Manhattan Transfer, John Dos Passos

Considered by many to be John Dos Passos's greatest work, Manhattan Transfer is an "expressionistic picture of New York" ( New York Times ) in the 1920s that reveals the lives of wealthy power brokers and struggling immigrants alike. From Fourteenth Street to the Bowery, Delmonico's to the underbelly of the city waterfront, Dos Passos chronicles the lives of characters struggling to become a part of modernity before they are destroyed by it. "A novel of the very first importance" (Sinclair Lewis), Manhattan Transfer is a masterpiece of modern fiction and a lasting tribute to the dual-edged nature of the American dream.