Seminal books for each decade

Andrew asks a tough question:

what do you think is more or less the equivalent of the great gatsby in every decade after the 20s?

Here are my picks:

1930s: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck.

1940s: Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler.

1950s: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, with Kerouac’s On the Road as a runner-up.

1960s: Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, with The Bell Jar and Herzog as runners-up.

1970s: This is tough.  There is Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, Stephen King, and even Peter Benchley’s Jaws.  I’ll opt for Benchley as a dark horse pick, note that these aren’t my favorites but rather they must be culturally central.  Jonathan Livingston Seagull is another option, as this truly is an era of popular literature.

1980s: Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities.

1990s: The Firm, by John Grisham, or Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible.  Maybe Brokeback Mountain.

2000s: Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point.

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