Guare's The House of Blue Leaves, his most well-known work before Six Degrees of Separation, contains the author's darkly humorous vision of modern America. This farce features a working-class Queens zookeeper who fails as a songwriter and takes out his frustration on his insane wife.

Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) tells the story of a young man who, to Win a society girl, takes on the persona of a well-bred young man. In his attempt to hide the truth about his past, Clyde Griffiths finds himself involved in murder.

Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) is a scathing portrayal of wealthy New Yorkers who have all the material comforts they could desire but lack any true values or meaning in their lives. Wolfe's protagonist is a rich bonds trader who finds his whole world coming into question when...