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 Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
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Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
A Summation of Early 20th Century American Life., 30 Aug 2003
This is a huge book (made up of three smaller books), and a huge achievement. Unfairly overlooked nowadays, John Dos Passos's novel is well worth your time. The three novels here make up one large whole. The book is made up of stories following the lives of various characters from all walks of life. Their lives sometimes intersect, sometimes get better, sometimes get worse and even sometimes end. In between these stories are shorter experimental pieces: 'The Camera Eye', which is Whitman-esque description of scenes; 'Newsreel' which is a collage of headlines and journalism, to give an idea of the events that are going by as the novel progresses; and Biographies of famous people of the times, millionaires (eg Hearst, Carnegie), creative people (eg Edison, Lloyd Wright), activists (Eugene Debs, Joe Hill), and many others. The biographical sections are very impressive. Done in a style that is half poem, half telegram, they concisely and accurately sum up famous personages, some you will have heard of, some you won't. As the novels goes by, you are completely transported into the early 20th Century. Dos Passos is very critical of modern life here; he seems to feel that the modern system that is being put in place will not make anyone particularly happy. This is not to say that the book is depressing, but it is convincingly realistic, which is not always pretty. The book ends with the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, which the author depicts as the event that should spark a revolution. This is incendiary stuff - but Dos Passos makes a good case. His politics are not thrust down your throat. It's more a case of showing than telling. Sacco and Vanzetti are probably as forgotten today as the novel U.S.A. is. A read of this novel could make you think both deserve wider recognition. If you want to immerse yourself in another time, and learn a little along the way - or if you simply want an entertaining read - this is the book for you.
This is THE American novel., 21 Apr 2002
'USA' is, in my opinion, the greatest book that America produced during the 20th Century. It is in fact three novels- 'The Big Money', '1919' & 'The 42nd Parallel'. All are linked by the 'camera eye' and 'newsreel' sections- which should go down well with those who liked texts like 'The Wasteland', 'The Wild Boys' and 'Ulysses'. Though I think this book is a lot more approachable than much of Joyce and Woolf's major works. It would also be popular with those who like the sweeping panorama of America- the obvious Keroauc texts, Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March' and Don DeLillo's 'Underworld'. The language is brilliantly written- the characters who we pass through, as they pass through America tell us as much-if not more than- as history books. The baggy concept of the 'American Dream'- which one assumes is the ability to rise through the classes and to gain power & wealth through capitalist individualism or a fruitful marriage- is found in this book...Don't be put off by its size- it is a book you can read at whatever pace you like- read each novel seperately or take in the complete work. I think 'USA' is a masterpiece and one that I would present as THE American novel...I would even present it as a contender for the best novel of the 20th Century. Yes, it's that good...
The greatest novel of the 20th Century?, 04 Apr 2002
'USA' is one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th Century- a sprawling piece of American Modernism. William Burroughs felt that along with 'The Sheltering Sky' (Paul Bowles) & 'The Wasteland' it developed the 'cut-up' technique before he coined it with Brion Gysin...Joycean-academic & late,great novelist Anthony Burgess saw it as doing similarly great things with language & speech as 'Ulysees'- drawing a comparison between it, Joyce's masterpiece & Hubert Selby Jr's 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'...The three novels collected here...are 'The Big Money', 'The 42nd Parallel' & '1919'- & are puntuated with 'newsreel' & 'camera eye' sections- which serve as an interlude & provide a removed perspective from the shifting collection of protaganists we meet on the way...Anyone who has enjoyed Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' should love this book- in many ways DeLillo's vast work is a successor to Dos Passos' tome.Other books it is not dissimilar to include 'Earthly Powers', 'The Adventures of Augie March' & aspects of Jack Keroauc..I am told that 'Manhattan Transfer' is very good- & it is the place where Dos Passos developed his style, so you might want to read that first...However, I'd just dive in to this vast,riveting work- it is one that you could read fast (& want to re-read ASAP) or one that you can savour over time- like 'The Alexandria Quartet' or 'Remembrance of Things Past'...'USA' is a brilliant book- don't be put off by its size. I believe it is a contender for the greatest novel of the 20th Century.
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1919: 2 (U.S.A.)
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The Big Money (U.S.A.)
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Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
A Summation of Early 20th Century American Life., 30 Aug 2003
This is a huge book (made up of three smaller books), and a huge achievement. Unfairly overlooked nowadays, John Dos Passos's novel is well worth your time. The three novels here make up one large whole. The book is made up of stories following the lives of various characters from all walks of life. Their lives sometimes intersect, sometimes get better, sometimes get worse and even sometimes end. In between these stories are shorter experimental pieces: 'The Camera Eye', which is Whitman-esque description of scenes; 'Newsreel' which is a collage of headlines and journalism, to give an idea of the events that are going by as the novel progresses; and Biographies of famous people of the times, millionaires (eg Hearst, Carnegie), creative people (eg Edison, Lloyd Wright), activists (Eugene Debs, Joe Hill), and many others. The biographical sections are very impressive. Done in a style that is half poem, half telegram, they concisely and accurately sum up famous personages, some you will have heard of, some you won't. As the novels goes by, you are completely transported into the early 20th Century. Dos Passos is very critical of modern life here; he seems to feel that the modern system that is being put in place will not make anyone particularly happy. This is not to say that the book is depressing, but it is convincingly realistic, which is not always pretty. The book ends with the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, which the author depicts as the event that should spark a revolution. This is incendiary stuff - but Dos Passos makes a good case. His politics are not thrust down your throat. It's more a case of showing than telling. Sacco and Vanzetti are probably as forgotten today as the novel U.S.A. is. A read of this novel could make you think both deserve wider recognition. If you want to immerse yourself in another time, and learn a little along the way - or if you simply want an entertaining read - this is the book for you.
This is THE American novel., 21 Apr 2002
'USA' is, in my opinion, the greatest book that America produced during the 20th Century. It is in fact three novels- 'The Big Money', '1919' & 'The 42nd Parallel'. All are linked by the 'camera eye' and 'newsreel' sections- which should go down well with those who liked texts like 'The Wasteland', 'The Wild Boys' and 'Ulysses'. Though I think this book is a lot more approachable than much of Joyce and Woolf's major works. It would also be popular with those who like the sweeping panorama of America- the obvious Keroauc texts, Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March' and Don DeLillo's 'Underworld'. The language is brilliantly written- the characters who we pass through, as they pass through America tell us as much-if not more than- as history books. The baggy concept of the 'American Dream'- which one assumes is the ability to rise through the classes and to gain power & wealth through capitalist individualism or a fruitful marriage- is found in this book...Don't be put off by its size- it is a book you can read at whatever pace you like- read each novel seperately or take in the complete work. I think 'USA' is a masterpiece and one that I would present as THE American novel...I would even present it as a contender for the best novel of the 20th Century. Yes, it's that good...
The greatest novel of the 20th Century?, 04 Apr 2002
'USA' is one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th Century- a sprawling piece of American Modernism. William Burroughs felt that along with 'The Sheltering Sky' (Paul Bowles) & 'The Wasteland' it developed the 'cut-up' technique before he coined it with Brion Gysin...Joycean-academic & late,great novelist Anthony Burgess saw it as doing similarly great things with language & speech as 'Ulysees'- drawing a comparison between it, Joyce's masterpiece & Hubert Selby Jr's 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'...The three novels collected here...are 'The Big Money', 'The 42nd Parallel' & '1919'- & are puntuated with 'newsreel' & 'camera eye' sections- which serve as an interlude & provide a removed perspective from the shifting collection of protaganists we meet on the way...Anyone who has enjoyed Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' should love this book- in many ways DeLillo's vast work is a successor to Dos Passos' tome.Other books it is not dissimilar to include 'Earthly Powers', 'The Adventures of Augie March' & aspects of Jack Keroauc..I am told that 'Manhattan Transfer' is very good- & it is the place where Dos Passos developed his style, so you might want to read that first...However, I'd just dive in to this vast,riveting work- it is one that you could read fast (& want to re-read ASAP) or one that you can savour over time- like 'The Alexandria Quartet' or 'Remembrance of Things Past'...'USA' is a brilliant book- don't be put off by its size. I believe it is a contender for the greatest novel of the 20th Century.
