenue	Michael Chabon is pictured wearing glasses, shoulder-length hair and a beard. Speaking at a microphone, his collared shirt is decorated with celestial bodies.	Template:Sort	John Freeman of the Boston Globe, praised Chabon for "imagining the Great American Novel with a multiracial cast."<ref name=":86">Template:Cite web</ref>	<ref name=":87">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":88">Template:Cite web</ref>
2013	File:The Goldfinch cover page signed by Donna Tartt.png	The Goldfinch	File:Donna Tartt.jpg	Template:Sort	Described by Randy Boyagoda as "exactly what comes to mind when you think of the Great American Novel: sprawling, smart, of-the-moment in its plot, and above all else, unabashedly swaggering in its presumption that you’ll want to spend eight hundred pages following Theo, its hero, as he makes his way through loud and crazy America."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Postmodern literature
• Literary fiction
• Encyclopedic novel

Notes and references

Works cited

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
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Further reading

• Template:Cite journal

External links

• De Forest's essay on the Great American Novel