Amerikaanse literatuur/De beste Amerikaanse romans sinds 1900

Een goed startpunt om Amerikaanse romans te gaan lezen (de keuze is immers overweldigend!) is lijstjes van 'The best of' te raadplegen. Een van de grootste Engelstalige uitgevers, Random House, publiceerde in de New York Times van 20 juli 1998 een lijst met de beste 100 Engelstalige romans sinds 1900. Daarin waren volgende Amerikaanse romans opgenomen:

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (Russisch/Amerikaans auteur)
3. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
4. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
5. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
6. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
7. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
8. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
9. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
10. Native Son, Richard Wright
11. Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow (Canadees)
12. Appointment in Samarra, John O'Hara
13. U.S.A.-trilogie, John Dos Passos
14. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
15. The Wings of the Dove, Henry James
16. The Ambassadors, Henry James
17. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. Studs Lonigan (trilogie), James T. Farrell
19. The Golden Bowl, Henry James
20. Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
21. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
22. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
23. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
24. Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
25. Deliverance, James Dickey
26. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
27. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
28. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth
29. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
30. Light in August, William Faulkner
31. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
32. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
33. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
34. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
35. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
36. From Here to Eternity, James Jones
37. The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever
38. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
39. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
40. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
41. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
42. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
43. The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
44. Angle of repose, Wallace Stegner
45. Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
46. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
47. Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
48. Ironweed, William Kennedy
49. Sophie's Choice, William Styron
50. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
51. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
52. The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy (Iers/Amerikaans)
53. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington