Stephen King Says This Is the Most Perfect Novel Ever Written
Stephen King has written more than 60 novels, sold over 350 million copies, and watched his stories turn into Hollywood gold for nearly five decades — from The Shining to It to The Shawshank Redemption.
But despite all that, there's one book that makes him want to crawl under the desk in defeat.
Asked which novels he wishes he'd written himself, King rattled off a few classics:
"Lord of the Flies, maybe. A Separate Peace, I wish I'd written that. Catch-22."
All legendary picks — but none of them top the one that really hit a nerve.
Talking about John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, King didn't hold back:
"You just read it and push away. It's like a guy that's having a perfect day at the plate. You just say you can't beat him. It's almost like perfection."
That's right — The Grapes of Wrath is the one King says he wishes he'd written "more than any of the other ones." Well, maybe. He added one possible exception: "Except maybe Light in August by William Faulkner."
King's description of reading a truly great novel hits with blunt honesty:
"Sometimes you feel such a feeling of jealousy when you read a book and you say, ‘God damn, why him? What about me?' Or sometimes you read a book where the guy did something that was so much above you in terms of either the idea or the execution of the characters. And you say, ‘Aw, no. I want to hide my head.'"
So there you have it. From the man whose imagination gave us haunted hotels, killer clowns, and prison epics — the novel he calls almost perfect is Steinbeck's tale of Depression-era resilience and rage. And for King, that kind of perfection still stings — even when you're sitting on a mountain of bestsellers.