U.S.A. : The Complete Trilogy [The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money]

This gorgeous new paperback edition collects the three volumes ofJohn Dos Passoss acclaimed U.S.A. trilogy, named one of the best books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library, and a linguistically adventurous national portrait for a precarious agehis, and ours (The New Yorker).

The U.S.A. trilogy, comprised of the novelsThe 42nd Parallel, 1919,andThe Big Money, is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrayal of a nation that buzzes with history and life on every page.

The 42^ndParallelunfolds in stories and newsreels consisting of front-page headlines and article fragments fromthe Chicago Tribune,revealing the lives and fortunes of five characters. Mac, Janey, Eleanor, Ward, and Charley are caught on the storm track of this parallel and blown New Yorkward. As their lives cross and double back again, the likes of Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie also make appearances.

1919opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passoss characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, and a radical Jew, as well as the glimpses of the more famous Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier.

The Big Moneycomes back to America after the war to find a nation on the upswing. Industrialism booms, the stock market surges, Lindbergh takes his solo flight, and Henry Ford makes automobiles. From New York to Hollywood, love affairs to business deals, it is a country taking the turns too fast, speeding toward the crash of 1929.

Employing a host of experimental devices that would inspire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many textures, flavors, and background noises of modern life with a cinematic touch and unparalleled nerve.