All right, we are two nations, 29 May 2006
So says John Dos Passos in `The Big Money", Volume III of his USA Trilogy. Just as Benjamin Disraeli saw two nations in mid-19th century Britain ("who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws...the rich and the poor"), John Dos Passos saw two nations in the United States in the roaring 1920s.
Dos Passos is one of the U.S.'s (sadly) lesser known literary giants of the 20th-century. At the height of his fame in the 1930s he found himself on the same pedestal as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. The first two volumes of the USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel and 1919) were enormous successes. By the time "The Big Money" was released in 1936, Jean-Paul Sartre hailed him as "the greatest writer of our time". Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Dos Passos' literary reputation began to change during the Spanish Civil War. Dos Passos, along with Hemingway and many other literary figures including George Orwell made his way to Spain to assist in the Republican cause. Like Orwell, Dos Passos was deeply affected by the brutal infighting amongst Republican supporters. In the case of Dos Passos he was deeply distressed by murder of a friend (anarchist and Johns Hopkins Professor Jose Robles) apparently executed by Stalinist cadres for his nonconforming radicalism. Hemingway mocked Dos Passos for his unmanly concern for his friend. Hemingway's friends and most of the hard left literary community joined in. It is no surprise that Dos Passos' next book was criticized severely. The New Masses magazine referred to it as a "crude piece of Trotskyist agit-prop". Dos Passos never reclaimed the popularity he had achieved with the USA Trilogy. Unlike Orwell, whose fame and reputation survived and grew after his Spanish Civil War experience, Dos Passos slowly fell out of the public eye. That fate is a shame when one considers the enormous energy and creativity that went into the USA Trilogy.
The idea of two paralel nations, one for the rich and their minions and one for the huddled masses, provides substance to Dos Passos' unique multi-media structure. In addition to the stories of these fictional characters, The Big Money is interspersed with mini-biographies of real people, newsreel clippings that place the story in a social a political context, and a series of autobiographical sketches (The Camera Eye) in which Dos Passos steps out from the story and provides his own personal context to the times.
The key fictional characters in "The Big Money" are Charley Anderson, Mary French, Margo Dowling, and Richard Ellsworth Savage. The "Great War" is over and the USA has, in the words of Warren G. Harding, returned to normalcy. The roaring 20s is in full swing". In one America the characters experience the world of prohibition and speakeasies; stock speculation by millions of Americans are buy and selling shares on profit and margins that are as ephemeral as they are risky. In the `other' America the characters see labor at war with management. Union busting and red baiting is the rule not the exception and urban workers; particularly immigrants are seen as Bolshevik threats. Charley Anderson crashes and burns after a meteoric rise. Mary French is absorbed in the workers' battles of the 1920s and Margo Dowling sleeps her way to fame and fortune in Hollywood.
The biographies cover the same two nation ground with min-biographies of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Thorstein Veblen, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Valentino, and William Randolph Hearst amongst them. Dos Passos' personal Camera Eye observations reach their emotional climax as the story reaches the execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. It is here where Dos Passos makes his two nations observation.
The Big Money is a worthy finale to The USA Trilogy. After re-reading the entire trilogy, thirty years or so after my first exposure to it in High School, I think it safe to say that it has still holds up under perhaps more mature observation.
The USA Trilogy remains one of the major literary works of the (U.S.) twentieth century and remains a work that should be read and read again. Highly recommended.
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Three Soldiers
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Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
A Summation of Early 20th Century American Life., 30 Aug 2003
This is a huge book (made up of three smaller books), and a huge achievement. Unfairly overlooked nowadays, John Dos Passos's novel is well worth your time. The three novels here make up one large whole. The book is made up of stories following the lives of various characters from all walks of life. Their lives sometimes intersect, sometimes get better, sometimes get worse and even sometimes end. In between these stories are shorter experimental pieces: 'The Camera Eye', which is Whitman-esque description of scenes; 'Newsreel' which is a collage of headlines and journalism, to give an idea of the events that are going by as the novel progresses; and Biographies of famous people of the times, millionaires (eg Hearst, Carnegie), creative people (eg Edison, Lloyd Wright), activists (Eugene Debs, Joe Hill), and many others. The biographical sections are very impressive. Done in a style that is half poem, half telegram, they concisely and accurately sum up famous personages, some you will have heard of, some you won't. As the novels goes by, you are completely transported into the early 20th Century. Dos Passos is very critical of modern life here; he seems to feel that the modern system that is being put in place will not make anyone particularly happy. This is not to say that the book is depressing, but it is convincingly realistic, which is not always pretty. The book ends with the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, which the author depicts as the event that should spark a revolution. This is incendiary stuff - but Dos Passos makes a good case. His politics are not thrust down your throat. It's more a case of showing than telling. Sacco and Vanzetti are probably as forgotten today as the novel U.S.A. is. A read of this novel could make you think both deserve wider recognition. If you want to immerse yourself in another time, and learn a little along the way - or if you simply want an entertaining read - this is the book for you.
This is THE American novel., 21 Apr 2002
'USA' is, in my opinion, the greatest book that America produced during the 20th Century. It is in fact three novels- 'The Big Money', '1919' & 'The 42nd Parallel'. All are linked by the 'camera eye' and 'newsreel' sections- which should go down well with those who liked texts like 'The Wasteland', 'The Wild Boys' and 'Ulysses'. Though I think this book is a lot more approachable than much of Joyce and Woolf's major works. It would also be popular with those who like the sweeping panorama of America- the obvious Keroauc texts, Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March' and Don DeLillo's 'Underworld'. The language is brilliantly written- the characters who we pass through, as they pass through America tell us as much-if not more than- as history books. The baggy concept of the 'American Dream'- which one assumes is the ability to rise through the classes and to gain power & wealth through capitalist individualism or a fruitful marriage- is found in this book...Don't be put off by its size- it is a book you can read at whatever pace you like- read each novel seperately or take in the complete work. I think 'USA' is a masterpiece and one that I would present as THE American novel...I would even present it as a contender for the best novel of the 20th Century. Yes, it's that good...
The greatest novel of the 20th Century?, 04 Apr 2002
'USA' is one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th Century- a sprawling piece of American Modernism. William Burroughs felt that along with 'The Sheltering Sky' (Paul Bowles) & 'The Wasteland' it developed the 'cut-up' technique before he coined it with Brion Gysin...Joycean-academic & late,great novelist Anthony Burgess saw it as doing similarly great things with language & speech as 'Ulysees'- drawing a comparison between it, Joyce's masterpiece & Hubert Selby Jr's 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'...The three novels collected here...are 'The Big Money', 'The 42nd Parallel' & '1919'- & are puntuated with 'newsreel' & 'camera eye' sections- which serve as an interlude & provide a removed perspective from the shifting collection of protaganists we meet on the way...Anyone who has enjoyed Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' should love this book- in many ways DeLillo's vast work is a successor to Dos Passos' tome.Other books it is not dissimilar to include 'Earthly Powers', 'The Adventures of Augie March' & aspects of Jack Keroauc..I am told that 'Manhattan Transfer' is very good- & it is the place where Dos Passos developed his style, so you might want to read that first...However, I'd just dive in to this vast,riveting work- it is one that you could read fast (& want to re-read ASAP) or one that you can savour over time- like 'The Alexandria Quartet' or 'Remembrance of Things Past'...'USA' is a brilliant book- don't be put off by its size. I believe it is a contender for the greatest novel of the 20th Century.
