Stopping after book one. It's good, but I think I get it and don't want to do it any more, though I might read the rest sometime. It fits in the genre of Upton Sinclair or Dickens' social reform stories. The setting is the US as WWI nears. Short stories about fictional characters influenced by historical events. Activists and anarchists figure in, Socialism, and sentiment for Germany, labor relations, and economics.

A case could be made that John Dos Passos hasn’t widely been accorded his rightful place among American writers, even though other writers including Mary McCarthy and even Jean-Paul Sartre have acknowledged their admiration for and indebtedness to his work. At first, some critics drew back because of what seemed to be his communist/socialist sympathies. With the passing of time, other critics held their noses because he moved to the right and supported the likes of Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. (In 1998, the Modern Library did rank U.S.A. 23rd on its list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century.)

The fact of the matter is that Dos Passos’ trilogy of novels under the overall title of U.S.A. is an imperfect, complex, dazzling, deeply enjoyable, frustrating and rewarding classic that measures up to its daunting title.

The trilogy covers the first three decades of the 20th century, featuring narratives of twelve characters; collages of newspaper headlines and clippings, period song lyrics, etc.; wonderful short biographies of significant actual individuals such as Isadora Duncan, Henry Ford , Rudolph Valentino, Frank Lloyd Wright and William Randolph Hearst; and (for this reader, the least successful aspect of the work) stream-of-consciousness passages from not-always-clear subjects. Chicago readers should enjoy the brief biography of Samuel Insul, who built the company that became Commonwealth Edison.

The emphasis is frequently on the conflict between capital and labor in the pre-Depression U.S., and a considerable amount of the early narrative involves expatriate experience, particularly in France.

For all the experimentation, the more traditional narrative sections of the book seem to me its greatest strength. Here’s the opening paragraph of the first section about J. Ward Moorehouse in the first of the trilogy’s novels, The 42nd Parallel:

“He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on the Fourth of July. Poor Mrs. Moorehouse could hear the firecrackers popping and crackling outside the hospital all through her labor pains. And when she came to a little and they brought the baby to her she asked the nurse in a trembling husky whisper if she thought it could have a bad effect on the baby all this noise, prenatal influence you know. The nurse said the little boy ought to grow up to be very patriotic and probably president being born on the Glorious Fourth and went on to tell a ing story about a woman who’d bedew frightened by having a beggar stick is hand out suddenly r right under her nose just before the child was born and the child had been born with six fingers, but Mrs. Moorehouse was too weak to listen n and went off to sleep. Later Mr. Moorehouse came by on his way home from the depot w here he worked as a station agent and they decided top call the kid John Ward after Mrs. Moorehouse’s father who was a farmer in Iowa and pretty well off. Then Mr. Moorehouse went round to Healy’s to get tanked up because he was a father and because it was the Glorious Fourth and Mrs. Moorehouse went off to sleep again.” (That “stationagent” is one of the frequent Germanic compound words characteristic of Dos Passos. You get used to and even eventually enjoy them as you move along.)

In that same novel, as a play is being rehearsed for Broadway and its potential for commercial success is being weighed, we get this: “Freddy said the stagehands liked it and that was always a good sign.” I can’t believe I’ve never seen that quoted anywhere, particularly by people involved in commercial theater.

Dos Passos’ attempts to render dialect and slang tend to be unsuccessful and, at their worst, excruciating, calling to mind similar problems in Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep. Yet this same writer can get a child’s language and perception perfectly right, as in this passage from the first section about Evelyn Hutchins from 1919, the second novel in the trilogy: “One fall Father started to read aloud a little of the Ideals of the King every night after they were all tucked into bed. All that winter Adelaide and Margaret were King Arthur and Queen Whenever. Eveline wanted to be Elaine the Fair, but Adelaide said she couldn’t because her hair was mousy and she had a face like a pie, so she had to be the Maiden Evalina.” I enjoyed those childlike malapropisms and that “face like a pie.”

As the trilogy’s third novel, The Big Money, begins, Prohibition is in effect in the States, and one character observes: “New York’s a wreck … They are pouring ice cream sodas in the Knickerbocker bar.”

The Big Money contains perhaps the strongest of the trilogy’s brief biographies, “The Bitter Drink,” about Thorstein Veblen, the controversial economist, social commentator and originator of the term “conspicuous consumption.” (If I were a publisher, I would be tempted by the notion of publishing a volume combining William Carlos Williams’ In The American Grain with the biographies from Dos Passos’ trilogy.)

