The Millions asked nine experts to name the greatest American novel . Thoughts?

I decided to think about it before I actually read the piece. It helps that American literature is still sort of a baby.

The novel is still a baby. I had professors who weren't sure it was here to stay. Robinson Crusoe (1719) is generally considered the first English novel, and it only predates the first American novel by 70 years.

All of the experts' opinions are wrong except for Huckleberry Finn. I think Moby Dick is the best novel written by an American, but Huckleberry Finn is about the heart and soul of America.

I'm spending the weekend in a haze of FitzOsbornes. I blame you people.

I love that House of Mirth made it on there, although I think it's too specifically about women to qualify, which I hate to say. I do think class is as much an American focus as race, although race is clearly not a focus anywhere else.

Are you rereading, Ginger, or reading for the first time?

Sophie is one of those people who really feels like a friend. I keep thinking of things I would tell her.

Oops.

My thought before reading the list was The Great Gatsby, but then once I read the list Huck Finn seemed most obvious.

There's a lot of class in Huck Finn too, particularly the skewering of middle-class pretension.

Are you rereading, Ginger, or reading for the first time?

First time. I just succumbed to the lure of downloading The FitzOsbornes at War.

Don't fight it! The FitzOsbornes are so very worth it.

I'm going to have to read them again, more slowly.

I'm spending the weekend in a haze of FitzOsbornes. I blame you people.

Heh, yeah. The FitzOsbornes are so awesome.

I finished Code Name Verity a few days ago, and can't stop thinking about it. The characters felt so real to me, and their situation so agonizing. I'd love to discuss it with others who have read it. What did you all think of Anna Engel? Her last conversation with Maddie was difficult to read, knowing the part she played in capturing and torturing Verity. But she also helped her, and I wonder if some of the stuff Verity wrote about Engel mistreating her was fabricated for von Linden's benefit. I also wonder if she died in the explosion.

So many wonderful moments keep popping into my mind, like Maddie's rescue of the Jamaican rear gunner just before the explosion, and their conversation about the deaths of both of their best friends; and the line about Julie being buried in her great-aunt's garden (I'm tearing up thinking about it now). I did find it hard to get into at first -- I didn't know what to think of the novel's structure. I couldn't decide what I thought about Verity's confession. Not just whether or not she was collaborating and giving up real secrets, but whether or not the whole situation was fabricated, especially since so much of what she was writing was about Maddie, seemingly from Maddie's point of view. Would the Nazis really allow her to write so much that was useless to them, so many personal stories and conversations unrelated to the information they were trying to get? But I decided to give the novel time to reveal itself to me, and I'm so glad I did.