Rarely do I come across books that I simply do not care what happens. Fairly dull stories, monotonous characters. Gave up 40 pages from the end because life is too short to read such novels.

Neste primeiro volume da trilogia USA, onde oscilei até 2/3 do livro entre as 3 e as 4 estrelas, Dos Passos (com ascendência na Ilha da Madeira) aborda os últimos anos do séc. XIX e as primeiras décadas do séc.XX sendo, portanto, uma obra fundamental para a compreensão dos diversos movimentos sociais, políticos e artísticos da época nos EUA (mas também no México e na Europa),terminando-se já em vésperas da entrada dos EUA na IGM. É, inegavelmente, uma obra riquíssima do ponto de vista descritivo a ponto de ser um romance fundamental para a reconstrução daquela época, todavia essa preocupação em retratar a história, rectius, o espírito de uma Nação pode nos dias de hoje apresentar-se como o ponto menos atractivo do livro na medida em que o recurso constante à colagem de manchetes e excertos noticiosos, discursos e até canções (no chamado "Noticiário"), utilização do fluxo de consciência (no "Olho da Câmara") bem como os diversos interlúdios com pequenos apontamentos biográficos de personalidades marcantes desta época (ex. Thomas Edison) quebram repetitivamente o relato das histórias das personagens principais que povoam o livro (pese embora haver outras tantas secundárias extraordinariamente deliciosas, v.g. um editor/vendedor de livros muito pouco fiável que cita constantemente Shakespeare).

Personagens essas (Mac, Janey, J. Ward, Eleanor e Charley) que, ressalve-se, embora marcantes e construídas de forma deveras inteligente não deixam de ser mais um instrumento para o relato da época e da sociedade. Têm nomes, uma história cativante, cruzam-se mas, na verdade, mais não são do que a representação simbólica de uma série de percursos/ escaladas sociais na senda do "sonho americano". E se à data da publicação estas narrativas mais convencionais eram provavelmente o menos inovador na obra, julgo que para o leitor hodierno (que não um historiador) representarão o mais interessante na leitura e foram o que me levou, de resto, a decidir pela 4ª estrela e pela passagem imediata para o II volume da trilogia.

Everyone with anything to say about this book mostly already said it. Here's what I think you might find useful and new.

Recommended for: College students; People who love early 20th-Century American literature; People who like Modernism or modernist art; people who like abstract art; people who like anthologies.

Themes you'll find: Treatment of women (hint: they catch a lot of blame); treatment of socialism; descriptions of a lot of American geography; the concept of revolution, the immigrant experience, infidelity/betrayal.

Stuff that's cool: It's broken into bite-sized chunks. It's neat to see how all the characters' lives are intertwined and how they impact each other. There's a lot of "meat" in this book, in terms of the characters having meaningful conversations, and the author showing differing opinions. He does a lovely job of setting a scene, like a movie director, and using imagery to convey mood. This is not fluff. Not at all.

Stuff that's frustrating: There's no one hero. No protagonist and no antagonist. The bits woven throughout - the Camera Eye bits and the bits of biography and the Newsreel bits - are confusing and meandering. When taken as a whole, they help reinforce the themes in the book, but if you try to examine them closely, they will be frustrating and just a little too precious, as though the author is saying, "Look! This is clever and new! I'm being so clever. See?"

If I had to use one word to describe my feelings overall towards this book it would be disappointing. I had high hopes for this 'classic' but they were quickly dashed. I was duped by all of the praise it has recieved from critics and writers. Sometimes it's hard to go back in experimental fiction, toward its infancy and simply not have the patience that it requires. One of the narrative devices Passos uses is Headlines from the time period and brief newspaper clippings, and about half way through the book I just started skipping them. I felt they added little to the narrative.

Brief synopsis: Passos uses a fragmented narrative to tell the story of several characters trying to make their way in early 1900's America. That's pretty much the entire plot. There isn't a plot really. Each narrative thread wanders aimlessly.

I did enjoy his device he called "Camera Eye" which were supposed to be autobiographical. They were basically paragraph long stream-of-consciousness-like descriptions about various events in the authors life. I also enjoyed the first introduction of a character named Janey, detailing her crush on an older boy and the time they spent one afternoon canoeing and relaxing by a riverside campfire. It was told in a simple tone, with a sincerity that reminded me of Raymond Carver.

One line in the middle of book caught my attention which I feel adequately describes the overall mood of the book. "..reading Success Magazine, full of sick longing for the future...". Everyone in this book is bent towards the future, almost obessively so. Some zig zag like a drunk towards their future, others sprint, still others waltz. And this is part of the reason that I gave it three stars. Underneath the often stiff, Romantic tone, the narrative tricks, the empty plot, there is a picture of a hopeful America, a time in our country when seemingly anything was possible for everyone. The characters are plain, and their lives even more so, but the country in which they live out those lives was unique, and I think Passos was trying to reflect that, to the best of his abilities. I might read the rest of the trilogy. Unclear, ask later.

Μια τοιχογραφία των ΗΠΑ πριν την είσοδο της χώρας στον Α΄ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο. Γλαφυρό και συναρπαστικό κείμενο που βρίθει σημαντικών πληροφοριών και γνώσεων για την εποχή αυτή.

