A classic for a reason. This book (the entire trilogy really) is great writing, great history, and an excellent reminder that there really is nothing new under the sun. The lives of the characters and the times they live in (political unrest, class struggle, get rich quick schemes, war, xenophobia, etc) ring true today. The slang, however, has changed. So yes it's a little dated, but timeless at its core. Loved it.

Finis coronat opus. Highly recommended.

Oy vey what a train wreck. The book was torn between Upton Sinclair power to the people proletariatisms and Harold Robbins potboiler men in power and their sins-type sensation. I had to occasionally check the cover to make sure I was still reading Dos Passos.
To be kind this is a Roaring Twenties "Valley of The Dolls" with Mary French as Anne Welles, Eveline Johnson as Jennifer North, and Margo Dowling as Neely O'Hara.

I thought this was a strong finish for the USA trilogy. I especially enjoyed the vision of my hometown Miami and in particular, William Jennings Bryant at my favorite watering hole of all-time, Venetian Pool as well as the birth of childhood romping grounds Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and South Beach. It was hard to find sympathy for Charles Anderson, but I did enjoy Margo and Mary quite a lot. As in all of these books, most of the characters' arcs end in tragedy, but what I found most striking were the rampant alcoholism (I can't think of any male characters except for Bingham that were not chronic alcoholics) and the raw sexuality. The book takes place exactly 100 years ago in the 20s between the close of 1919 to the stock market crash of 1929. It was apparently a heady period that saw massive upheavals in society with electricity, flight, and the beginning of American hegemony on the world stage. The character portraits of Hearst, the Wright brothers, and others along with Dos Passos' own autobiographical sections "The Camera's Eye" and the Newsreels once again were effective ways of breaking up the narrative while also driving it forward. Between the abuses of capitalism (this was a period where the rich-poor gap started to widen precipitously) and the labor struggles, we are truly thrown in the middle of the maelstrom of the changing American society.

I liked this quote from late in the book:

If it had not been for these things, I might have lived out my life talking at streetcorners to scorning men. I might have died unknown, unmarked, a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we hope to do so much work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as how we do by an accident.
now their work is over. the immigrants haters of oppression lie in black suits in the little undertaking parlor in the North End the city is quiet the men of the conquering nation are not to be seen on the streets
they have won why are they scared to be seen on the streets? on the streets you only see the downcast faces of the beaten the streets belong to the beaten nation all the way to the cemetery where the bodies of the immigrants are to be burned we line the curbs in the drizzling rain we crowd the wet sidewalks elbow to elbow silent pale looking with scared eyes at the coffins
we stand defeated America" (p. 372)

I can see why this book, and this series, is considered one of the great members of the canon of 20th-century literature. It requires some patience and certainly, the styles need some getting used to, but I truly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

I think the best of the three in the USA trilogy, although I may have just gotten used to the style. The four different writing styles, or viewpoints, help paint the picture of the era. The newsreels, the stream of consciousness, the narrative fiction and camera eye all are a bit different but add to the panorama Dos Passos is painting of the era. Sometimes I would have to remember that this wasn’t a recently written work attempting to imagine the “old days”. Dos Passos was writing about his current period and attempting to capture the entire feel of the time. You have any interest in 1910-1931 America? Then you must read this trilogy. Otherwise, your interest isn’t serious. I say this was the best of the three works because the characters in the fictional narratives are in more tense situations, heading towards either victory or calamity. The narratives about historical figures are also interesting although I have no idea how accurate were his portrayals.

There's a noticeable maturity in this volume, Dos Passos here hits his stride in term of pacing and characterization. Despite being the longest, it's his most focused of the three. It's still working with the same motifs: world grinds down man, man grinds down woman, and everyone grasps for that patent American Freedom yet continually finds it slipping through their fingers. Given all that dedication, I'm not sure how much could be sustained if you read all these together as one novel. I found putting space between each volume works to their benefit, I got to appreciate his prose more that way. It's consistent throughout and it can be easy to take that for granted, or to let the fantastic biography or camera eye sections lose their novelty if you try to get everything down in one slice. I won't rank the trilogy at the very top of the American literary canon, but it's a work of definite talent and discernment, and it's contribution that I think shouldn't be overlooked either.

Again, the way Dos Passos busts conventions and weaves together disparate narratives is a marvel, and I'm so glad I took the time to get to know this trilogy.

I found Dos Passos' USA Trilogy absolutely delightful. It is bursting with history that has been swept under the rug, songs no longer sung, news headlines long forgotten, and words and language out of circulation. In other words, reading the trilogy can be (and was for me) a treasure hunt of the most rewarding kind.

