What novel do you believe is "The Great American Novel"?

Funniest thing is, we learned decades later through her diaries and letters and such that Louisa May Alcott herself did not like the book. It was a purely "mercenary" project for her, in her own words. It was "moral pap for the young" that sold really well those days. Her true passion was writing horror, thriller, noir, and such. Like Jo March in the book. She wanted to be like Mary Shelley not like Jane Austen. But after 20 years of writing a lot of stuff in the dark genres, she didn't get a big success. And she was single, supporting her parents financially, approaching 40 and broke. Her agent and her father convinced her to write a book targeted at teenage girls because those sold a lot. She had no ideas in that direction so just used her own family facts, and dramatized things a lot. She did have 3 sisters. Including a Beth who died young. But Louisa was the one who served as a nurse in the civil war, not the father like in the novel. While alive, she of course played the part in public to cash in on the success. But it's hilarious that she herself didn't like the book. And her heart wasn't in it. And yet she created such an enduring masterpiece that we still recommend to each other. Her real life story is an even more amazing version of Little Women.