Vonnegut's place in your personal heirarchy

Re: Vonnegut's standing

Hemingway said it about FSF, a man's only got one book like that in him.
Is Saul Bellow on the roster yet?

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

Well, there's more than one way to dislike Steinbeck. I admit that Grapes of Wrath plods at a Melvillian pace at times. JS's chapter on the turtle crossing the road is not unlike HM's chapter about the whiteness of the whale. Some of JS's other works are breezy and quick reading, though...like Cannery Row and its oft-overlooked sequel, Sweet Thursday.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

Ace, why do think that is? Not trying to be argumentative, because I'm not sure I'd vote for him, either. Just wondering what your reasons are.

I realize McMurtry didn't exactly break any new literary ground, but in terms of sheer storytelling, I can't think of many who were better.

His son's a damn fine songwriter, too.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

As opposed to Faulkner? I love the guy but it takes me a looooooonnng time to finish one of the books.
Among modern guys I'd nominate T.R. Pearson.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

McMurtry's interesting. Lonesome Dove, by itself, puts him in the discussion, in my opinion. I haven't read much of his other stuff, though, except the Lonesome Dove sequels/prequels, which didn't do much for me.

Twain, Melville, Faulkner, Poe, Hawthorne, in some order, would be my starting five. Fitzgerald might be the sixth man -- can't go the distance, but as good as anyone over a short period of time. Damn, Steinbeck would have to be in my rotation, too. Hemingway is the overpaid free-agent acquisition who doesn't deserve the hype.

How about James Fenimore Cooper? I don't think he gets much critical respect these days, but he was there at the beginning. The George Mikan, if you will. As for current writers, what about Philip Roth? I actually haven't read him, but whenever I read about modern authors who might enter the canon someday, his name comes up.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

There's a funny story involving him and my alma mater (West's almost-alma mater)...I'm too busy to type it now, though. Maybe someone can beat me to it.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

Where's Bellow? Penn Warren? Gaddis? Baldwin? O'Hara? Dos Passos? Dreiser? Stegner? Percy? London? Cheever? Styron? Cain? Chandler? Wharton?
Lewis? Fenimore Cooper? Irving? Toole?

And Nathanael West has stopped crying long enough to ask if you're going by single works or body of work.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

I like McMurtry. Read all his books. I think that he is very good with characters but doesn't break new ground. Maybe he is too straightforward.

Novels like Red Badge of Courage and The Great Gatsby are filled with metaphors and images and such that make them denser and richer.

He's good with social commentary. Not that the tippy top, though, of literature.

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing

I don't think Cooper ever recovered from what Mark Twain did to him.
http://ww3.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html

 

Re: Vonnegut's standing


Ever try reading James Fenimore Cooper -- yeesh!

 

Subject line adjusted to align with Buck's clarification on Page 1:

My (original) title for the thread does not accurately reflect what I was thinking about.
'Standing' connotes stature and some kind of generally accepted scale of greatness and importance.
Within that context, Vonnegut is clearly behind Twain, Melville, Hemingway, Poe and Steinbeck.
I was thinking more about personal preference within the pantheon of accepted great American writers of fiction.