3.83 avg rating — 1,357,984 ratings

"big river, big conflict, big story"

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 403,638 ratings

"epic. woman as human being. what a concept!"

3.92 avg rating — 6,186,530 ratings

"this was MY great american novel as a kid. The books on my list are in no particular order (my choice changes as I read new books)"

4.26 avg rating — 7,168,848 ratings

"the best and the worst of us in one book"

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,100,522 ratings

"who we WILL be. Oh and THE STYLE. duh"

3.99 avg rating — 908,763 ratings

"the essential portrait of the incongruous nature of being a democracy and a capitalist nation all at once. also, war is bad"

3.61 avg rating — 462,785 ratings

"it is our impulse, our spark that Kerouac captured"

3.90 avg rating — 2,977,544 ratings

"it's Steinbeck. He loves us"

3.86 avg rating — 132,834 ratings

"20th c american sin"

3.72 avg rating — 196,560 ratings

"because he used genius to capture genius. intoxicating, difficult, funny"

4.09 avg rating — 68,165 ratings

"cause it is perfect"

3.99 avg rating — 520,538 ratings

"masterpiece, the core of our permanent weakness"

4.05 avg rating — 108,306 ratings

"again, the essential contradiction in being American= sinner and sinned against (see Beloved)"

3.81 avg rating — 40,582 ratings

"nobody says it better. Ouch, I think her words just cut me."

3.85 avg rating — 153,350 ratings

"for the joy of the land, the immigrant, the settler"

4.26 avg rating — 24,582 ratings

"epic. because it is romantic at heart. and yes I like it better than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

3.61 avg rating — 12,844 ratings

"best baseball book ever written. why we invented it, why we play it, and therefore who we are"