All right, we are two nations, 29 May 2006
So says John Dos Passos in `The Big Money", Volume III of his USA Trilogy. Just as Benjamin Disraeli saw two nations in mid-19th century Britain ("who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws...the rich and the poor"), John Dos Passos saw two nations in the United States in the roaring 1920s.
Dos Passos is one of the U.S.'s (sadly) lesser known literary giants of the 20th-century. At the height of his fame in the 1930s he found himself on the same pedestal as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. The first two volumes of the USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel and 1919) were enormous successes. By the time "The Big Money" was released in 1936, Jean-Paul Sartre hailed him as "the greatest writer of our time". Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Dos Passos' literary reputation began to change during the Spanish Civil War. Dos Passos, along with Hemingway and many other literary figures including George Orwell made his way to Spain to assist in the Republican cause. Like Orwell, Dos Passos was deeply affected by the brutal infighting amongst Republican supporters. In the case of Dos Passos he was deeply distressed by murder of a friend (anarchist and Johns Hopkins Professor Jose Robles) apparently executed by Stalinist cadres for his nonconforming radicalism. Hemingway mocked Dos Passos for his unmanly concern for his friend. Hemingway's friends and most of the hard left literary community joined in. It is no surprise that Dos Passos' next book was criticized severely. The New Masses magazine referred to it as a "crude piece of Trotskyist agit-prop". Dos Passos never reclaimed the popularity he had achieved with the USA Trilogy. Unlike Orwell, whose fame and reputation survived and grew after his Spanish Civil War experience, Dos Passos slowly fell out of the public eye. That fate is a shame when one considers the enormous energy and creativity that went into the USA Trilogy.
The idea of two paralel nations, one for the rich and their minions and one for the huddled masses, provides substance to Dos Passos' unique multi-media structure. In addition to the stories of these fictional characters, The Big Money is interspersed with mini-biographies of real people, newsreel clippings that place the story in a social a political context, and a series of autobiographical sketches (The Camera Eye) in which Dos Passos steps out from the story and provides his own personal context to the times.
The key fictional characters in "The Big Money" are Charley Anderson, Mary French, Margo Dowling, and Richard Ellsworth Savage. The "Great War" is over and the USA has, in the words of Warren G. Harding, returned to normalcy. The roaring 20s is in full swing". In one America the characters experience the world of prohibition and speakeasies; stock speculation by millions of Americans are buy and selling shares on profit and margins that are as ephemeral as they are risky. In the `other' America the characters see labor at war with management. Union busting and red baiting is the rule not the exception and urban workers; particularly immigrants are seen as Bolshevik threats. Charley Anderson crashes and burns after a meteoric rise. Mary French is absorbed in the workers' battles of the 1920s and Margo Dowling sleeps her way to fame and fortune in Hollywood.
The biographies cover the same two nation ground with min-biographies of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Thorstein Veblen, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Valentino, and William Randolph Hearst amongst them. Dos Passos' personal Camera Eye observations reach their emotional climax as the story reaches the execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. It is here where Dos Passos makes his two nations observation.
The Big Money is a worthy finale to The USA Trilogy. After re-reading the entire trilogy, thirty years or so after my first exposure to it in High School, I think it safe to say that it has still holds up under perhaps more mature observation.
The USA Trilogy remains one of the major literary works of the (U.S.) twentieth century and remains a work that should be read and read again. Highly recommended.
Better than a textbook, 20 Jul 1999
I probably shouldn't have read this after the great and mighty USA trilogy since anything else he did only pales to that great work but this is a fine, if little known work from a great writer. As people who have read the USA trilogy know, Dos Passos absolutely hated WWI and everything it stood for and here he got to take out his anger on a few targets. While not as focused as 1919 was, he shows his feelings with a deft touch and a depth of feeling that was rarely seen in war novels, his characters aren't all brilliant, the only really three dimensional one is Andrews but they depict a cross section of American life and through their adventures he shows what his firm belief was: that the machine of the army sucked the spirit out of someone and turned them nearly into a automaton. And without focused on the gory battles, he shows the horror of the war in a way that few writers have. Definitely a book that needs to be looked at again and should be ranked with The Naked and the Dead, and Red Badge of Courage (among others).
Intense, skillful, expression of war's toll on the psyche, 18 Mar 1997
The Signet Classic publication of John Dos Passos' brilliant anti-war novel provides us access to another significant account of the Great War and the writings of this 'lost generation' novelist. Although first released over seventy-six years ago, the novel's timeless message relating the effects of war and military life on the psyches of three young men is as relative today as in 1921. Dos Passos' indictment of the war and America's role in it, contrasts starkly with the crusade like image of the War presented to the American people. The novel accurately reflects the diversity of a conscript army embodied in the three soldiers; a first generation Italian-American from San Francisco, an Indiana farm boy and an east coast Harvard man. Each enters the service with confidence in the role they would play in this clash between good and evil. The transformation of these young men carries through until the end of the war. Although, they all survive there is little left of their former selves. The brilliance of the language and the depth of feeling demonstrated by the author will captivate the reader. This novel rightly belongs alongside cumming's The Enormous Room, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Hemingway's Farewell to Arms.
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Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
A Summation of Early 20th Century American Life., 30 Aug 2003
This is a huge book (made up of three smaller books), and a huge achievement. Unfairly overlooked nowadays, John Dos Passos's novel is well worth your time. The three novels here make up one large whole. The book is made up of stories following the lives of various characters from all walks of life. Their lives sometimes intersect, sometimes get better, sometimes get worse and even sometimes end. In between these stories are shorter experimental pieces: 'The Camera Eye', which is Whitman-esque description of scenes; 'Newsreel' which is a collage of headlines and journalism, to give an idea of the events that are going by as the novel progresses; and Biographies of famous people of the times, millionaires (eg Hearst, Carnegie), creative people (eg Edison, Lloyd Wright), activists (Eugene Debs, Joe Hill), and many others. The biographical sections are very impressive. Done in a style that is half poem, half telegram, they concisely and accurately sum up famous personages, some you will have heard of, some you won't. As the novels goes by, you are completely transported into the early 20th Century. Dos Passos is very critical of modern life here; he seems to feel that the modern system that is being put in place will not make anyone particularly happy. This is not to say that the book is depressing, but it is convincingly realistic, which is not always pretty. The book ends with the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, which the author depicts as the event that should spark a revolution. This is incendiary stuff - but Dos Passos makes a good case. His politics are not thrust down your throat. It's more a case of showing than telling. Sacco and Vanzetti are probably as forgotten today as the novel U.S.A. is. A read of this novel could make you think both deserve wider recognition. If you want to immerse yourself in another time, and learn a little along the way - or if you simply want an entertaining read - this is the book for you.
This is THE American novel., 21 Apr 2002
'USA' is, in my opinion, the greatest book that America produced during the 20th Century. It is in fact three novels- 'The Big Money', '1919' & 'The 42nd Parallel'. All are linked by the 'camera eye' and 'newsreel' sections- which should go down well with those who liked texts like 'The Wasteland', 'The Wild Boys' and 'Ulysses'. Though I think this book is a lot more approachable than much of Joyce and Woolf's major works. It would also be popular with those who like the sweeping panorama of America- the obvious Keroauc texts, Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March' and Don DeLillo's 'Underworld'. The language is brilliantly written- the characters who we pass through, as they pass through America tell us as much-if not more than- as history books. The baggy concept of the 'American Dream'- which one assumes is the ability to rise through the classes and to gain power & wealth through capitalist individualism or a fruitful marriage- is found in this book...Don't be put off by its size- it is a book you can read at whatever pace you like- read each novel seperately or take in the complete work. I think 'USA' is a masterpiece and one that I would present as THE American novel...I would even present it as a contender for the best novel of the 20th Century. Yes, it's that good...
