I’m talking works by Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, Joseph Heller, Stephen King, Art Spiegelman, Elie Wiesel, Daniel Keyes, etc. I haven’t read any from these I’ve mentioned, I just have a bias that tells me they’re overrated trash. I think it’s quite common on american “classics” (not just books but also films) a certain political defeatism or instead a very liberal surface level criticism of “bad things” (Steinbeck stays winning). And then these barren ideas get louded as incredible literature classics (which makes sense as far as the rulling class’s efforts for maintaining the status quo are concerned).
But as I’ve said this is my analysis a priori of having read such novels, but are there actually redeeming qualities on those novels that make them worthy of pursuing? I’m not that interested in style but I can see that some of the authors mentioned have that idiosyncrasy going for them. Also I’m sure some do get the problems they’re writing about and maybe that analysis, even if it doesn’t go all the way, is a good enough quality.
(I write this about american novels in particular but it clearly expands to other ‘classics’. Unfortunately I have read stuff by that Orwell fella which is a clear perpetrator of the crimes I’ve mentioned. I focused on the american side because most of the ‘classics’ lists are filled with them (they’re anglocentric in general but more american-sided))
The classics are classics for a reason - that might be the writing or the cultural effect they had at the time.
I doubt Amerikkkan classics deserve the position of preeminence they hold over other languages. I guess that’s just cultural hegemony.
You will find plenty of reactionary or offensive language and themes, even in “well meaning” works (slurs in “Tom Sawyer” for example). It’s up to you what boundaries you’d like to set for your own reading. I chose not to finish a Hemingway recently due to themes glorifying sex buying. I don’t think any classic is worth pushing through if you hate it.
I liked Catcher in the Rye and reread The Great Gatsby every couple years. I found Asimov kind of boring, but his ideas are cool. It’s not Amerikkkan, but I’m rereading Heart of Darkness right now, and I think it mostly holds up.
Edit: I also re-read Kerouac and Cormac McCarthy pretty often