The Big Money (USA)
The final volume of U.S.A. brings Dos Passos's strivers, speculators, and labor organizers to the crash of 1929. Among the voices are a bomber pilot, a Hollywood starlet, a labor organizer, and a publicity man, none of whom get what the century promised them. The collage technique is by now familiar, maybe even repetitive, but the cumulative effect remains impressive in a grim, documentary way. The novel ends as the trilogy must: with the machine still running and the people inside it still broken.Signet's edition presents the conclusion in the same compact paperback format as the first two volumes. It is a loud, angry book that reads quietly on the page, and it rewards readers who believe the real American symphony is the noise of advertisements, stock tickers, and exhausted bodies trying to sleep through the roar.
