What's the Great American Novel? Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (the subject of Today In Literature because it was published today in 1939) certainly is a contender. So is Moby Dick. But I think my favorite candidate, though infrequently read today, is the USA trilogy by John Dos Passos.
Dos Passos used an experimental technique in this trilogy, incorporating fictional realism, newspaper clippings, biography and sections of autobiographical stream of consciousness to paint a vast and colorful landscape of American culture during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Steinbeck's book is a major achievement, and the movie is first rate as well. A recent adaptation to stage is also quite good.
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