Favorite. Just one.

I'm reading my first John Irving novel--The Hotel New Hampshire. It's uncomfortable (rape, incest, prostitution...), but John Irving is clearly a masterful storyteller; these characters with their bizarre life (can many characters live one life?) have become my friends (and my enemies). I was wondering what prompted me to pursue this title that has been perched on my "to be read" shelf for far too long, and then I remembered that one of my colleagues called it her favorite novel. I can't resist a "favorite novel."

My favorite quotation from The Hotel New Hampshire so far is "'Literature is for dreamers,' Old Billing would tell poor Fehlgeburt. Old Billing the radical, I mean. Old Billing the whore liked dreams; she told Frank once that dreams were all she liked" (Irving 234).

My fellow dreamers (and whores, too), what is your favorite work of literature? What one novel must I read?

(I'm asking you to choose one. I, on the other hand, refuse. My favorite(s)? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. No, Bean Trees. Okay, To Kill A Mockingbird. I think it's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Today.)