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Ultimate Best Books

List: The 20th Centrury's Greatest Hits by American Book Review

The Making of Americans

The Making of Americans

Gertrude Stein

2.0 (3)

Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard.

#477
RANK
717
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0 votes on this list
Lolita

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

4.14 (36)

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palette to tap, at three, on the teeth.

#32
RANK
17,053
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0 votes on this list
Ironweed

Ironweed

William J. Kennedy

4.0 (1)

Riding up the winding road of Saint Agnes Cemetery in the back of the rattling old truck, Francis Phelan became aware that the dead, even more than the living, settled down in neighborhoods.

#341
RANK
1,623
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0 votes on this list
Look Homeward, Angel

Look Homeward, Angel

Thomas Wolfe

5.0 (1)

A destiny that leads the English to the Dutch is strange enough; but one that leads from Epsom into Pennsylvania, and thence into the hills that shut in Altamont over the proud coral cry of the cock, and the soft stone smile of an angel, is touched by that dark miracle of chance which makes new magic in a dusty world.

#420
RANK
1,035
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0 votes on this list
The 42nd Parallel

The 42nd Parallel

John Dos Passos

4.0 (3)

General Mills with his gaudy uniform and spirited charger was the center for all eyes especially as his steed was extremely restless.

#322
RANK
1,761
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City of Glass

City of Glass

Paul Auster

3.0 (1)

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.

#419
RANK
1,035
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0 votes on this list
Beloved

Beloved

Toni Morrison

4.07 (14)

124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children.

#66
RANK
11,086
POINTS
0 votes on this list
The Naked and the Dead

The Naked and the Dead

Norman Mailer

5.0 (1)

Nobody could sleep. When morning came, assult craft would be lowered and a first wave of troops would ride through the surf and charge ashore on he beach at Anopopei. All over the ship, all through the convoy, there was a knowledge that in a few hours some of them were going to be dead.

#359
RANK
1,512
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0 votes on this list
#521
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532
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0 votes on this list
Underworld

Underworld

Don DeLillo

3.4 (5)

He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful.Parla la tua lingua, l'americano, e c'è una luce nel suo sguardo che è una mezza speranza.

#362
RANK
1,477
POINTS
0 votes on this list