Não sei se é a Grande Novela Americana, como tentam vender, talvez seja a maior novela americana que pouca gente leu. Eu mesmo achei muito por acaso. Curti a capa numa livraria em meados de 2009, e vi as aspas colocando essa trilogia acima dos trabalhos do Faulkner e do Hemingway, mas foi só ao ler um pedaço que me encantei. Um trabalho semi-experimental junto com um spam de tempo de décadas. Só li o primeiro em 2014, achei um tanto lento, demorado. Em 2017 li o segundo e voltei a me encantar. É mesmo lento, mas acho que é uma leitura para ser feita sem pressa, por um longo tempo. Vale muito a pena.

I think “The Big Money” is the best of the “U.S.A.” trilogy (which includes “The 42nd Parallel” and “1919”). I’m not sure if that’s because of the book itself or because of the way reading it with recollection of the prior (which I read in succession just before it) pulls the entire work together.

Essentially, this is the great American epic; “U.S.A.” is actually a perfect overall title. It is, quite literally, the story of life in the USA. It focuses on three decades, the 1900s, the 1910s, and the 1920s in a way that could have been the 1850s, 1860s, 1870s; the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, or any period of time (or more than three decades if an author would have the wherewithal to do it). What’s most significant is something some of the less favorable reviews missed; this is timeless, not dated. Once you tune into the grand scheme, its easy as you read to envision the whole thing being re-told with details from today.

The scheme for the work is subtle and fascinating. At first, I wondered about Do Passos’ seeming focus on one strata of society, the marginal or disaffected. But after having finished the trilogy, I now get it. I find it almost analogous to the scientific method, where you want to observe the impact of X on Y but you want to control for variations in A, B, C, etc. Each decade has its own flavor; the 1900s dominated by class strife and the emergence of the labor movement fading, as it ends, toward the theme of the next decade, which is the Great War, patriotism and loyalty with undercurrents of class struggle persisting (we see even now these underlays as the flavor of one decade doesn’t fully end on the exact last date of that decade) and we see themes of the next decade (money, ambition, partying) taking shape. We also see the variety of ways these larger historical and institutional forces play out on a variety of individuals who start out more or less from the same point but wind up pursuing different paths and reaching different destinations based on – well, I suppose that’s for us to figure out and debate; Innate characteristics? Small variations in environmental details? Luck? All of the above? Some of the above? And by the way, as we get this high-level big-picture vantage point, it’s hard not to notice the workings of the old adage, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Parallels from what we saw then to what we see today are hard not to notice if one can avoid getting too wrapped up in details.

100 años y nada ha cambiado en realidad.

I enjoyed this book for the most part, I really felt like I was there with each character's point of view and going through life with them. I really like history so I felt more into this book because of that. The way this book was set up was very unique and something I had never really seen to that level before. The author created news articles that were placed at random points throughout the book. I didn’t necessarily like them, it seemed sort of annoying to have to cut me off from the reading the main story line. I really enjoyed the main storyline told from Charley Anderson, and going through his struggles and his successes to try to make it in America after World War l. I really didn’t like when the author would abruptly stop the main story line to cut to another storyline told from another perspective, it really was frustrating to me, and didn’t make me interested in reading more. The other perspectives weren’t as intriguing to me. Once the main storyline was back I was happy again. I found the language to be very easy to read, and felt like I could go through each page fairly quickly, which I really like in books. I also felt like I learned a lot about New York, and the United States during the 1920’s, and how challenging it was to make a living and trying to support others at the sametime. Overall I thought it was an alright book, with a very great main storyline.

Great ending to the USA Trilogy, which got better and better as it progressed. The only flaw in this volume is the Margo Dowling storyline, which I didn’t find as fully realized as the others. Camera Eye 50, Dos Passos’ prose poem about the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, is one of the best things I’ve ever read about coming to grips with political defeat.

A tough read, but worthwhile. The stream of consciousness news reels and Snapshot interludes were annoying for me, but I enjoyed the stories of the three main characters, as well as the bits about people like frank Lloyd Wright, who were important in that era.

Re The USA Trilogy. I found this plotless depiction of Dos Passo's fictional characters set during the 1st three decades of the 20th century to be fascinating. The author reveals everyday people of almost all stripes, during a time of momentous change in the country as well as the world, and shows how they simply cope with their lives, and how they try to make it in an America that was full of opportunity, but yet, still full of the vicissitudes life always presents - the inevitable disappointments, heartbreaks, frustrations and difficulties that everyone faces, no matter how hard we all try to avoid them.
Especially interesting to me was just the way it seems so many people at that time lived, scrambling to be 'successful', while apparently not ever thinking too much about what that meant. And no PC stuff here, people just did and said whatever they thought, as long as it seemed, they were accompanied by prodigious amounts of booze to help them along the way. Essentially, this is a snapshot of a way of life long gone in America's history. Again, it was fascinating to experience it, even vicariously.

