Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos (1925)
At least five times, this book made me laugh out loud. Once i got into the rhythm of the narrative voice, i read straight through, enjoying myself the whole way. Having studied literature and read a fair amount about Catcher in the Rye i am surprised never to have seen Loos's wonderful book named as an inspiration for it. (I find it hard to imagine that Salinger had not read it.) Obviously both owe much to Huck Finn, but Loos deserves more credit than she gets for her work in developing the American vernacular novel.