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Pastimes : A CENTURY OF LIONS/THE 20TH CENTURY TOP 100 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (3170)	1/4/2002 9:55:05 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

Certainly, I have given Saul Bellow some thought. I would prefer "Mr. Sammler's Planet" or "Herzog" to "Augie March", I think. There is also E. L. Doctorow, particularly with "Ragtime", and Kurt Vonnegut, especially with "Slaughterhouse Five". James Baldwin and Norman Mailer are more interesting as essayists than novelists, but are important post- War writers. I think that both Fitzgerald and Hemingway are over- rated, although "The Great Gatsby" has some kind of claim. I have a fondness for Sinclair Lewis, especially "Babbit" and "Main Street", but have not had the patience to finish a Dreiser novel. I think that William Faulkner's reputation is somewhat inflated. Of earlier novelists, Mark Twain, of course, has a big claim, particularly with "Huckleberry Finn". "Moby Dick" is, however, probably a greater novel, and Melville a more powerful writer. Hawthorne is good, but, I think, not great. Probably, of all the 19th century novelists, the greatest is Henry James, but he also lived most of his adult life in England. Still, "The Ambassadors", "The Americans", "The Spoils of Poynton", and many others make a very fine body of work. Anyway, sticking to the 20th century, I guess I am inclined to hover over Bellow and Lewis the most. Maybe someone else will weigh in......