8/10

Following on The 42nd Parallel, Passos continuous his kaleidoscopic patchwork of american stories from the turn of the century, now more closely bound up with the coming of world war I. Some of the characters and stories from the The 42nd Parallel are continued, while new ones are introduced. Passos masterfully captures a time of political, economic, and social turbulence without sentimentality or cliche, but as a keen observer of injustice and political culture. The historical period is one that often gets little attention in American education, but Passos has created an incredibly rich rendering.

Πολύ καλό και το δεύτερο μέρος της τριλογίας USA, επικεντρωμένο στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του σε ιστορίες που αφορούν τον Μεγάλο Πόλεμο, και φυσικά στους αγώνες της εργατικής τάξης. Πολλές ιστορίες προσώπων συνδέονται ή αποτελούν συνέχεια ιστοριών του πρώτου βιβλίου, και βλέπουμε έτσι την εξέλιξη διαφόρων χαρακτήρων, πράγμα που βρήκα πολύ ενδιαφέρον.
Βαθμολογία: 4/5

magnificent! slices of life of several quite different people mixed in with stream of consciousness interruptions with headlines and bits of pieces of world events...with short biographies of famous people... see https://www.newyorker.com/books/secon...

Written in 1932 and hailed as a classic of American literature, this novel is a must read. By fully immersing myself in this book, I gained a great understanding of this important historical period from only 100 years ago when American bravery, ingenuity, and industrial prowess catapulted our country to world power status.

The novel is presented in two distinct styles. The first is the primary narrative which follows the lives of several privileged elite university men and wealthy women through the pre war turmoil in the United States and their subsequent sojourns in Europe for the Allied cause. As the novel progresses, these stories become more and more complex and tedious with Americans endlessly bumping into each other throughout Europe. Their frivolous relationships and concerns primarily revolve around men chasing after women, complaining about the war, complaining about their jobs, and trying to get more money. The women are fond of saying how “tiresome” it is to constantly evade the attention of men and I would say it was also tiresome to follow these stories which seemed to have no real purpose. Towards the end of the book, these characters seemed more like ridiculous caricatures than actual people.

The second style was the focus on historical and cultural references. Googling to understand these made for slow going but it was worth the effort as the payoff was a great education. The mini biographies were especially interesting to me as someone with very little previous knowledge of the people who shaped these times. The details, period slang, and nitty gritty style of the historical perspective did serve to portray the flavor of the times in a very realistic way. It felt like a true glimpse of the ideals, dreams, worries, and psyche of the Americans at that time.

With air travel in its infancy, It was interesting to read about how life revolved around shipping during this time. The Navy was definitely king of the military and civilian travel to Europe on steamers was quite the journey. Several of the characters were merchant marines and hopped on and off ships traveling all around the world in pretty awful conditions. In fact, the conditions for working class people in general were horrible. Capitalism was ramping up along with the industrial military machine, often at the expense of laborers. The book highlights many who were sympathetic to the Russian Revolutionary cause and organizations like the IWW. Anarchists, marxists, Wobblies, etc… were all planning for revolution in the midst of America’s “Red Scare”. This, for me, was a more fascinating theme than the war itself. It is amazing that income equality and predatory capitalism has remained such a major issue today. However, at least now advocates of workers rights are not lynched or made to run the gantlet before getting tossed over the county line.

I would have eagerly given this book four stars if the individual stories that comprise the framework weren't so damn repetitive. Passos' voice is unique, seductive, hilarious, stark and powerful. What interested me most was the motif of sexuality in the text. It rules and guides all of the main characters yet (brilliantly?) somehow manages to seem subtle.

I can't help but wonder if Foer gleaned some of his literary style and Cubist text formation from Passos.

This second installment of the U.S.A. trilogy has a distinctly different flavor that the first. Firstly, for a trilogy that is in some ways intended to be some version of the Great American Novel, surprisingly little of it takes place in the US at all. This second volume is instead dominated by The Great War and how the panoply of characters gets sucked into this all encompassing draining War that from the viewpoint of our characters seems to mostly be a long series of tiresome interactions with bureaucracy. At least with good wine over here, seems to be the general shrug. This is no patriotic call to arms.

It is interesting, I have never read an account of the Red Scare in the US by an author that was clearly sympathetic to the movement. Seen from this lens, how disappointing later developments seem. The US becomes more capitalistic in its outlook than ever, the gap between rich and poor becomes ever wider, the word socialist itself becomes dirty. Perhaps this in itself is a reason why Dos Passos has been forgotten and many of his cohort have endured- his vision of the world in impassioned brotherhood has become far more out of fashion than that of Fitzgerald's dissipated dilettantes.

Well, the same format as the last book is in place here, but some new characters are introduced. My favorite new character is Daughter, the impetuous southern belle who manages to get herself into quite the fix over in Italy. Dos Passos seems very reluctant to offer his characters a happy ending- every scene seems to finish with all the characters sitting morose and deflated in a cab rattling over the rainslimy cobblestones of a gray Paris. But then, there seems to be something very honest about that.

