Oxford American.
I love lists so I’m happy to see the fine people over at the Oxford American have compiled a list of the Best Southern Novels of All Time. The “deluxe, expanded, online-only edition of the OA Southern Lit Poll” is 500 or so novels long and will be available Friday along with information on the 134 judges who took part in the poll, and it will also have opportunities for readers to jump into the great debate. The Southern Lit Issue hits newsstands Tuesday, but the nice people over at OA have made the Top 10 selections available now. Here they are:
1) ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by WILLIAM FAULKNER (1936)
2) ALL THE KING’S MEN by ROBERT PENN WARREN (1946)
3) THE SOUND AND THE FURY by WILLIAM FAULKNER (1929)
4) THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by MARK TWAIN (1885)
5) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by HARPER LEE (1960)
6) THE MOVIEGOER by WALKER PERCY (1961)
7) AS I LAY DYING by WILLIAM FAULKNER (1930)
8) INVISIBLE MAN by RALPH ELLISON (1952)
9) WISE BLOOD by FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1952)
10) THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1937)
No surprise that Mr. Faulkner is so well-represented, but I’m kicking off the debate early by stating: No Cormac McCarthy in the Top 10? Even though most of his novels are set in the American Southwest, Blood Meridian — perhaps his finest work — kicks off in Tennessee and has strong Southern roots, and The Road is most likely set in the Piedmont on a march to the Carolina coast. And what about Suttree? Here’s betting that Mr. McCarthy finds himself in the Top 25, along with the late, great Larry Brown.
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