Greatest American novelist of the 20th century?

Question: Greatest American novelist of the 20th century!?

Who do you think!?

Feel free to also include your pick for greatest 20th century novelist overall!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

I don't think Joyce is a candidate for greatest over all novelist at all!. His importance lies in defeating censorship, beyond that he isn't all that great!.

It's hard to answer these questions definitively because there are two distinctly different literary movements in the 20th century!. You have modernism, and post modernism!. You also have the pre WW2 America and the post WW2 America!. Very different societies that writers are responding to!.

I think one of the guys who consistently gets put on these lists and deserves to is Don DeLillo!. Though he is still contemporary so may be out of the running!.

Kurt Vonnegut is an excellent choice but I'm not sure he did as much to better/advance literature as he did humanity in general!. The man is like a prophet, and the world is definitely worse off without him in it!.

As much as I hate to seem like a band wagoner just reciting the same old rhetoric I think we must give the crown to Ernest Hemingway!. That's one of the reasons I prefer to discuss people within their literary movements as opposed to their centuries, because guys like Ellis, who are brilliant, just haven't had the time to make the impact that Hemingway has!. It is undeniable that his writing has influenced every writer who's come along since!. Whether or not they admit, his stylistic innovation/simplicity has become a trademark of American Literature and it's the better for it!.

If I were to pick a runner up it would be another modernist who seems cliche to mention in these discussions: Faulkner!. His style combined with Hemingway's seems to be the mother and father of almost all good post-modern literature!. His characters are vivid, all his stories happen in the same universe (most of them, anyway), he wrote in phonic vernacular and focused on uniquely American issues!.

There is reason it seems cliche to mention these guys I guess, because it's hard to deny it!.

And on the global scale I'd say it's still the American (as geocentric as that makes me seem), because quite simply American Realism cemented us as the literary trend setters in world literature and that trend has only grown stronger as the movements have progressed!. Modernists the world over revere Hemingway, Faulkner, and Pound (I'll give you the fact that Joyce fits in this category pretty squarely)!. And post-modernism on a global scale is only easily differentiated by the story settings, and native language the authors use!. And it's going to meld even more in a globalized world!. And just to throw it out there I think we are fifteen or twenty years away from a distinctly new American Literary Movement that will probably be mirrored the world over yet again!.

Good question!.

add---> All style can be traced back through time and seen evolving with little hint as to where it began, but Hemingway cemented journalistic narration, strong diction (emphasis on verbs), and setting as a character as trademarks of American Lit!. All of that can be seen before him for sure, and some of his mystique comes from the man as well as the writing, but none the less he is an impossible to deny influence on all writers after him!. My problem with him is that after a while you sort of get a deja vu feeling when you read his stuff!. "Oh, this again," is one of the over riding feelings I have when I read a new (to me) Hemingway!. It'd make me feel great to be able to say that someone unheard of is the true great, but the simple fact is that the answer is pretty obvious!. I wouldn't argue against it being Faulkner and that's why I mentioned him, but Hemingway seems more consistently evident than him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nicholas Sparks -- once every few years I break down and read a novel a girlfriend suggested, I cry because the best character dies, and vow to never read him again!. It's kind of like the "lather, rinse, repeat" direction on the back of the shampoo bottle!.

Nawh!.!.!. just joking!. I'd have to turn in my Literary Snob card if that were true!.

In all seriousness, I'm going to have to vote for Faulkner!. He created an entire world that realistically captures life in the Mississippi Delta!. He mastered stream-of-consciousness, beautiful expression, and dialect and still wrote compelling plots!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

For me F!. Scott Fitzgerald is the greatest american novelist in the 20th century, although Steinbeck would come in second!.

Overall!? hmmm, there are so many and all so different! My favorite books from that time are Catch 22 and a Room with a View!.!.!. but George Orwell is also great!. So I think I will remain undecided :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think J!.K!. Rowling!. She started off writing the first Harry Potter book on a napkin at a resturaunt!. She was divorced and extremely poor, but look at her now, a multi billionaire!. She's a great example of how dedication and hard work comes a long way and I respect her for that :]Www@QuestionHome@Com

I guess I would pick William Faulkner as the greatest American novelist of the 20th century although Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Wharton, James, Wright, Heller, Barth, Pynchon and Ellison are also pretty high on my list!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I wouldn't pick J!.K!. Rowling regardless!.!.!.!.
Joyce, maybe!.

But the choices that come to mind are Steinbeck, Heller, Vonnegut, or Salinger!.

Edit: Forgot Faulkner and FitzgeraldWww@QuestionHome@Com

Sinclair Lewis I think!. Ernest Hemingway was a drunkard and a bum not worth to be read!. And James Joyce and Ms!. J!.K!. Rowlind were not from the USA!. Crazy!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nabokov!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

From the recent 1990's, I would say K!.A Applegate or, more likely, Stephen King!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Faulkner or Steinbeck!.!.!.

The Grapes of Wrath is hard to beat!.!.!. but The Sound and Fury and An American Tragedy are both great too!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

simple!. James Joyce!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hemingway haters have no soul!. He's the best!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

John SteinbeckWww@QuestionHome@Com

Stephanie Meyer
Stephen King
Nancy HolderWww@QuestionHome@Com