Great American Novels - summary

Back in 2006 I started working my way through a list of Great American Novels. Last month I finished the list and I wanted to summarize. I'm very glad that I did this, it introduced some great novels, some I never would have picked up otherwise.
I thought these five were great:

• Huckleberry Finn - Twain
  
• The Long Goodbye - Chandler
• Moby Dick - Melville
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee
• Pale Fire - Nabokov

'Mockingbird' wasn't a surprise as I'd read it many times and originally voted for it as the best American novel. 'Huckleberry Finn' and 'Moby Dick' are often mentioned as top novels and I completely agree. 'The Long Goodbye' was a surprise to me. It's hard-boiled detective work and it's crazy good. I'd never heard of 'Pale Fire' and it was the one of the books I'll read again soon.
Very good:

• Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
• Catch 22 - Heller

'Gatsby' is fairly deep. It catches something unique about the American experience in regards to wealth. 'Catch 22' is the funniest of the set. At times it was too shallow but the final third had great pay-off.
Good:

• My Antonia - Cather
• Invisible Man - Ellison
• Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
• The Sot Weed Factor - Barth
• The Great American Novel - Roth

These are all good novels, very interesting but not as good as the previous. 'Antonia' is a record of life on the prairie. 'Invisible Man' is important for it's message. 'Fahrenheit 451' has become the go-to for anticensorship. It's understandable how it got there, but it isn't quite the theme. 'Sot Weed Factor' might have the broadest scope of any novel in this set. It's ambitious, maybe too much so, but a fun read. 'American Novel' is fun for baseball junkies but I don't know how well it goes beyond that.
Ok:

• Uncle Tom's Cabin - Stowe
• Age of Innocence - Wharton
• Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
  
• All the King's Men - Warren
• Rabbit, Run - Updike

This set was mostly very readable but just didn't zing. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was more important than quality. 'Age of Innocence' was done better as 'Gone with the Wind'. 'Farewell' was fine but flawed. 'All the King's Men' was much better than the movie that it spawned but certainly not great. 'Rabbit' was frustrating because of what I wanted it to be, but wasn't.
And then the ones I didn't finish:

• The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne
• Portrait of a Lady - James
• The Sound and the Fury - Faukner
• Adventures of Augie March - Bellow

These were a mixed bag and I feel badly about some of them. 'Scarlet Letter' was ponderous and unreadable. 'Portrait of a Lady' took too long to go anywhere (and maybe never does). 'Sound and the Fury', I might have just been in the wrong place for this one. Maybe I'll try it again in a few years. 'Sound and the Fury' is the one that I feel guilty about. It really is seen as a top classic and I probably gave up too quickly.