Midcentury sees Dos Passos reclaim and tweak slightly the narrative techniques utilized in U.S.A. Again, he skewers America’s power elite and the forces of mechanization and materialism. He rebukes the institutions—labor, government, and corporations—that create a nation where “man drowns in his own scum.”

In addition to Dos Passos’s classic kaleidoscopic narrative techniques, the satirical novel features biographical sketches of Douglas MacArthur, Jimmy Hoffa, John L. Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Dean, and Samuel Goldwyn.

Midcentury enjoys fifteen weeks as a New York Times bestseller Wall Street Journal calls it “…a sudden infusion and heightening of all his many skills as novelist, poet and dramatic narrator of historical fact. Dos Passos has come forth with the most satisfying work of his long career.” The New York Times Book Review calls it “one of the few genuinely good American novels of recent years.” Time declares it “the best novel from Dos Passos since his U.S.A. trilogy.”