It's the sort of work that is best read in ebook form if you want to research as you read without leaving the book. I read using the Kindle app for iPad which makes it easy to consult your favorite dictionary, look up Wikipedia, translate a language you don't understand, and Google search the internet. I went to Apple Music to listen to the songs I didn't recognize and to Google Maps to find the places I couldn't locate in my head... perhaps, these will also be integrated into ebooks one day.

It is easy to see why this body of work is so highly regarded. It is an astounding work that brings to life a transformational period in American history in a unique multi-dimensional way, infusing its compelling narrative with Joycean stream-of-consciousness imagery, incisive biographies, news headlines and popular song lyrics.

The Big Money, the final third of Dos Passos' ambitious U.S.A. Trilogy, is every bit as strong as the first two books, The 42nd Parallel and 1919. I'm probably doing Dos Passos a disservice by calling his trilogy ambitious. The word doesn't have enough sweep to effectively describe what Dos Passos did with these three books, which is to tell the story of the United States during the first three decades of the 20th century, its technological advancements, and what Dos Passos saw as its moral decline due to the decadence of the wealthy. The trilogy takes in World War I, the birth of aviation and motion pictures, union organizers, advertising, the stock market, Prohibition, the working class and the wealthy, and ends shortly before the market crash of 1929. The narrative is fragmented into four separate styles that complement and inform each other, allowing the trilogy to be both sweepingly general and highly specific: fictional stories of 12 characters whose lives occasionally intersect throughout the three books; collages of newspaper headlines, newsreel scripts, and popular song lyrics of the time period; short nonfiction biographies of famous Americans; and Joyce-inspired, impressionistic, semi-autobiographical stream-of-consciousness. Highly recommended.

The USA trilogy is considered by many to be a modern literary masterpiece. It is an interesting exercise in a writer almost explicitly endeavouring to write the great american novel as compared to writing to themes of American-ness within the confines of a conventional narrative as Fitzgerald, Yates and Faulkner did. The result is as epic and ambitious as it is sometimes convoluted and imprecise. The experimentation in form, the beauty of the prose and the level of detail is stunning but across 1200 pages many characters still felt undeveloped and weren't engaging. Furthermore the themes of labour and social democracy in the period of WWI and the immediate aftermath are handled deftly and with sophistication but one can't help but feel that Steinbeck was able to more effectively capture and explore these themes in his own works in a more succinct, engaging manner.

I have to wonder what this trilogy would’ve seemed like to readers when it was published in the 1930s. Even today in the 21st-century the writing seems very current but the message seems somewhat stale and meaningless.

Regrettably as far as I see, this final book in the trilogy focuses on the life of one person who is not very engaging to the reader. Mr. Anderson is an early flyer and engineer and inventor who gets in early on the age of air travel and makes a lot of money. His story is that of getting rich in contrast with the Other story in the book of the working class who suffer mightily with poverty.

The story of the rich class is contrasted with the story of the working class. The efforts of union organizers and especially of people who choose a life of organizing is an impressive one but definitely in the minority in this book. 90% about the lives of the rich and the movie star and 10% about the life of the communist organizer and IWW.

John dos Passose USA triloogia I osa “42. laiuskraad” keskendub peamiselt 20. sajandi algusaastate noorele Ameerika riigile ja II osa “1919” esimese maailmasõja mõjudele. Värskelt ilmunud III osa kannab alapealkirja “Suur raha” ning toob lugeja ette 1920. aastate majandustõusu ajajärgu. Sõda on lõppenud ja maailm ajab end taas jalule.

Dos Passost peetakse eelkõige modernismi esindajaks ning seega on ka teose ülesehitus modernistlik. Klassikaliste, peategelaste lugu edasiviivate peatükkide narratiivi katkestavad ringvaated ja kaamerasilm. Ringvaadete pealtnäha juhuslikult nopitud meediapealkirjade, uudisekatkete, reklaamloosungite ja poplaulude pealkirjade kaudu avaneb lugejale hoopis laiem panoraam kaasaegsest ühiskonnast. Läbi selle joonistuvad välja Ameerika peamised probleemid, mille seas kerkivad esile demokraatliku ühiskonna kriis, Ameerika unelma ohvriks langemine, tööpuudus, piirid riigi ja eraettevõtete vahel. Kaamerasilm lisab killukesi veelgi rohkematest sündmustest. Kohati küll tundub, et kaleidoskoopiliste killukeste mõistmine vajab teadmisi Ameerika ajaloost ja kultuurist ja võib ilma selleta jäädagi vaid mosaiigiks. Samuti vajab sellise teksti lugemine veidi harjumist, kuid selle saabudes asuvad erinevad osad end kenasti täiendama ja lugeja ette laotub ühe mandri tõeline panoraam.