The greatest novel of the 20th Century?, 04 Apr 2002
'USA' is one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th Century- a sprawling piece of American Modernism. William Burroughs felt that along with 'The Sheltering Sky' (Paul Bowles) & 'The Wasteland' it developed the 'cut-up' technique before he coined it with Brion Gysin...Joycean-academic & late,great novelist Anthony Burgess saw it as doing similarly great things with language & speech as 'Ulysees'- drawing a comparison between it, Joyce's masterpiece & Hubert Selby Jr's 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'...The three novels collected here...are 'The Big Money', 'The 42nd Parallel' & '1919'- & are puntuated with 'newsreel' & 'camera eye' sections- which serve as an interlude & provide a removed perspective from the shifting collection of protaganists we meet on the way...Anyone who has enjoyed Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' should love this book- in many ways DeLillo's vast work is a successor to Dos Passos' tome.Other books it is not dissimilar to include 'Earthly Powers', 'The Adventures of Augie March' & aspects of Jack Keroauc..I am told that 'Manhattan Transfer' is very good- & it is the place where Dos Passos developed his style, so you might want to read that first...However, I'd just dive in to this vast,riveting work- it is one that you could read fast (& want to re-read ASAP) or one that you can savour over time- like 'The Alexandria Quartet' or 'Remembrance of Things Past'...'USA' is a brilliant book- don't be put off by its size. I believe it is a contender for the greatest novel of the 20th Century.
All right, we are two nations, 29 May 2006
So says John Dos Passos in `The Big Money", Volume III of his USA Trilogy. Just as Benjamin Disraeli saw two nations in mid-19th century Britain ("who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws...the rich and the poor"), John Dos Passos saw two nations in the United States in the roaring 1920s.
Dos Passos is one of the U.S.'s (sadly) lesser known literary giants of the 20th-century. At the height of his fame in the 1930s he found himself on the same pedestal as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. The first two volumes of the USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel and 1919) were enormous successes. By the time "The Big Money" was released in 1936, Jean-Paul Sartre hailed him as "the greatest writer of our time". Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Dos Passos' literary reputation began to change during the Spanish Civil War. Dos Passos, along with Hemingway and many other literary figures including George Orwell made his way to Spain to assist in the Republican cause. Like Orwell, Dos Passos was deeply affected by the brutal infighting amongst Republican supporters. In the case of Dos Passos he was deeply distressed by murder of a friend (anarchist and Johns Hopkins Professor Jose Robles) apparently executed by Stalinist cadres for his nonconforming radicalism. Hemingway mocked Dos Passos for his unmanly concern for his friend. Hemingway's friends and most of the hard left literary community joined in. It is no surprise that Dos Passos' next book was criticized severely. The New Masses magazine referred to it as a "crude piece of Trotskyist agit-prop". Dos Passos never reclaimed the popularity he had achieved with the USA Trilogy. Unlike Orwell, whose fame and reputation survived and grew after his Spanish Civil War experience, Dos Passos slowly fell out of the public eye. That fate is a shame when one considers the enormous energy and creativity that went into the USA Trilogy.
The idea of two paralel nations, one for the rich and their minions and one for the huddled masses, provides substance to Dos Passos' unique multi-media structure. In addition to the stories of these fictional characters, The Big Money is interspersed with mini-biographies of real people, newsreel clippings that place the story in a social a political context, and a series of autobiographical sketches (The Camera Eye) in which Dos Passos steps out from the story and provides his own personal context to the times.
The key fictional characters in "The Big Money" are Charley Anderson, Mary French, Margo Dowling, and Richard Ellsworth Savage. The "Great War" is over and the USA has, in the words of Warren G. Harding, returned to normalcy. The roaring 20s is in full swing". In one America the characters experience the world of prohibition and speakeasies; stock speculation by millions of Americans are buy and selling shares on profit and margins that are as ephemeral as they are risky. In the `other' America the characters see labor at war with management. Union busting and red baiting is the rule not the exception and urban workers; particularly immigrants are seen as Bolshevik threats. Charley Anderson crashes and burns after a meteoric rise. Mary French is absorbed in the workers' battles of the 1920s and Margo Dowling sleeps her way to fame and fortune in Hollywood.
The biographies cover the same two nation ground with min-biographies of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Thorstein Veblen, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Valentino, and William Randolph Hearst amongst them. Dos Passos' personal Camera Eye observations reach their emotional climax as the story reaches the execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. It is here where Dos Passos makes his two nations observation.
The Big Money is a worthy finale to The USA Trilogy. After re-reading the entire trilogy, thirty years or so after my first exposure to it in High School, I think it safe to say that it has still holds up under perhaps more mature observation.
The USA Trilogy remains one of the major literary works of the (U.S.) twentieth century and remains a work that should be read and read again. Highly recommended.
Better than a textbook, 20 Jul 1999
I probably shouldn't have read this after the great and mighty USA trilogy since anything else he did only pales to that great work but this is a fine, if little known work from a great writer. As people who have read the USA trilogy know, Dos Passos absolutely hated WWI and everything it stood for and here he got to take out his anger on a few targets. While not as focused as 1919 was, he shows his feelings with a deft touch and a depth of feeling that was rarely seen in war novels, his characters aren't all brilliant, the only really three dimensional one is Andrews but they depict a cross section of American life and through their adventures he shows what his firm belief was: that the machine of the army sucked the spirit out of someone and turned them nearly into a automaton. And without focused on the gory battles, he shows the horror of the war in a way that few writers have. Definitely a book that needs to be looked at again and should be ranked with The Naked and the Dead, and Red Badge of Courage (among others).
Intense, skillful, expression of war's toll on the psyche, 18 Mar 1997
The Signet Classic publication of John Dos Passos' brilliant anti-war novel provides us access to another significant account of the Great War and the writings of this 'lost generation' novelist. Although first released over seventy-six years ago, the novel's timeless message relating the effects of war and military life on the psyches of three young men is as relative today as in 1921. Dos Passos' indictment of the war and America's role in it, contrasts starkly with the crusade like image of the War presented to the American people. The novel accurately reflects the diversity of a conscript army embodied in the three soldiers; a first generation Italian-American from San Francisco, an Indiana farm boy and an east coast Harvard man. Each enters the service with confidence in the role they would play in this clash between good and evil. The transformation of these young men carries through until the end of the war. Although, they all survive there is little left of their former selves. The brilliance of the language and the depth of feeling demonstrated by the author will captivate the reader. This novel rightly belongs alongside cumming's The Enormous Room, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Hemingway's Farewell to Arms.
A view of American socialism, 11 Mar 2006
Dos Passos’ ‘USA’ trilogy was published in the 1930s, and chronicles the lives of a few ordinary Americans in the years during and following WWI. Although the USA celebrates 1776 as the year of its birth, in one sense the modern world superpower was being forged in the first few decades of last century (the period covered by this book), as immigrants came in their millions and the first skyscrapers went up in New York, heralding its conversion from a dingy port to a major city. Even as it was changing as a country, the USA was making political and ideological choices that have shaped the last 100 years of its (and the world’s) history. ‘USA’ is a fictional examination of the attempt (and, ultimately, failure) of socialist groups to influence the development of the country, something that seems almost unthinkable today. It paints a picture of a politically diverse country struggling with its choices, and a country that could easily look very different today.
The book itself follows the lives of a few characters, examples of ordinary, unremarkable Americans, from their birth to their deaths, as they try to find their places in the burgeoning USA. As they make their way in life they encounter the temptations and promises offered by capitalism, socialism and consumerism. Although the book purports to be biographies of these people, it is really about how they are affected by, and try to change, the prevailing political winds, and how modern, capitalist America was born. Their stories are interspersed with short biographies of real historical figures (such as Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Edison), a powerful way of juxtaposing the ‘little’ people with the ‘big’ ones, and showing the nexus within which they interact. The characters of the main stories also criss-cross each other’s paths; sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely, adding to the ‘One Nation’ feel. There are also ‘camera eye’ pieces (short prose poems from American life) and ‘Newsreels’ (cinema-style shorts re-telling the news of the day). All of these are combined in an attempt to create a biography of a whole nation in the 1910s and 1920s. We are left with a fascinating left-wing view of the USA that history has largely confined to the dustbin.