The fact that the action in Europe takes place behind the front lines with protagonists involved in support fonctions to the war effort makes this narrative rather unique, as it sheds an unusually cast light on the US involvement in the WWI drama from a different angle and perspective. Following the engagement of some of the characters "back home" in the social movements that rocked that period is definitly enlighting, if not moving at times.
I enjoyed 1919 as much as I liked its predecessor "The 42nd Parallel". It is well written, forgiving dated grammar and period slang, and the unwelcome oddity of tyingwordstogetherinsentences. Whilst I greeted and consumed with interest the various newsreels with their often a-propos pieces of historical tidbits, the insipid, or at times, bizarre shooting by the Camera Eye got me annoyed more than once.
After closing this book, I felt I had reached a point where I fret to reach diminishing returns in my pleasure of following John Dos Passos in his journey. Hence, I have decided to pause two third along the way through his US Trilogy. I reckon I had grown weary of the style, the composition, the structure, and the absence of plot, Camera Eyes aside. I am more keen to read on novels set in the same era such as Ragtime, Manhattan Transfer, and Berlin AlexanderPlatz before picking up the last Trilogy piece; "The big Money". I should enjoy it then, when times is up. I particularly look forward to reading the bios of the barons Mellon, Rockfellers, Ford and co, as part of the narrative. And I may not bother with what the Camera Eye recordings are supposed to convey.

I have to admit, my eyes sort of glazed over a bit on the second volume. Sooooo many indistinct characters. But at least there's a fatal plane crash!

Bir o karakter bir bu karakter derken içimi şişiren kitap.

Okuma hızım Haziran'da çok iyiydi. Bu kitap halletti sağolsun. Tıkandım kaldım. Game of Thrones'un son sezonu gibi herkesin ışınlanmasına ise diyecek söz bulamıyorum. Tek bir sayfada bir karakter New York, Paris, Viyana gibi bir yolu kat edebiliyor. Ne bir paragraf, ne bir ayrım var. Tam o karakterin konumuna, hikayesine ayak uyduruyoruz ki hop! Başka bir karakteri doğumundan itibaren anlatmaya başlıyor. Bir 50-60 sayfa sonra geri ilk karaktere dön. Hatırlamaya çalış falan. Bu metod bir kitabın başlangıç bölümünde kullanılabilecek yenilikçi ve yaratıcı bir metod olabilir bunu kabul ediyorum ama sistemi bu şekilde kurunca kopuk kopuk bir hikaye kalıyor elimize işte.

Joyce benzeri anlatım tercih edilmiş olan "sine-göz" kısımlarını da maalesef beğenmedim. Bunda çevirinin de payı var mı bilemiyorum ama sadece "karışık kuruşuk iç ses cümleleri yazayım da sanat desinler" olmuş. Ben sizin yerinize okudum. Siz okumadan da geçebilirsiniz. Haber-film denilen kısımlar fena değil. Anlatılan dönemin gazete manşetlerinden bir potpori diyebilirim. Oraya da yazar şiir benzeri ilaveler yaparak James Joyce'a selam çakmış.

Bilmiyorum ya..

Amerika'lı olsam belki az da olsa bir şeylet ifade ederdi kitap benim için ama bu haliyle yerel bir eser olmaktan öteye geçemez bana göre.

Çeviriden kaynaklı çok büyük bir sorun daha var. Bazı özel yer adları türkçeye çevrilmiş. Çevrilmemesi gereken şeyler. Çok tuhaf olmul. Örneğin Rio de Jenario demiyor da, Jenario nehri diyor. Daha normal görünen diğer bir örnek ise Maddison Alanı. Allah'tan Yeni York diye bir şey okumadım. Bu kadar özel isim çevirmeye meraklı bir metin okuyunca bu durumun zıttı olmaz diye düşündüm evet. Onda da yanılmışım. Bu kez de "yol boyunca les miserables'ı okudu" gibi cümlelerle karşılaştım. Dip not yok. Sefiller yazmayacak kadar aslına sadık kalınmış bu noktada. Bu nasıl çeviri, nasıl tutarsızlık, nasıl editörlük anlamıyorum. Modern Klasikler serisinde hiç alışık olmadığım bir özensizlik bu.

Her şeyiyle üvey evlat bu seri. Son kitabını basmamaları isabet olmuş. En baştan toparlanması gerekiyor bu metinlerin. Yoksa oldukça başarısız. Ben şimdilik son kitabını okumayı düşünmüyorum. Karakterler zaten karıştı. Yani unuturum diye bir endişem yok. Bir ara belki okurum.

İyi gömdüm farkındayım ama 2020 itibariyle baakısı olmayan, sahaf eline düşmüş bu seriyi çok fazla merak eden olduğunu bildiğim için bu kadar keskin yazdım. Merak etmeyin, bulamadıysanız da fazla bir şey kaybetmiyorsunuz.

I'm not really interested in "reviewing" a classic novel but two things stand out for me: the closing chapter on the selection and internment of the Unknown Soldier, which sums up much of the cold anger of the entire book; and how relevant so much of the book remains to today, nearly 100 years later.

Glad I kept this on my list of "assigned college reading I skipped or skimmed but want to finish before I die."

Forgetting about, or never recognising in the first place, all the struggle and bloodshed, the people thrown into history's thresher, is an all too easy thing to do. Through using (at the time) cutting edge techniques of modernism (collage, cinematic montage, cut-ups 25 years before Burroughs), Dos Passos let's the conflicts, both personal, social and political, that comprise history lay waste to the lives of his characters.

These sorts of comparisons often can come off trite, but, I really think this book is more relevant now, post-2008, than at any point since the decline of unions' influence through the 80s and 90s into the 21st century. With wealth approaching the inequality of distribution as was seen at the turn of the 20th century, and costs of living increasing along with the precarity of employment, we're long overdue a 1919 of the 21st century, because, whether we know it or not, 83 years later, we still live in the story chronicled so deftly by Dos Passos in USA.

Im reading this trilogy - which was a gift from my father. This is one of his favorite authors. I liked the first one better. 1919 is pretty depressing - it’s set in WWI but there is no war here - just people around the war. The characters are all dull and boorish - which I think is part of the authors point. The class analysis is very cool but I know there were people with class consciousness that also understood race and gender - this author isn’t one of them.