The 42nd Parallel

A “linguistically adventurous national portrait for a precarious age,” the first novel in the USA Trilogy captures American life in the early twentieth century (The New Yorker).

Named among the best books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library, the U.S.A. Trilogy vividly portrays American men and women—both fictional and biographical—as they navigate a world transformed by war, imperialism, and new technologies.

Told in stream-of-consciousness narratives and “newsreels” containing Chicago Tribune headlines of the day, The 42nd Parallel introduces Mac, a former newspaperman turned champion of the working man; Janey, a young secretary from Washington D.C.; a highhanded social climber named Eleanor; and Charley, an amiable auto mechanic. As their lives intersect with one another, as well as the likes of Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie, a vivid vision of a bygone America arises as only John Dos Passos can portray it.

“The single greatest novel any of us have written, yes, in this country in the last one hundred years.” —Norman Mailer

“A novel that excites and satisfies. . . . A sense of aliveness quickens every page.” —The Atlantic