A favorite passage from The Big Money, in which Charley Anderson, who has figured prominently throughout the trilogy, is being interviewed on page 1010 by a publicity manager for the company Anderson is involved with:

t“ ‘Now, Mr. Anderson, if you don’t mind, let’s have the old life history, or whatever part of it is fit to print. … Mind you, we won’t use anything right away but we like to have the dope so that we can sort of feed it out as occasion demands.’
”

t“ Charley blushed. ‘“Well, he said,’ ‘there’s not very much to tell.‘

t“ ‘Attaboy,” said Eddy Sawyer, pouring out two more drinks and putting away the whiskey bottle. ‘That’s how all the best stories begin.’ ”

Another favorite:

t“After lunch the judge drove them all down to the Venetian Pool where William Jennings Bryan sitting in an armchair on the float under a striped awning was talking to the crowd. From where they were they couldn’t hear what he was saying, only the laughter and handicapping of the crowd in the pauses. ‘Do you know, judge,’ said one of the twins, as they worked their way through the fringe of the crowd around the pool, ‘if the old boy hadn’t wasted his time in politics, he’da made a great auctioneer.’ “

The social and political satire in Dos Passos is sharpest in this final novel in the trilogy. In particular, he saw, a century ago, that advertising and marketing were becoming more important to companies than quality of product or service and that stockholders clearly have priority over customers. 

The trilogy, at 1240 pages, is a considerable investment of time and attention and, frankly, frequently requires considerable forbearance, but ultimately it’s worth it. I’m glad I finally took it on.

The Library of America edition, with helpful appendices including a chronology that amounts to a succinct biography of Dos Passos, takes us back to the good old days of full-cloth bindings and even provides a coordinated, bound-in ribbon bookmark. Alas, the paper, although commendably of archival quality, is so Bible-thin that pages sometimes adhere and are difficult to separate.

N.B.: U.S.A. was written and published before political correctness. Be prepared for some use of the “n” word and the “k” word, as well as references to krauts, polacks, wops and hicks. The language, imbedded in character, is the language of the time. (Contemporary authors have much greater freedom in writing about sex but had better watch their step in writing about other matters.)

kaleidoscopic and experimental , but also gripping ,accessible and unputdownable- a completely immersive book- totally transported me to america and the turn of the century- these characters live and breathe for the time you spend with them

Well - that was a mammoth read! An excellent trilogy (though I must admit that I found the third part "The Big Money" more of a challenge to stick with) which takes you from mid 1900's through to end 1920's in America. It explores the tension between the haves and have nots; between Capitalism and Socialism/Communism and the difficulty people have in sticking to their priciples through life's mundane trials (love, jealousy, plain old bad luck).

There is one passage in an autobiographical section the author writes about speaking at a socialist/communist meeting during which and afterwards he struggles with whether it is possible for people at the top of such organisations to stay true to their beliefs and not end up being attracted by money and fame etc. This topic is further illustrated through one or more of the supporting characters who occurs throughout the book and has clearly fallen into the attractions of money and a comfortable life while fighting for the workingclass through negotiations with the businesses.

The era is very well brought to life and the style of writing is quite beautiful in places, very gritty in others.

One thing I would recommend is to read the wikipedia entry on the trilogy before starting out (but not the character summaries as they may taint your thoughts on the characters which are much better based on your discovering them through their stories). In summary, John Dos Passos employs four different narrative modes throuout the trilogy:
- character based (covering the fictional characters)
- "Camera Eye" - autobiographical (apparently)
- Biographical (describing the life of key persons of the era)
- Newsreel - clippings from newspapers and lyrics from songs

Wikipedia explains it much better than I have above, but I think without this pre-knowledge I would have struggled to make sense of the book initially.

I would also say that you are likely to find yourself flicking back and forward in the book to trace characters interactions with each other - quite often you will happen upon an event which you have read about before but from another character's point of view and you will want to refer back to the earlier version (or at least I did - perhaps that's just me).