606.tU.S.A. : The 42nd Parallel (The U.S.A. Trilogy #1), John Dos Passos

The U.S.A. Trilogy is a series of three novels by American writer John Dos Passos, comprising the novels The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932) and The Big Money (1936).

The books were first published together in a volume titled U.S.A. by Harcourt Brace in January 1938. The trilogy employs an experimental technique, incorporating four narrative modes, fictional narratives telling the life stories of twelve characters, collages of newspaper clippings and song lyrics labeled "Newsreel", individually labeled short biographies of public figures of the time such as Woodrow Wilson and Henry Ford and fragments of autobiographical stream of consciousness writing labeled "Camera Eye".

The trilogy covers the historical development of American society during the first three decades of the 20th century. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked U.S.A. 23rd on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم ماه ژانویه سال 2007میلادی

ینگه دنیا - جان دس‌ پاسوس (هاشمی) ادبیات جلد یک از سه

عنوان: ینگه دنیا کتاب نخست - مدار 42؛ نویسنده: جان دس‌ پاسوس؛ مترجم: سعید باستانی؛ تهران، هاشمی، 1385؛ در 517ص؛ شابک 9647199104؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان امر��کایی - سده 20م

مدار 42 نخستن جلد از سه گانه یو.اس.آ با اخباری آغاز میشود، که شامل ترانه‌ های عامیانه، سرعنوان روزنامه‌ ها و هيجان و تب و تاب کشور در آغاز سده بیستم است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 29/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Three masterful novels describe the history of industrial America, capitalism on the move, the progressive dispossession of ordinary people, workers, and homeless people, and what founded the American ideal and was called freedom. The characters intersect; some become powerful and rich, and others die, run out, and get damaged. The echo of voices that will remain vague and anonymous has added to these multiple stories. There are epic and musical pages that paint portraits of the greats of this century, researchers, politicians, and industrialists who have left their mark on history and the political and social life of the United States in the twentieth century. It was written in an epic and energetic style, that of a modern and relentless tragedy, reflecting the impossibility of resisting the starting of the ruthless machine called modernity.

John Dos Passos, in one of the more impressive rejections of biology, gives birth to Marshall McLuhan (not using the easy Athena-Section method) solely so his Canuck offspring can give birth to his axiomatic ‘The medium is the message’ message, thereby creating a ripple in media theory plausible enough to explain just how in the fuck his father, John Dos Passos, managed to confirm his son’s maxim with 1930’s The 42nd Parallel. This marvelous ‘thing’ is as close to mixed media as the printed page can be without devolving to typographic hullabaloo. It is seen, heard, smelled, felt (I’m listing the senses); it is as multisensory as ink fixed on paper can be. Me? I'm just gaga for it. Dos Passos is the Modernist exemption that proves my personal rule (er, 'Fuck Modernism').

There is also an argument that Pynchon’s Against The Day is a sister novel to Dos Passos’ USA trilogy. Sidebar: there is more than a little bit of passing resemblance between J. Ward Moorehouse and one Tyrone Slothrop (debuts in USA #5; Gravity's Rainbow). There are multiple characters (Hi, Penny) here that feel echoed by Pynchon some 70-very-odd years later as salutary recognition of their voices still bearing beauty and weight. They do; my God, they do.

A very insignificant example: Fainian “Mac” McCreary, found here as a stumbledrunk itinerate tipógrafo para la revolución comunista, is heard from again in Against The Day’s ambling, good-hearted Merle Rideout (fellow ne’er-do-well and ne-er-decline-well-whisky). How much so? Both men, whose lives unfold within a millennial zeitgeist ill attenuated to the fundamental goodness of their souls, just both happen to be from, oh, Connecticut of all fucking places. You know, and I know you know, that people aren’t really born in Connecticut. That only happens in books. Hey! This is a book….

Take this time capsule—Pynchon is not a necessary component, just the nerding out that GR fosters amongst us outdoorsy types—and Go. Say 'wheeeeeeeeeeeee.' There is no ride like the United States and its titular trilogy as it headlongs into Empire. Just enter here --> X
(it's also a kiss)

A modern classic. After I got used to the stream-of-consciousness passages and allowed them to just roll over me and set a mood, I enjoyed reading about these fictional characters set within crucial points of American history. Dos Passos captures the spirit of the USA of the times and I look forward to the second book of this trilogy.

As Hemingway said to Dos Passos in a letter, after reading his USA trilogy:"Don’t let yourself slip and get any perfect characters in—no Stephen Daedeluses—remember it was Bloom and Mrs. Bloom saved Joyce . . . If you get a noble communist remember the bastard probably masturbates and is jallous as a cat. Keep them people, people, people, and don’t let them get to be symbols."(1932)

Loved it to pieces.

Very impressive evocation of the American zeitgeist at the start of the 20th century, focusing on the myriad of niche opportunities available to all and sundry persons to make their way in life. Unfortunately the author must have taken a bet to set a record for largest number of mind-numbingly boring characters in the same book - which he won easily.