The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter

A savage satirical portrait of American ambition, wrapped in the absurd adventures of one man who desperately wants to be famous. Major Roger Sherman Potter stands on the shores of Cape Cod at the novel's opening, contemplating how to achieve the renown he believes he deserves - caught between his mother's encouragement of his literary dreams and his father's weary warnings about the price of ambition. What follows is a picaresque journey through the contradictions of mid-19th century America: New York high society, backroom politics, dubious diplomatic missions, and the theater of war, all observed through a lens that is simultaneously hilarious and incisive. Adams skewers the hollow ambitions and moral compromises of a society obsessed with status and reputation. The novel endures because it asks a question Americans still grapple with: what are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of being remembered?