A Search for America

"A Search for America: The Odyssey of an Immigrant" is a semi-autobiographical novel by Frederick Philip Grove, following young Phil Branden as he wanders from Montreal to the American Midwest in his quest for "the real America." The protagonist, born into a high-society European family that went broke, has to forget his Old-World habits to match the new society. Being absorbed into the immigrant underclass, he tries different professions: waiter, salesman, hobo, laborer, and everywhere he meets greed, cruelty, and deceit.