Underworld

Get hold of Underworld by Don DeLillo

"Through fragments and interlaced stories--including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others--DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled." (Amazon.com)

I think it's a very good shot at "the great american novel"...