Thematic Guide to the American Novel

Book excerpt: DREAMS AND THE SUPERNATURAL: Angle of repose -- Bless me, Ultima -- Ceremony -- Fools crow -- Going after Cacciato -- The great Gatsby -- The heart is a lonely hunter -- House made of dawn -- The house made of dawn -- The house of the seven gables -- Love medicine -- Mama -- Mama day -- Reservation blues -- Slaughterhouse five -- Tar baby. FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS: Absalom, absalom! -- The bell jar -- The bluest eye -- Bone -- Brown girl, brownstones -- Charlotte temple -- Cold mountain -- The color purple -- Ellen Foster -- Foxfire -- The good Earth -- House on Mango Street -- How the Garcia girls lost their accents -- In the time of butterflies -- The poisonwood bible -- The rise of Silas Lapham -- The shipping news -- Song of Solomon -- A tree grows in Brooklyn 00 To kill a mockingbird -- Washington Square. FINE ARTS AND EDUCATION: The accidental tourist -- The age of innocence -- Angle of repose -- The awakening -- The bell jar -- Brown girl, brownstones -- The chosen -- Cold mountain -- Deliverance -- Fahrenheit 451 -- Foxfire -- The heart is a lonely hunter -- The house on Mango Street -- Main Street -- Mama -- Memoirs of a Geisha -- The moviegoer -- The poisonwood bible -- Ragtime -- Reservation blues -- A river runs through it -- The shipping news -- Sister Carrie -- Slaughterhouse five -- Snow falling on cedars -- These is my words -- A tree grows in Brooklyn -- Winesburg, Ohio -- The woman warrior.