The American author Tom Clancy lived from 1947 to 2013, and published 17 bestsellers, most in his Jack Ryan series. After President Ronald Reagan praised Clancy’s first book, The Hunt for Red October, Clancy’s future books gained widespread popularity, and he wrote until he died in 2013. In this post, I will discuss if Tom Clancy’s 11 book Jack Ryan series should be considered a Great American Novel, using examples from his first and last books, The Hunt for Red October and The Bear and the Dragon respectively. For grading a book a Great American novel. I have three criteria. To be considered a Great American Novel, one, it contains an American setting and American Characters, two, it must grapple with a distinctive American problem or ideal, and three it must be held in high regard by the majority of the “intellectual” population of the United States.
In regards to the first criteria, I believe that Tom Clancy’s novels do contain American Characters and ideals. Tom Clancy’s main character, Jack Ryan, is an American from Baltimore that was at one point a marine, then a stockbroker, a teacher, and finally a CIA analyst. Most of the supporting characters that he meets and works with are Americans. As for ideals, the character of Jack Ryan is religious and for a large portion of the US today, (82%) religion is a part of their lives. For these reasons, I believe Tom Clancy’s novels do satisfy criteria #1.
In regards to the second criteria, I believe that it must grapple with a distinctive American problem or ideal. The one big point of conflict in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series is the Cold War. In fact, it is pretty much the only conflict present in all the novels. At the end of the series, in the last book, The Bear and the Dragon, Jack Ryan is seen as an old Cold War Relic, as to quote “It was a long-standing CIA joke from Ryan’s time in the Bad Old Days of the Cold War.” Although only present in the aforementioned novel, a new conflict appears to the readers. China. The whole novel revolves around a new, “Cold War” with the PRC. Side note, but this is very interesting, as this novel was published in 2000. It seems that Tom Clancy had guessed and written correctly that the US would be in conflict with China in the 21st century. For these reasons, I believe Tom Clancy’s novels do satisfy criteria #2.
Criteria number three is debatable, “three it must be held in high regard by the majority of the “intellectual” population of the United States.” Tom Clancy’s works are seen as very conservative, and creates a bit of controversy over its “greatness.” Also, with the book average word count somewhere around 260,000 words, the pure amount of reading required to finish just one book (not all 11) is outside what many modern day Americans want to read. (Not that some read at all besides their twitter feeds.) Also, while Tom Clancy published his first book in 1984, he published the Bear and the Dragon in 2000, so the series, in my opinion, is very hard to rate a “classic,” because it has only been around for a generation. Another issue is the amount of books, well, they only are as great as the rest. They all are amazing books, but each one really builds on another, so they would all have to be classified as a Great American Series. So I do not pass Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series on the 3rd criteria.
Based on the above argument, even though Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series is maybe of my favorite book series, I do not rate it or any of its singular books as a Great American work. Even though I graded it 2/3 criteria-wise, the 3rd criteria just wrecked any notion of it G.A.N. status. Maybe in a few generations (or a few 100 years) they will be considered a great collection of works, but it is very hard to call any contemporary literature Great American Novels.
Great American Novels 