‘USA’ is a hugely ambitious book, and one, I thought, that didn’t always succeed. There were just too many distinct narratives, too many stories being told, and I found it difficult to keep track. I thought that the book overcomplicated a fairly simple point, and didn’t need to be a 1200 page epic which, I must be honest, got a little bogged down in places. Also, I found that Dos Passos’ book fell between two ideas: one in which it tried to be a comprehensive biography of the USA in the 1920s, and one in which it told its story from the perspective of the socialist movement. It tried to do both and ended up doing neither especially well, in my opinion. However, the structure (stories interspersed with Biographies, Newsreels and Camera Eyes) was brilliantly realised, painting a detailed picture of one perspective of early twentieth century USA. There were some sublime moments of prose, not least concerning the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti (Italian-American socialists executed for murder in what was almost certainly a political act), in which the socialists realise that they are beaten, and that America will be run by their enemies for the foreseeable future. This passage, which begins ‘So we are defeated, America...’ is perhaps the finest prose I have ever read; a heartrending and lonely cry, and extremely beautiful. Moments like this made reading the whole book worthwhile.
I don’t think it really matters what your political view is, or your opinion of where America is at now, to appreciate ‘USA’. It was fascinating (for me) just to know that socialism has ever existed as a significant force in the domestic politics of America, and also to see how modern America was born from the choices it was making in the decades covered by this book. The book is obviously written with socialist sympathies (though it should be noted that Dos Passos turned to right-wing Republicanism at the end of his life) but it is more about the possibilities that existed as a nation was born. It was undoubtedly a bit of a slog. I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t be doing so again. However, if you are prepared to put the work in, there is a fantastic novel about an America that no longer exists (and most people assume never existed) hiding in there somewhere.
Tell as many people as possible about this book, 02 Sep 2004
This one volume version of 'USA' trilogy must surely rank along with all the greatest American works of literature; it's a truly breathtaking panorama of one of the most turbulent times of American and world history. The book works on several levels. First, as a fiction, it is gripping, compelling, with often fast-paced action; the reader will fly through it. The characterization is grand, with cleverly interplayed action as protagonists meet and re-meet against the awesome backdrop of the political and historical turmoil that inspires but often wrecks their own ambitions and dreams. Of the characters, the sailor, Joe Williams, is by far the best, and Dos Passos writes well at getting into his thoughts, though not in a overly detailed intellectual way, that may leave some readers thinking that Dos Passos was a bit light on the deeper feelings - but that would not have fitted the style; what could be more expressive than when Joe feels "all funny inside", unable to articulate but able to 'feel' his emotions? One slight gripe is that several of characters become a bit similar; too many young men passing through the American Red Cross and through the plot - the author's own experiences coming out in too many of his characters. The next level is as a social history. If someone is looking to find out how things were in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century then (I guess) this book is for them. By the time the reader has finished this book, they'll be pretty well informed about the politics and history of the time. The snippets of headlines and popular songs also add to the colour. One fascinating aspect for me as a Briton was how the Americans were viewed in Britain prior to their entering the war in 1917; Dos Passos' view on the British is a little irreverent though highly amusing. A third level of the book is as a critique of America and this is invaluably aided by the short biographies of some of the nation's movers and shakers - the 'hands that built America' if you like - scientists, politicians, workers' rights activists, architects, mavericks. Dos Passos shows us both the strengths and weaknesses of the nation. Industrial might but a disturbing picture of how anyone who wishes to help the workers is treated by the system and the industrialists; the irony of being against (often falsely reported) German barbarism in the war and the reason for entering the conflict while silently condoning the murder of domestic strikers and once the war is over, how national hatred is turned on communists, culminating (in the book) in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial - two Italian immigrants sentenced to death on dubious evidence. America is depicted as a highly successful dictatorship, masquerading under the name of democracy, but still the land of opportunity and dreams - the American Dream. America sustains them but then beats them down. Woodrow Wilson is shown as a rather naive but hypocritical man: he wins an election on being anti-imperialist but sends Black Jack Pershing to invade Mexico; he's re-elected to keep America out of WWI. These lessons are extremely relevant for today and we see how Wilson's ideals impede the proto-neocons in their thirst for oil and their jealousy of, in this case, the British Empire as it snaffles up oil from the Middle East to Baku while Wilson, blind in his own idealism and sense of his righteousness, is led by the unscrupulous Lloyd George and Clemenceau at the Treaty of Versailles. The reader will see that absolutely nothing has changed in American politics, and I feel that is one of Dos Passos' messages; or rather, from Lincoln and the Civil War to the birth of American imperialism there had been a great change, but now it can only get worse as Lincoln's ideals are replaced by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt's belligerence. The biggest mystery is why is this book so unread? Perhaps its length, but then people still read 'War & Peace'. Technically, Hemingway and particularly Faulkner look pretty shaky against Dos Passos, perhaps even Steinbeck - Dos Passos is simply a better writer. Perhaps it's the writer's own name, and people are put off by his Portuguese name, thinking the work is a translation?! I don't know. Maybe because he often offers no hope, no deus ex machina - most of the characters have pretty miserable ends! But I do know that this book is a rewarding read and book you'll love to read again. It's also enjoyable just to re-read the favourite parts and make your own book from them, as the characters easily slip into and out of each other's lives. It should be every reader's didactic mission to 'tell as many people as possible about this book'.
Dated, 04 Aug 2004
I'm a Yankophile Brit with a great love of US fiction, but I thought this was a really bad book. The Newsreel was uneffective and the Camera Eye a tired, lazy immitation of Joyce. The story sections lacked empathy, humour, insight and most importantly interest. In short this is a very, very boring book.
Fantastic! One of the great American works of the century!, 13 Apr 1999
There is no praise that is too great for this trilogy. It blends creative techniques (although not all of them succeed completely) with compelling storytelling and an acute political sensibility that lifts it far beyond a mere tract. Sartre called Dos Passos the greatest American writer, and with this body of work, at least, it is hard to find fault.
The English Language Novel from the Eng. Lang. Novelist!, 23 Mar 1999
As a foreigner (and from the beginning I excuse myself not only for my poor English but for what I am to say) I believe it is so sad of the Americans to not know this novel and this novelist, to not appreciate and revere them. Outside the U. S. we all do admire Dos Passos and do know his biggest novels, U. S. A., Manhattan Transfer, Three Soldiers and even the One man's initiation you seem to hate so much. Yes, we all think it's sad and even sick. Shame on you! But I believe you will realize that you must and that you will make amends with Dos Passos.
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The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A.)
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Customer Reviews
a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel. As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!
A Summation of Early 20th Century American Life., 30 Aug 2003
This is a huge book (made up of three smaller books), and a huge achievement. Unfairly overlooked nowadays, John Dos Passos's novel is well worth your time. The three novels here make up one large whole. The book is made up of stories following the lives of various characters from all walks of life. Their lives sometimes intersect, sometimes get better, sometimes get worse and even sometimes end. In between these stories are shorter experimental pieces: 'The Camera Eye', which is Whitman-esque description of scenes; 'Newsreel' which is a collage of headlines and journalism, to give an idea of the events that are going by as the novel progresses; and Biographies of famous people of the times, millionaires (eg Hearst, Carnegie), creative people (eg Edison, Lloyd Wright), activists (Eugene Debs, Joe Hill), and many others. The biographical sections are very impressive. Done in a style that is half poem, half telegram, they concisely and accurately sum up famous personages, some you will have heard of, some you won't. As the novels goes by, you are completely transported into the early 20th Century. Dos Passos is very critical of modern life here; he seems to feel that the modern system that is being put in place will not make anyone particularly happy. This is not to say that the book is depressing, but it is convincingly realistic, which is not always pretty. The book ends with the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, which the author depicts as the event that should spark a revolution. This is incendiary stuff - but Dos Passos makes a good case. His politics are not thrust down your throat. It's more a case of showing than telling. Sacco and Vanzetti are probably as forgotten today as the novel U.S.A. is. A read of this novel could make you think both deserve wider recognition. If you want to immerse yourself in another time, and learn a little along the way - or if you simply want an entertaining read - this is the book for you.
