If you've not read John Steinbeck, you've missed, one who IMHO the best author America has produced. Perhaps the best without qualification,
My first was The Grapes of Wrath. Whew, by the time I finished it I almost wished I hadn't read it. Recently finished East of Eden. Another whew!
Perhaps my favorite, though, was a shorty The Moon is Down. it's a good place to start, short, but like all Steinbeck, intense, and the end will make your chest swell with love and pride for the conviction of free men.
A short passage from East of Eden:
(just before this they were discussing Cain and Able)
“I think I can,” Lee answered Samuel. “I think this is the best-known story in the world because it is everybody’s story. I think it is the symbol story of the human soul. I’m feeling my way now—don’t jump on me if I’m not clear. The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt—and there is the story of mankind. I think that if rejection could be amputated, the human would not be what he is. Maybe there would be fewer crazy people. I am sure in myself there would not be many jails. It is all there—the start, the beginning. One child, refused the love he craves, kicks the cat and hides his secret guilt; and another steals so that money will make him loved; and a third conquers the world—and always the guilt and revenge and more guilt. The human is the only guilty animal. Now wait! Therefore I think this old and terrible story is important because it is a chart of the soul—the secret, rejected, guilty soul. Mr. Trask,