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leigh.smith@fre

New Member
Hello members,
I am in the process of putting together a reading list of world literature novels. The subject: 20th-century Visions of America from around the world. I have nothing yet and would like some help. Any suggestions?
 
Hello Concetta,
thanks for your reply. I mean the United States. I say "America" simply because that is the appellation usually employed in the international context when people speak of the US in all its glory, shame, dominance, etc. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
 
Ouch , tough one I'll need to give it some thought. I can't think of one off the topof my head. Most of the "visions" we foreigners see/hear of America are in the media. Please keep us updated with your findings.

Cheers,
 
Indeed. Kafka wrote his novel "Amerika" without ever having been there (should make for an interesting POV), but I am looking for something a little more recent, post-WWII. Some novelist somewhere has to have written a book about 'America' from another country's perspective, right?
 
I just read this book called:

Bad Land - An American Romance

that, I think, fits your description. I didn't enjoy the book, but I was the only one in my book discussion group that didn't - everyone else LOVED it.

It was written by a British guy (Jonathan Raban) about the homesteaders in the American plains (mostly Montana) during the early 1900s.

It is non-fiction, though. Does that disqualify it?

Take a look at the link and if you have any questions about the book, just let me know.
 
Thought I had remebered one but I'm out by about 60 years:

American Notes - Charles Dickens
From the Book Cover
I have made up my mind (with God's leave) to go to America--and to start as soon after Christmas as it will be safe"
So wrote an exuberant Dickens shortly before his voyage to America in 1842. He was the most famous of many travellers of his time who journeyed to the New World, curious to find out about the revolutionary new civilization which had captured the English imagination. His frank, often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically uncomfortable sea voyage to his wonder at the Niagara Falls. In general, Dickens is critical of what he saw as a society ruled by money and built on slavery, with unsavoury manners and a corrupt press. His unfavourable account provoked a hostile response in America and Britain, although he was to change his opinion later.

"American Notes" can be read as a journey in the long-established tradition of Chaucer, Bunyan and Swift --as a progress to knowledge through varied experiences. Above all, it is a fascinating account of what was for Dickens an illuminating encounter with the New World.
 
Thanks, but I am looking for a novel, fiction only. Still, your suggestions certainly give me some other ideas on expanding a reading list. Otherwise, what about travel literature? Are there any interesting travel diaries or some such by visitors to the US that would shed some interesting light on the US that Americans themselves might not be aware of? Anybody, please.
 
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