This is THE American novel., 21 Apr 2002
'USA' is, in my opinion, the greatest book that America produced during the 20th Century. It is in fact three novels- 'The Big Money', '1919' & 'The 42nd Parallel'. All are linked by the 'camera eye' and 'newsreel' sections- which should go down well with those who liked texts like 'The Wasteland', 'The Wild Boys' and 'Ulysses'. Though I think this book is a lot more approachable than much of Joyce and Woolf's major works. It would also be popular with those who like the sweeping panorama of America- the obvious Keroauc texts, Saul Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March' and Don DeLillo's 'Underworld'. The language is brilliantly written- the characters who we pass through, as they pass through America tell us as much-if not more than- as history books. The baggy concept of the 'American Dream'- which one assumes is the ability to rise through the classes and to gain power & wealth through capitalist individualism or a fruitful marriage- is found in this book...Don't be put off by its size- it is a book you can read at whatever pace you like- read each novel seperately or take in the complete work. I think 'USA' is a masterpiece and one that I would present as THE American novel...I would even present it as a contender for the best novel of the 20th Century. Yes, it's that good...
The greatest novel of the 20th Century?, 04 Apr 2002
'USA' is one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th Century- a sprawling piece of American Modernism. William Burroughs felt that along with 'The Sheltering Sky' (Paul Bowles) & 'The Wasteland' it developed the 'cut-up' technique before he coined it with Brion Gysin...Joycean-academic & late,great novelist Anthony Burgess saw it as doing similarly great things with language & speech as 'Ulysees'- drawing a comparison between it, Joyce's masterpiece & Hubert Selby Jr's 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'...The three novels collected here...are 'The Big Money', 'The 42nd Parallel' & '1919'- & are puntuated with 'newsreel' & 'camera eye' sections- which serve as an interlude & provide a removed perspective from the shifting collection of protaganists we meet on the way...Anyone who has enjoyed Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' should love this book- in many ways DeLillo's vast work is a successor to Dos Passos' tome.Other books it is not dissimilar to include 'Earthly Powers', 'The Adventures of Augie March' & aspects of Jack Keroauc..I am told that 'Manhattan Transfer' is very good- & it is the place where Dos Passos developed his style, so you might want to read that first...However, I'd just dive in to this vast,riveting work- it is one that you could read fast (& want to re-read ASAP) or one that you can savour over time- like 'The Alexandria Quartet' or 'Remembrance of Things Past'...'USA' is a brilliant book- don't be put off by its size. I believe it is a contender for the greatest novel of the 20th Century.
All right, we are two nations, 29 May 2006
So says John Dos Passos in `The Big Money", Volume III of his USA Trilogy. Just as Benjamin Disraeli saw two nations in mid-19th century Britain ("who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws...the rich and the poor"), John Dos Passos saw two nations in the United States in the roaring 1920s.
Dos Passos is one of the U.S.'s (sadly) lesser known literary giants of the 20th-century. At the height of his fame in the 1930s he found himself on the same pedestal as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. The first two volumes of the USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel and 1919) were enormous successes. By the time "The Big Money" was released in 1936, Jean-Paul Sartre hailed him as "the greatest writer of our time". Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Dos Passos' literary reputation began to change during the Spanish Civil War. Dos Passos, along with Hemingway and many other literary figures including George Orwell made his way to Spain to assist in the Republican cause. Like Orwell, Dos Passos was deeply affected by the brutal infighting amongst Republican supporters. In the case of Dos Passos he was deeply distressed by murder of a friend (anarchist and Johns Hopkins Professor Jose Robles) apparently executed by Stalinist cadres for his nonconforming radicalism. Hemingway mocked Dos Passos for his unmanly concern for his friend. Hemingway's friends and most of the hard left literary community joined in. It is no surprise that Dos Passos' next book was criticized severely. The New Masses magazine referred to it as a "crude piece of Trotskyist agit-prop". Dos Passos never reclaimed the popularity he had achieved with the USA Trilogy. Unlike Orwell, whose fame and reputation survived and grew after his Spanish Civil War experience, Dos Passos slowly fell out of the public eye. That fate is a shame when one considers the enormous energy and creativity that went into the USA Trilogy.
The idea of two paralel nations, one for the rich and their minions and one for the huddled masses, provides substance to Dos Passos' unique multi-media structure. In addition to the stories of these fictional characters, The Big Money is interspersed with mini-biographies of real people, newsreel clippings that place the story in a social a political context, and a series of autobiographical sketches (The Camera Eye) in which Dos Passos steps out from the story and provides his own personal context to the times.
The key fictional characters in "The Big Money" are Charley Anderson, Mary French, Margo Dowling, and Richard Ellsworth Savage. The "Great War" is over and the USA has, in the words of Warren G. Harding, returned to normalcy. The roaring 20s is in full swing". In one America the characters experience the world of prohibition and speakeasies; stock speculation by millions of Americans are buy and selling shares on profit and margins that are as ephemeral as they are risky. In the `other' America the characters see labor at war with management. Union busting and red baiting is the rule not the exception and urban workers; particularly immigrants are seen as Bolshevik threats. Charley Anderson crashes and burns after a meteoric rise. Mary French is absorbed in the workers' battles of the 1920s and Margo Dowling sleeps her way to fame and fortune in Hollywood.
The biographies cover the same two nation ground with min-biographies of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Thorstein Veblen, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Valentino, and William Randolph Hearst amongst them. Dos Passos' personal Camera Eye observations reach their emotional climax as the story reaches the execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. It is here where Dos Passos makes his two nations observation.
The Big Money is a worthy finale to The USA Trilogy. After re-reading the entire trilogy, thirty years or so after my first exposure to it in High School, I think it safe to say that it has still holds up under perhaps more mature observation.
The USA Trilogy remains one of the major literary works of the (U.S.) twentieth century and remains a work that should be read and read again. Highly recommended.
Better than a textbook, 20 Jul 1999
I probably shouldn't have read this after the great and mighty USA trilogy since anything else he did only pales to that great work but this is a fine, if little known work from a great writer. As people who have read the USA trilogy know, Dos Passos absolutely hated WWI and everything it stood for and here he got to take out his anger on a few targets. While not as focused as 1919 was, he shows his feelings with a deft touch and a depth of feeling that was rarely seen in war novels, his characters aren't all brilliant, the only really three dimensional one is Andrews but they depict a cross section of American life and through their adventures he shows what his firm belief was: that the machine of the army sucked the spirit out of someone and turned them nearly into a automaton. And without focused on the gory battles, he shows the horror of the war in a way that few writers have. Definitely a book that needs to be looked at again and should be ranked with The Naked and the Dead, and Red Badge of Courage (among others).
Intense, skillful, expression of war's toll on the psyche, 18 Mar 1997
The Signet Classic publication of John Dos Passos' brilliant anti-war novel provides us access to another significant account of the Great War and the writings of this 'lost generation' novelist. Although first released over seventy-six years ago, the novel's timeless message relating the effects of war and military life on the psyches of three young men is as relative today as in 1921. Dos Passos' indictment of the war and America's role in it, contrasts starkly with the crusade like image of the War presented to the American people. The novel accurately reflects the diversity of a conscript army embodied in the three soldiers; a first generation Italian-American from San Francisco, an Indiana farm boy and an east coast Harvard man. Each enters the service with confidence in the role they would play in this clash between good and evil. The transformation of these young men carries through until the end of the war. Although, they all survive there is little left of their former selves. The brilliance of the language and the depth of feeling demonstrated by the author will captivate the reader. This novel rightly belongs alongside cumming's The Enormous Room, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Hemingway's Farewell to Arms.
