The Big Money
Industrialism booms. The stock market surges. Lindbergh takes his solo flight. Henry Ford makes automobiles. From New York to Hollywood, love affairs to business deals, it is a country taking the turns too fast, speeding toward the crash of 1929. Ultimately, whether the novels of John Dos Passos's classic USA Trilogy are read together or separately, they paint a sweeping portrait of collective America—and showcase the brilliance and bravery of one of its most enduring and admired writers. The Big Money, focusing on a passionate pilot whose compromises culminate in despair and an actress led astray by her ambitions, completes this "fable of America's materialistic success and moral decline" ( American Heritage).