I can only add my voice to the the chorus of approval that greets this book. Elegant, economical, with the crystal clarity of description we expect from writing of this era, The Big Money evokes the minutiae of American life between the wars in unrelenting detail. The rain, the gambling, the drinking, the rain, the dismal insecurity of it all play out in a collage of news headlines, popular songs and the stories of 'a basket of deplorables' who struggle against the times and their own natures to somehow keep their foothold in a world of cheap rooms, seedy bars and empty pockets. Nobody keeps a job for long, hopes are inevitably dashed, families fail, romance barely surfaces from the quagmire of doomed affairs. It's all horrible, but the cumulative effect is of a glorious tapestry of observed detail.
Los Passos is usually identified with Hemingway and his writing has the same terse quality, as well as his devotion to giving a true account. Their style can be found reflected in the writing of all the great American authors, their characters are 'ordinary', the tone is one of stoic acceptance and moral detachment. When things go wrong, as they always do, the fault somehow is not the characters' but America's, a country where it seems people are set up to fail. The same tone and style can be observed from Faulkner, through Arthur Miller to the magnificent Cormac McCarthy.
The scattered cameos and sometimes disconnected narrative may make this book difficult at times, but it's well worth the effort.

The Big Money (1936) by John Dos Passos is the third novel in his U.S.A. Trilogy. The other volumes being The 42nd Parallel (1930) and 1919 (1932). The series seems to be Dos Passos’ attempt to capture the America of that time in all its facets, culturally, politically, economically, artistically and socially. It is built on a framework of alternating narratives featuring Charley Anderson, Mary French, Margo Dowling and Richard Ellsworth Savage. They live in parallel worlds that are occasionally tangential and sometimes cross over.

Dos Passos’ style is very much modernist with fragmented narrative, free indirect discourse, stream of consciousness and the frequent use of closed compounds. There is a multi-media effect with the narrative sections divided by interludes titled “Newsreels” and “The Camera Eye.” These include contemporary selections from song lyrics, radio and newspaper advertisements, movie dialog, radio news blurbs and political speeches. Also blended in are biographies of prominent and influential Americans of the time including Frederic Winslow Taylor, Henry Ford, Thorstein Veblen, Isadora Duncan, Rudolph Valentino, the Wright Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright and Samuel Insull.

History is much more that the iteration of famous people, turning-point events and historic eras. It is also the story of the people, prominent and forgotten, and their livelihoods, their hopes and dreams, their foibles and their triumphs. Dos Passos does a masterful job of capturing the spirit of America between the two big wars.
July 6, 2020

This book pulled together all the big players and the big events. I have to say that I wanted a little more earth shattering event around the stock market. But I learned about a lot of people and attitudes that were happening during this time.


I would like to remind puerile that the author was a socialist. But he also changed his position on that! I think that is important, because names can be so divisive.


I think some follow up links or people:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scien...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernes...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_T...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conso...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samue...

This installment takes place entirely in the 1920s. There were several characters who played the stock market, trying to get rich. First published in 1936 in the middle of the Great Depression, I wondered if it would end with the Stock Market Crash in 1929. I'll leave that thought to those who might get to this.

The novel seemed to have more continuity than did the previous two novels. The stories/characterizations followed each other (mostly) so that it was easier to remember them and their circumstances. Charley Anderson reappears. Other characters from the two earlier novels were also present, but not with their own section. One of the "biographies" included Frank Lloyd Wright, but there were also others with whom I was unfamiliar. I suspect those who read this shortly after it came out would have known them.

For the series as a whole, I liked the picture of the US for the period of the early 1900s through the 1920s. No, it is not a history book by any stretch, but it puts flesh on that history. This was my favorite of the series. It won't make it to even my top 25-favorites, but it is a strong 5-stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed the USA Trilogy. The newsreels written with a combination of headlines, lyrical verse, and poetry were jarring at first but as you become accustomed to it, it enforces the character studies of the historic figures dos Passos spotlights. The camera eye stream of consciousness prose also broke up the flow of the narrative to keep you engaged was an effective mechanic. However, although these three books were enthralling, if you are looking for an uplifting read, look elsewhere. Overall, though, a strong narrative about the early 20th century.