I just finished reading The World According To Garp, by John Irving. Again. This book has meant so much to me that I toted it across country to grad school and then, many years later, moved a much more bedraggled paperback copy back to California. I’ve re-read it at least five times. My family has humored me in my love of All Things Related To The World According To Garp (and by extension, John Irving): my sister allowed me to drag her to Exeter Academy to try to find locations, such as the Jenny Fields Infirmary; my family buys me hardback versions of Irving’s new novels (we are purveyors of the paperback and the used book stores); and they have tolerated my discussion of such John Irving deep cuts as Trying To Save Piggy Sneed or the awful The Fourth Hand. When I met Mr. Royale, I was happy to find a paperback copy of Garp among his possessions; if he had not liked the novel, it would have been a deal breaker.

1978’s Garp, initially entitled *Lunacy and Sorrow, is one of those amazing books that everyone should read (don’t try to get out of the 609 page count by watching the 1982 George Roy Hill film starring Robin Williams as Garp. It’s too cute). It is one of my nominations for The Great American Novel. It includes those quintessential American themes: Sex, Violence, Death, Love, Family, Religion (although in this case, through political causes). In fact, I could make a case of Garp also being The Great (Rock ‘n Roll) American Novel: the focus on lust, the contrast of being an outsider with the need to be accepted by a group, a sensitive main character who communicates his feelings about the world through art, the desire and confusion about fame.

Maybe for you, the Great American Novel is Moby Dick. Or The Great Gatsby. Or The Sun Also Rises, The Grapes of Wrath, Look Homeward, Angel, or (another personal contender) Don Delillo‘s Underworld.

But what is The Great American Album? Which album best exemplifies those American themes? When I asked Mr. Royale this question, his first response was Exile On Main Street. But the Rolling Stones? Do you have to be American to have created an American record?

I look forward to your discourse. Typed, double-spaced, with appropriate margins and font size. Consult Strunk and White for further details.