I don’t exactly pretend to be a connoisseur of American Literature, but after having (very sporadically) read Huckleberry Finn I find myself stunned and I admit amused that this novel is often believed to be the novel from which all other American Literature is stemmed. If this is in fact the case, then ‘oh dear’. I mean, in terms of centuries Mark Twain only wrote this, dare I say it, dull and perhaps slightly racist novel, only a short time before the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway came on the scene, and although they may not have ‘stemmed’ American Literature either, I would go as far as to say they are much more influential and, contrary to Huck Finn, in reading their work one might actually find a profound insight into American character and culture.
There. I said it.
Next novel: Joseph Conrad’s, ‘Heart of Darkness’ . Any excuse to watch Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. Joy.