A view of American socialism, 11 Mar 2006
Dos Passos’ ‘USA’ trilogy was published in the 1930s, and chronicles the lives of a few ordinary Americans in the years during and following WWI. Although the USA celebrates 1776 as the year of its birth, in one sense the modern world superpower was being forged in the first few decades of last century (the period covered by this book), as immigrants came in their millions and the first skyscrapers went up in New York, heralding its conversion from a dingy port to a major city. Even as it was changing as a country, the USA was making political and ideological choices that have shaped the last 100 years of its (and the world’s) history. ‘USA’ is a fictional examination of the attempt (and, ultimately, failure) of socialist groups to influence the development of the country, something that seems almost unthinkable today. It paints a picture of a politically diverse country struggling with its choices, and a country that could easily look very different today.
The book itself follows the lives of a few characters, examples of ordinary, unremarkable Americans, from their birth to their deaths, as they try to find their places in the burgeoning USA. As they make their way in life they encounter the temptations and promises offered by capitalism, socialism and consumerism. Although the book purports to be biographies of these people, it is really about how they are affected by, and try to change, the prevailing political winds, and how modern, capitalist America was born. Their stories are interspersed with short biographies of real historical figures (such as Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Edison), a powerful way of juxtaposing the ‘little’ people with the ‘big’ ones, and showing the nexus within which they interact. The characters of the main stories also criss-cross each other’s paths; sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely, adding to the ‘One Nation’ feel. There are also ‘camera eye’ pieces (short prose poems from American life) and ‘Newsreels’ (cinema-style shorts re-telling the news of the day). All of these are combined in an attempt to create a biography of a whole nation in the 1910s and 1920s. We are left with a fascinating left-wing view of the USA that history has largely confined to the dustbin.
‘USA’ is a hugely ambitious book, and one, I thought, that didn’t always succeed. There were just too many distinct narratives, too many stories being told, and I found it difficult to keep track. I thought that the book overcomplicated a fairly simple point, and didn’t need to be a 1200 page epic which, I must be honest, got a little bogged down in places. Also, I found that Dos Passos’ book fell between two ideas: one in which it tried to be a comprehensive biography of the USA in the 1920s, and one in which it told its story from the perspective of the socialist movement. It tried to do both and ended up doing neither especially well, in my opinion. However, the structure (stories interspersed with Biographies, Newsreels and Camera Eyes) was brilliantly realised, painting a detailed picture of one perspective of early twentieth century USA. There were some sublime moments of prose, not least concerning the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti (Italian-American socialists executed for murder in what was almost certainly a political act), in which the socialists realise that they are beaten, and that America will be run by their enemies for the foreseeable future. This passage, which begins ‘So we are defeated, America...’ is perhaps the finest prose I have ever read; a heartrending and lonely cry, and extremely beautiful. Moments like this made reading the whole book worthwhile.
I don’t think it really matters what your political view is, or your opinion of where America is at now, to appreciate ‘USA’. It was fascinating (for me) just to know that socialism has ever existed as a significant force in the domestic politics of America, and also to see how modern America was born from the choices it was making in the decades covered by this book. The book is obviously written with socialist sympathies (though it should be noted that Dos Passos turned to right-wing Republicanism at the end of his life) but it is more about the possibilities that existed as a nation was born. It was undoubtedly a bit of a slog. I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t be doing so again. However, if you are prepared to put the work in, there is a fantastic novel about an America that no longer exists (and most people assume never existed) hiding in there somewhere.
Tell as many people as possible about this book, 02 Sep 2004
This one volume version of 'USA' trilogy must surely rank along with all the greatest American works of literature; it's a truly breathtaking panorama of one of the most turbulent times of American and world history. The book works on several levels. First, as a fiction, it is gripping, compelling, with often fast-paced action; the reader will fly through it. The characterization is grand, with cleverly interplayed action as protagonists meet and re-meet against the awesome backdrop of the political and historical turmoil that inspires but often wrecks their own ambitions and dreams. Of the characters, the sailor, Joe Williams, is by far the best, and Dos Passos writes well at getting into his thoughts, though not in a overly detailed intellectual way, that may leave some readers thinking that Dos Passos was a bit light on the deeper feelings - but that would not have fitted the style; what could be more expressive than when Joe feels "all funny inside", unable to articulate but able to 'feel' his emotions? One slight gripe is that several of characters become a bit similar; too many young men passing through the American Red Cross and through the plot - the author's own experiences coming out in too many of his characters. The next level is as a social history. If someone is looking to find out how things were in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century then (I guess) this book is for them. By the time the reader has finished this book, they'll be pretty well informed about the politics and history of the time. The snippets of headlines and popular songs also add to the colour. One fascinating aspect for me as a Briton was how the Americans were viewed in Britain prior to their entering the war in 1917; Dos Passos' view on the British is a little irreverent though highly amusing. A third level of the book is as a critique of America and this is invaluably aided by the short biographies of some of the nation's movers and shakers - the 'hands that built America' if you like - scientists, politicians, workers' rights activists, architects, mavericks. Dos Passos shows us both the strengths and weaknesses of the nation. Industrial might but a disturbing picture of how anyone who wishes to help the workers is treated by the system and the industrialists; the irony of being against (often falsely reported) German barbarism in the war and the reason for entering the conflict while silently condoning the murder of domestic strikers and once the war is over, how national hatred is turned on communists, culminating (in the book) in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial - two Italian immigrants sentenced to death on dubious evidence. America is depicted as a highly successful dictatorship, masquerading under the name of democracy, but still the land of opportunity and dreams - the American Dream. America sustains them but then beats them down. Woodrow Wilson is shown as a rather naive but hypocritical man: he wins an election on being anti-imperialist but sends Black Jack Pershing to invade Mexico; he's re-elected to keep America out of WWI. These lessons are extremely relevant for today and we see how Wilson's ideals impede the proto-neocons in their thirst for oil and their jealousy of, in this case, the British Empire as it snaffles up oil from the Middle East to Baku while Wilson, blind in his own idealism and sense of his righteousness, is led by the unscrupulous Lloyd George and Clemenceau at the Treaty of Versailles. The reader will see that absolutely nothing has changed in American politics, and I feel that is one of Dos Passos' messages; or rather, from Lincoln and the Civil War to the birth of American imperialism there had been a great change, but now it can only get worse as Lincoln's ideals are replaced by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt's belligerence. The biggest mystery is why is this book so unread? Perhaps its length, but then people still read 'War & Peace'. Technically, Hemingway and particularly Faulkner look pretty shaky against Dos Passos, perhaps even Steinbeck - Dos Passos is simply a better writer. Perhaps it's the writer's own name, and people are put off by his Portuguese name, thinking the work is a translation?! I don't know. Maybe because he often offers no hope, no deus ex machina - most of the characters have pretty miserable ends! But I do know that this book is a rewarding read and book you'll love to read again. It's also enjoyable just to re-read the favourite parts and make your own book from them, as the characters easily slip into and out of each other's lives. It should be every reader's didactic mission to 'tell as many people as possible about this book'.
Dated, 04 Aug 2004
I'm a Yankophile Brit with a great love of US fiction, but I thought this was a really bad book. The Newsreel was uneffective and the Camera Eye a tired, lazy immitation of Joyce. The story sections lacked empathy, humour, insight and most importantly interest. In short this is a very, very boring book.
Fantastic! One of the great American works of the century!, 13 Apr 1999
There is no praise that is too great for this trilogy. It blends creative techniques (although not all of them succeed completely) with compelling storytelling and an acute political sensibility that lifts it far beyond a mere tract. Sartre called Dos Passos the greatest American writer, and with this body of work, at least, it is hard to find fault.
