The Great British Novel

[Lizzie]

i still can’t put my finger on exactly why it’s such a big deal in american litarary culture (and not so much across the rest of the world) to aspire to write such a book. maybe it’s because national socialism’s ghost still lingers across europe like a bad smell, and to wrap a novel in the union jack feels a bit too dangerous. even now. 

We're a young country. That's how identity is formed, through self-reflection. It's a very natural part of growing up.



“The Great American Novel is the concept of a novel that perfectly represents the spirit of the age in the United States at the time of its publication.”

Then Anna Karenina is The Great Russian Novel. It's 800+ pages of "this is what it means to be Russian." And it's brilliant.