Anyhow - I would whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those interested in social history and great writing.

also, i would recommend using google translate to translate any foreign language passages you don't understand. this really aided my understanding of the story in some places

Very interesting style. I loved the newsreels and mini biographies and especially the camera eye pieces interspersed through each book. I also got quite an education about the labor movement and reactions of Americans to WWI. For some reason I enjoyed The 42nd Parallel and The Big Money much more than 1919. The intro by E. L. Doctorow is great - he said that Dos Passos lacks the he man aesthetics of Hemingway and the romance of self-destruction that consumed Fitzgerald - both his friends and contemporaries...also, he explains that these books are novels without a hero...so true...definitely books I will read again!

3 1/2 Stars

U.S.A. is usually referred to as a trilogy, consisting of The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, though I think any one of these is incomplete without the others.

The story tells the tale of 12 different characters in the first three decades of 20th Century America; they are microcosms of the greater whole. The true main character is the U.S.A.

It took me a while to realize this – in spite of the title staring me in the face. I was following the individual stories, and not terribly captivated. Once I started glimpsing the “big picture” I found the tale more interesting.

My full blog review: https://100greatestnovelsofalltimeque...

Extraordinary. A legit candidate for Great American Novel, though U.S.A. seems to have lost favor and visibility over the decades. Perhaps the price one pays for shifting from far left to far right.

Re-reading U.S.A. after many years was more revelatory than I had expected. The trilogy's breadth and the depth of Dos Passos' insight into early 20th century America (were we great then?) truly astonished. The mixed styles, juxtaposing Dickensian narrative-plot-character, short (brilliant bios of historical figures, newsreel snippets to nail down context and the oft-slammed "camera eye" streams of consciousness,create not only a prototypical "modern" work, but they work.

Checking in with a few recent takedowns of the trilogy -- too political, too sentimental, overwritten and overwrought -- I reject them all. One even criticized Dos Passos for having his characters cross paths in coincidences that would make Dickens blush. No such thing. Another ripped Dos Passos for putting slang and cliche into his characters' mouths. That's the way people talk.

Dos Passos' empathy/sympathy for socialism and the worker may seem a bit quaint in retrospect. But those sentiments fit the times, places and people of which he wrote. Then there's the prescience. Who'da thunk this, from nearly 100 years ago, would describe our times so well:

"The rich were getting richer, the poor were getting poorer, small farmers were being squeezed out, workingmen were working twelve hours a day for a bare living, profits were for the rich, the law was for the rich, the cops were for the rich;
was it for that the pilgrims had bent their heads into the storm...and worked the stony farms of New England... was it for that the Indiana farmboys had turned out to shoot down Johnny Reb and make the black man free?"
Was it?

Christ, took me long enough, but I finally finished the whole trilogy. And damned if it wasn't totally rewarding. The 42nd Parallel was the most enjoyable of the three to read, with its long, almost proto-beat travel passages and its sense of boundless optimism for the working class in America. As the characters become more and more complex and their actions become more and more intertwined over the course of the trilogy, you find yourself totally sucked into their world. Highlight moment: the end of the second novel, 1919... that shit's amazing.

Brilliant. I have read the three volumes, with several months between each. Very idiosyncratic writing,
that left me with a strong feeling for the era, the people, the streets, the lives, the work, the struggles and the smells of the US. Disparities of wealth, the disruption of war, the lives that lurch from comfort to poverty. People falling in love, leaving relationships and making poor decision.

Once in a while, more in the past, journalists made great writers. Novelists in particular. Such was John dos Passos, a chronicler of an America long vanished. I read this when I was around nineteen or twenty and then it fitted my literary hunger perfectly. It was reading a fast-moving silent era film masterpiece with endless cast of characters coming in and out of focus, without crossing paths again. Much like the chaos of actual living in such a rootless, restless society with no real unifiying Identity.

Time for a great restart is now. California, please go away.

This is such a long book that I avoided reading it for years. But I'm glad I finally did it. It's a classic. The characters and situations represent the USA from 100 years ago and in many aspects are not very different today. His style is avant-garde, including jazzy samples from news headlines and "the camera eye" but it's easy to skip over those if they're too difficult/strange to read.

It took me five months to make it through all three volumes, but I am glad I had the patience to stick with the story as the third book (The Big Money) is the best of the three. The story operates from multiple valances, almost containing the Victorian, Modern, and Postmodern all in one text. I am not sure it all completely holds together, but I left the 1240 pages with a much fuller sense of what it was like to live through the first three decades of the last century up to the Great Depression of 1929. You need to really devote mental energy to this novel for it to reveal its genius.