The English Language Novel from the Eng. Lang. Novelist!, 23 Mar 1999
As a foreigner (and from the beginning I excuse myself not only for my poor English but for what I am to say) I believe it is so sad of the Americans to not know this novel and this novelist, to not appreciate and revere them. Outside the U. S. we all do admire Dos Passos and do know his biggest novels, U. S. A., Manhattan Transfer, Three Soldiers and even the One man's initiation you seem to hate so much. Yes, we all think it's sad and even sick. Shame on you! But I believe you will realize that you must and that you will make amends with Dos Passos.
A brilliant, overlooked work of American literature, 16 Apr 2006
When I first came across John Dos Passos' USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money) as a teenager I thought they were the most exciting books I'd read to date. I was enthralled by its scope, its style, and its highly politicized substance. Dos Passos' montage-style (that seemed to be some sort of homage to the great Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein) mixed interwoven story lines of fictional characters with brief contemporary biographies of famous contemporaries. To that he added "newsreel" items, brief inserts from news clippings of the day that gave some sense of the cultural and political world these characters inhabited. Last, Dos Passos added subjective, autobiographical snippets (the "Camera Eye") that served as some sort of exterior voice of the author. I was concerned when I picked up 42nd Parallel many years later that I would find that my excitement was more the product of teenage naivete than from reading a truly unique literary work. Happily, I was not disappointed to find that the USA Trilogy remains for me, a wonderful piece of writing, one that inexplicably fallen out o the American literary cannon.
Decades later, many think of American fiction from the 1920s and 1930s as being dominated by three writers, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. It is not much remembered that at the time Dos Passos was thought of as an essential fourth. When 42nd Parallel was published Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Upon publication of The Big Money in 1936 Dos Passos made the cover of the August 10, 1936 issue of Time Magazine.
42nd Parallel is a wonderful title for Volume I of the Trilogy. The 42nd Parallel of latitude runs right through the heart of the USA. Starting from the west it forms the north/south boundary of California, Nevada and part of Utah from Oregon and Idaho. Running east it crosses Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and the New York/Pennsylvania border. After cutting across Connecticut it reaches the Atlantic Ocean just where the Pilgrims landed, at Plymouth Rock.
Dos Passos' 42nd Parallel cuts a similar swath across the USA. Set roughly in the years from 1900 to the First World War, Dos Passos traces the lives of five characters, each from a different part of the country and each with a different class and cultural background. We are presented with the stories of Fainy McCreary (Mac), Janey, J. Ward Moorehouse, Eleanor Stoddard, and Charley Anderson. As the stories progress they converge (personally or geographically) and diverge sometimes as randomly as two ships passing in the night. We have a range of characters from a card carrying member of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies) in Mac to a budding man of wealth and importance in the new field of public relations (Moorehouse). Some hop trains and tramp from town to town looking for jobs or social unrest. Others strive for respectability and try to make a `nice' middle class life for themselves.
In between chapters Dos Passos provides us with biographical sketches of famed U.S. personages as Thomas Edison, Bob La Follette, Andrew Carnegie, and Luther Burbank. Also interspersed throughout the book are the Newsreels and what Dos Passos called "The Camera Eye" made up of his own musings on his life and times. All of the fictional characters live for the moment and don't engage in any literary musings on the meaning of life and their role in it. The Camera Eye seems, in many respects, to consist of Dos Passos setting out his own interior life, something missing from his characters. 42nd Parallel is a politically charged piece of work and is fully representative of the highly charged and turbulent early years of the 20th-century.
By the time I was finished with the 42nd Parallel any qualms I had about revisiting Dos Passos had long since evaporated. I recommend this book to anyone who, like me, read the book many, many years ago. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't yet discovered The USA Trilogy. You won't be disappointed.
USA Trilogy - Part I, 19 Jan 2006
This first part of Dos Passos' acclaimed "USA" trilogy takes the reader from the start of the 20th-century up to America's entry in World War I through the alternating life stories of five regular (white) citizens. Had he stopped there, the book might have been perfect, but modernist experimentations creep in through the "Newsreel" and "The Camera's Eye" sections and muddy up the work. These are kind of abstract prose collages or montages comprised of headlines, snatched phrases of songs, news clippings, and random phrases -- presumably intended to convey some of the mood and seeming frenetic pace of the time. The fourth element in his brew are brief sketches of notable figures of American history (some more familiar to contemporary readers than others), including Thomas Edison, "Gene" Debs, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Charles Steinmetz (pioneering electrical engineer) and more. However, if one can ignore all of Dos Passos' uneven futzing around with these various elements, there's quite a good social history underneath. When writing about his five core characters, he's very straightforward and proves to be an engaging storyteller. Dos Passos uses his five characters to show the pre-war period as a time of great change in America, when the political field was still wide open and the opportunities for social mobility were a tangible lure to young people. Probably the closest to his heart is the first one we meet, a poor Irish-American apprentice printer from Connecticut named Mac. His picaresque adventures take him train-hopping around the country and into a turbulent Mexico, taking on odd jobs and working for the labor movement. Raised by Fenian rebels, he's a card carrying Wobbly and proud of it. The middle three characters are middle-class strivers. Janey is a Washington, DC stenographer whose halcyon days of youth end when her teen crush dies in a car wreck and her golden boy brother joins the merchant marine. Eleanor is a naive Chicago girl who is introduced into a "arty" set and eventually works her way up in the world to become a fashionable Manhattanite interior decorator. Both of these women's lives eventually intersect with that of J. Ward Moorehouse, an industrious Delaware boy who manages to latch on to a rich wife and leverages that to make a name for himself in advertising and public relations. A Minnesotan hick named Charley forms the working class bookend to the five characters. Like Mac, he wanders the country, living close the edge and picking up mechanic or carnival jobs where he can, and gets interested in the labor movement. As the lives of these characters unfold over the decade and a half, we see the energetic face of modern America emerging. The rise and fall of unions, the rise of the working woman, the rise of advertising and media spin, the tension between government and the people, the rise of American hegemony and nationalism, and the inevitable class divide -- the one area that escapes major attention is race. Lest this sound rather dry and boring, the five characters go through personal and professional trials and tribulations familiar to our time. Playing an especially large role in the characters' lives are love and sex, the former generally playing out poorly, and the latter sordidly. There's an interesting tension that surfaces off and on through the lives of the male characters, in which females divert them from their avowed course. This is introduced very early in the book when Mac is warned by his father that he must stay away from women, because women will make you "sell out" and betray the revolution. The idea that a man can't be an effective revolutionary if he's got a woman to deal with is a recurring one -- which is not to say that women don't have their own problems throughout the story -- and it would be interesting to see a feminist analysis of the book. In any event, once you get used to the structure and style and concentrate on the five core characters, it remains a very readable and important portrait of America's history from the perspective of a social revolutionary.
Quotations, 26 Feb 2005
Dos Passos uses words to conjure up the look, the sound, and even the smell of the narrative's scenes. Many allusions and foreign expressions have led me to the dictionary and the encyclopedia for comprehension. I feel that I took a course with an inspiring teacher.
An unusual feature is that characters are described bit by bit instead of all at once. It takes a while to assemble all the details of the nose, eyes , hair and so on of the character.
As in life, events unfold interconnectedly. A chance meeting leads to a new relationship, or a new job. People change; they are born, mature, prosper or decline, and die. This is life.
Dos Passos had un canny ear for various dialects, and allows people to describe themselves just through dialogue.
The insights into politics have now had enough time to become current again. Quotations from bygone senators and congressmen prove that the same tricks , and even slogans, are recycled as elections come and go.
In contrast to Hemingway's sparse sentences, many of Dos Passos' passages rise to the level of prose poetry. The mini biography of Andrew Carnegie illustrates this.
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One Man's Initiation, 1917
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