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 Chi...