Loost koorub välja kuvand, mis toetab tuntud hüüdlauseid nagu “Ameerika kui kõigi võimaluste maa” või “Ajalehepoisist miljonäriks!”. Teisalt liigub kõik vääramatult ühiskonna suunas, kus rikkad saavad veelgi rikkamaks ja vaesed üha vaesemaks. Autorile on südamelähedane tööstusettevõtete mõjuvaldkonda jäänud inimeste käekäik. Kui Kapitalist, Investor ja Ehitaja loovad oma tegevuse käigus soisele maastikule särava linna, siis tavainimestest saavad industrialiseerimise ja tehnoloogia võidukäigu järel tühjad kestad, suurt masinavärki käimas hoidvad mutrikesed. Dos Passos vaatleb oma tegelasi neist eemaltolevana, kui ajastu kroonikuna. Ühelt poolt on tegelaste lood vaid vahendiks suuremas plaanis ühiskonna edasiandmiseks, teisalt kumab väikeste inimeste lugudest inimlikku nukrust. Autori distantseerumine oma tegelastest viib selleni, et ta ei lase neist kellelgi kogeda klassikalises mõttes õnne. Sõjast naasnud leitnanti Andersonist saab olude sunnil töölisklassi liige ja tema kiindumust Dorise vastu või käsitleda kui martinedenlikku armastuslugu. Töölisliikumise ridades ja roosasid prille eest võttes purunenud armastuslooga lõpetab ka päikselisest Trinidadist “armsale puhtale Ameerika tütarlapsele” sobimatusse nõgimusta Denverisse sattunud Mary French. Peadtõstvat popkultuuri ja Hollywoodi glamuuriihalust sümboliseerib lapstäht Margo. Ohtralt esineb ka alkoholi ja toorest seksi.

Nii-öelda “väikesed inimesed “ vahelduvad kuulsustega, kes on samuti rakendatud ühiskonna avamisse laiemas plaanis. Tuntud isikutena astuvad triloogia selles osas lugeja ette näiteks tantsijanna Isadora Duncan, kelle kaudu ülistatakse elu, tööstur Fordi kaudu joonistub aga välja kapitalismi filosoofia, kus efektiivsus võrdub odava masstootmisega ja tööliselt eeldatakse käsu täitmist, mitte mõtlemist. Autor ei jäta kasutamata ka ironiseerimise võimalust - patsifisti tehas hakkab tootma sõjavarustust, tööpuuduse käes kannatav ühiskond peidab endas samas tohutuid võimalusi, peos olevast uurist ei loobuta ka surmahetkel, elu tipphetk võib olla matused, maakler vahendab inimlikke nõrkusi, inimese baasvajadus on mitte töötada nähtamatu suurvõimu hüvanguks.

Et tegemist on keeleliselt nauditava tõlketeosega, tõestab juba esimene lõik, mis haarab oma kujunditega: erkpunane hämu, kumavad silmad, keel kui paks soe hapukas vilt. Esimene peatükk lajatab samas ka karmi naturalistlikkusega, kus öögitakse rohelist sappi ning proua Johnson on “kahvatu ja külm”, kuid Ameerika pinnale saabudes muutuvad ta silmad pähkelpruuniks. Halastamatult kõledat realistlikkust ja värvikaid kujundeid Olavi Teppani sulest jagub kogu teosesse. Kohati moodustavad need kontrasti, kohati sulanduvad ja täiendavad üksteist, andes tulemuseks mõnusalt voolava teksti.


Vaatamata sellele, et teose originaal ilmus juba peaaegu 100 aastat tagasi (aastal 1936), on paljud teoses käsitletud aspektid loomupärased ka nüüdisühiskonnale. See omakorda paneb mõtlema ühiskondliku mudeli jätkusuutlikkuse võimalikkuse üle, kus jätkuvalt eksisteerivad klassi- ja rassiviha. Samuti ka inimloomusele igiomaste omaduste, inimelu mõttekuse ja inimsaatuse iroonilisuse üle, toetudes teose kandvale tonaalsusele, kus inimlikkus kaob elu hammasrataste vahele jäädes või rahajumalat teenides. Maakera pöörleb aga ikka edasi.