So, book 2 of the 'USA' Trilogy complete. I must say book 1 'The 42nd Parallel' had a cooler title and I actually preferred it by a small margin over 1919. Maybe I got a little bored with some of the idiotic characters. They are probably believable as human beings but a bit too irritating at times. Like real people however--dishonest, scared, selfish, unsure of themselves and the world around them. But they sure drink a lot! Both upper and lower classes--I wonder how they will all handle Prohibition in book 3, 'The Big Money'! I do not predict much teetotaling..lol. Anyway the literary devices of 'Camera Eye' and 'Newsreels' are back and interesting but often opaque. Some review noted that the 'newsreels' are akin to an early form of social media, can't disagree there. The book is all about WW1 and the immediate aftermath (the Treaty of Versailles talks) and Americas entry and influence. I consider the U.S. decision to enter on the side of the Allies one of the great catastrophes of history, leading in a not very irregular path to WW2 and the subsequent American empire that we dominating the world today. The American entry permitted the French/British powers to place 100% of the post-war guilt on Germany--which is profoundly untrue for anyone who has studied the long lead up to August, 1914. I think Dos Passos sensed this but obviously much harder to do back then close to the events. His disdain for the capitalist powers and system is evident however throughout '1919' but much of that owes to his leftist political ideas and repulsion at victorious power land grabs all over the world, especially for oil. His sympathy with the U.S. Labor movement of the time is everywhere on display and again any objective reading of that time would have to agree with him. He also seemed to admire the the Bolshevik Revolution, or at least many of his characters do and some saw it (see it in the book) as the dawn of a new age for mankind. Others were too busy getting wasted or laid, but that is life too! Dos Passos was not alone (along with some of the characters) in this also profound misreading of the events of 1917-1921 in Russia. It turns out that state control of labor is actually more dangerous than that of the industrialists, although that was perhaps not clear in 1920. Anyway, then there are the short bios that I preferred most in '1919'. Some are of famous people of the day--Woodrow Wilson ('Meester Veelson'), Teddy R ('The Happy Warrior'). and JP Morgan (House of Morgan) but also lesser known luminaries such as John Reed (Playboy and famous of the movie 'Reds' and his iconic account of the October events in 1917 called 'Ten Days That Shook the World'), Randolph Bourne (the crippled writer, who coined the phrase: 'War is the health of the state'--so true!), Paxton Hibben (A Hoosier Quixote--journalist and eventual victim of anti-Red hysteria) , Joe Hill (Industrial Workers of the World or IWW aka the "Wobblies" and also a victim of anti-Labor hatred in the U.S.). These short bios are both clever and informative and and work very well despite (because?) Dos Passos renunciation of most grammar rules, silly things like capital letters, paragraphs, etc. These are really mini-masterpieces! There is insight and edginess (cynicism and respect, depending on who is being extolled or eviscerated) to these mini bios that really raises the level of the entire work and I will actually be adding a star in recognition of that, even though I said I liked '42nd' better and only gave 3. Humans!

"tWhere its chest ought to have been they pinned
tthe Congressional Medal, the D.S.C., the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, the Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania, the Czechoslovak war cross, the Virtuti Militari of the Poles, a wreath sent by Hamilton Fish, Jr., of New York, and a little wampum presented by a deputation of Arizona redskins in warpaint and feathers. All the Washingtonians bought flowers.

tWoodroow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies."

Dos Passos really knows how to portray the distinct fragments forming the American social fabric at the beginning of the 20th century. In the second book of his U.S.A. trilogy, 1919, the author now focuses on the context lived throughout World War I. New main characters take the baton from those in The 42nd Parallel — though some of the latter are still present in secondary roles — and are used to depict the different dreams and hassles distinct components of American society are to face. Whether they come from humble or wealthy origins, men or women, conservative or more progressive, all characters, their actions and social relations give the colours of a society which, through its individuals, is trying to frenetically find its growth and glory to match and fit in the conceived nation-building path.

As in the first book, Dos Passos once again employs distinct narrative styles that aim to give diverse perspectives on the context: the more typical omniscient narrator separately telling the lives of the five main characters; the newsreel approach giving a glimpse of national and international news with fragments of news titles, paragraphs, poems and songs; the 'Camera Eye' — the most peculiar one and, perhaps, the only hard one to both follow and understand — and the short bios of distinct characters that cemented or symbolised American hopes, lies and struggles.

A harsh critique of the capitalist path the United States had chosen to follow, a caress to the struggles of the working class in its fights and defeats, the depiction of the real barriers standing between the common American individual and the American dream, the book touches upon all of these and more in times of global war.

1919 is a really good book and a delight to read. The final bio of the Unknown Soldier, truly aiming to represent the plethora of characters and upbringings from every corner of the United States, is a sublime, conclusive critique: a deconstruction of the sorts of the very symbolism it is meant to uphold, it exposes how the oligarchy sustains nation-building myths to preserve the illusion of the American dream.

As I said about "The 42nd Parallel," there is no doubt that is is a great book. But there were only parts that really moved me, while some chunks just left me scratching my head and wondering -- why?
That said, I think I enjoyed "1919" more than "The 42nd Parallel."