The 42nd Parallel

In an introductory note to the 1937 Modern Library edition of this novel, John Dos Passos explains that the content of a novel determines its form. The content of U.S.A., of which The 42nd Parallel is the first book, is the whole of America in the first third of the 20th century; the form is intersecting personal narratives threaded with news clippings, bits of songs, mini-biographies of important figures, and stream-of-consciousness Camera Eye sections following the author's own experiences. The techniques have lost none of their power in depicting small people struggling against large powers. The much-bruited Great American Novel was written between 1930 and 1936 in three volumes: It is called U.S.A.