A search for America : the odyssey of an immigrant

Summary: Frederick Philip Grove’s semi-autobiographical A Search for America follows young Phil Branden as he wanders from Montreal to the American Midwest in his quest for “the real America.” Born into a privileged European family whose fortunes have collapsed, Branden must remake himself in North America, shedding his Old World attitudes as he is absorbed into the immigrant underclass. In each of his new occupations – waiter, salesman, hobo, labourer – Branden encounters greed, cruelty, and deceit, yet he also glimpses the promise of a new social order struggling to be born.

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