Fiedler argues that American literature is immature because, instead of dealing with the mature themes of European literature -- love and death, it concentrates on friendship and terror, and, perhaps most immature of all, the friendships are between men. Women are almost entirely excluded. Despite the fact that this book has the reek of pre-Stonewall Freudianism, I still find much of what it has to say very compelling. There does seem to be a tendency of American novels to eschew women and to embrace the homosocial, and this does seem to have something to do with the wilderness and our attitudes towards race. However, even if you reject his overall argument, his homosocial readings of Huck Finn and the Leatherstocking tales is so bang on and explains so much about American television, that you really need to at least skim it if you want to delve into American literature or popular culture in any serious way. ( )

I remember being quite impressed by this book 35 years ago. I wonder if it would seem quite as ground-breaking today? ( )