Nothing misunderstood. IMO it's just a mediocre book with overemphasis on hiding middling meaning in prose. A story that speaks many words but says little.
No, it’s an excellent novel. I do think it’s a little overrated, but mediocre would be a silly take on it. It’s highly regarded for a reason. For sure there are greater American novels..
An opinion that differs from yours is not, thereby, silly. I also find it mediocre. A bit of a bore overall, the prose unremarkable.
We all harbour silly opinions.
which novels are better?
So, so, many. Moby Dick; The Scarlet Letter; Lolita; Ulysses; Et Tu, Babe; Lexicon; Malone Dies;....
ulysses - you gotta be kiding. did you read that?
Twice, and I dip into it now and then and read a chapter. It’s one of my favorites.
I think Joyce was great, and I have a lot of respect for what he's done on his work regarding form, but I tried really hard and it was unbearable to keep on reading Ulysses - I got past half, but had to abandon - and this is coming from someone really used to 'hard' reads.
I think the conceit (the different styles for different chapters) sometimes overwhelms the book, but it has a lot of highlights, like the opening and closing chapters. I think of this quote often:
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
Ulysses is Irish though.
So is Malone Dies; maybe I misinterpreted the question, if it was asking only about American novels.
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky struck me as a better novel. But it's almost 1000 pages.
I really rate Jack London as the great American novelist. I like the lessor known Sea Wolf the best of his but White Fang and The Call of the Wild really capture a sense of adventure and the history and vibe of that period of American expansion into the West.
Interestingly, Jack London saw writing as purely commercial activity. He preferred to buy plots, or "take the idea" (hence lots of plagiarism accusations) to inventing.
I would say that from what is considered Great American Classics only catch 22 is actually good.
There's always The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.