(read this on gutenberg, so idk what the edition is.)

disappointingly uneven; had potential, didn't follow through. i mostly agree with this review, highfalutin' as it is, because i ended up skimming through the last third (which was nearly all andrews) - the character felt more like a prop than a person.

certainly has some great atmosphere in the pre-war scenes and at the front. it shows that this guy knows what he's talking about and that he has the writing skill to present it with a bit more beauty than war deserves. i may go back to this book for bits and pieces, or reference, but it's unlikely i'll read it properly.

About a 3.4 actually.

WWI book steeped in realism. It's main focus is how an individual gets lost in the war machine.

کتاب سه سرباز بر خلاف آنچیزی که در تبلیغات و حاشیه کتاب آمده، اصلاً کتابی ضدجنگ نیست. این کتاب تلاش می‌کند چهره‌ای میانه از جنگ ارائه کند و آنرا ابزاری برای رسیدن به اهداف شخصی نشان دهد. دوس پاسوس که خودش تجربه حضور در جنگ جهانی اول را به عنوان پزشک داشته، با آگاهی می‌داند که دارد از چه چیزی صحبت می‌کند. روایت سه سرباز از سه طبقه مختلف مردم ایالات متحده امریکا که همه‌شان بعد از نزاع‌های داخلی، بی هدف هستند. سه طبقه‌ای که هم بین‌شان عیاش هست، هم تحصیلکرده و هم سودجو. طبقه‌ای که به اجبار وارد ماشین جنگی شده‌اند و بدون هدف در حال رشد شخصیتی در این میانه هستند. ما در این کتاب هیچ چهره‌ای از جنگ و کراهت آن نمیبینیم. تنها چیزی که به خواننده منتقل می‌شود «نبودن دلیل» برای این کشتار است. سرباز امریکایی نمی‌داند چرا باید در حمایت از مردم فرانسه به جنگ قیصر آلمان برود. سرباز امریکایی می‌گوید این کشتار بدون هدف است، اگر هدف مشخصی به من بدهید، بیشتر خواهم کشت. «هر کسی که با این زبان - آلمان - صحبت می‌کردند را بکشید!» یا «کلاه‌خود آلمانی‌ها چجوریه؟ اونهارو تو فیلم دیدم!» یا «به ما گفتن میریم بجنگیم دنیا رو برای دموکراسی امن کنیم! دموکراسی! آره- دموکراسی اینه!». سرباز امریکایی مردم دنیا را بدون هویت می‌داند وقتی می‌گوید: «هر یک دقیقه یک هالو به دنیا می‌آد!» یا اصلا به تمدن و تاریخ بشری اعتقادی ندارد؛ «تمدن چیزی نبود جز بنای بزرگی از دروغ و جنگ - آدم‌ها وقتی همدیگر را می‌کشند انسان‌ترند تا وقتی از آن سخن می‌گویند». نویسنده اتفاقا دارد در این کتاب فردیت را معنا می‌کند. دارد تلاش می‌کند تا بوسیله ماشین جنگ، سربازان را رشد دهد و به چیزی که آرزویش را دارند برساند. «فاتحه فردیت خوانده شده بود! چه دیکتاتور از بالا برنده می‌شد چه سازمان خودانگیخته از پایین!». دوس پاسوس با آگاهی از شرایط اجتماعی و سیاسی ایالات متحده اتفاقا با قلم خودش خواسته مانیفستی را برای تبلیغ و معرفی فردگرایی و آزادی فردی و یا به بیان ساده‌تر زندگی لیبرالی عرضه کند. در میان هم ماشین جنگ می‌شود یک ابزار برای رشد و تعالی همان فرد مستاصل. خلاصه که کتاب «سه سرباز» نه تنها در تقبیح جنگ و ضدجنگ نیست، بلکه دارد به جنگ هدف می‌بخشد. هدفی فردی و برای رساندن خواننده به جامعه لیبرالیسم.

در انتها، این کتاب رو دوست داشتم، نه به خاطر تفکری که القا میکرد، یا نگاهش به جنگ، صرفاً به خاطر توانایی نویسنده در گفتن چیزی که بهش اعتقاد داشت.

There were once three soldiers of The Great War. And three characters that I can't say I really cared about. Maybe it's because after 450+ pages, I still hadn't figured out what made them tick. What makes that odd is that they spent the entire book lost in introspection and talking about themselves.

They did a lot of eating and talking about what they missed about home. They huddled up to keep warm and discussed how they couldn't wait to get to the front. Then they drank cognac at small cafes and talked some more.

This is the only war book I've ever read that had no combat scenes.

On the plus side, the author is a master at describing scenery:

The sun had set. The sky was full of lilac and bright purple and carmine. Among the deep blue shadows lights were coming on, primrose-colored street lamps, violet arc lights, ruddy sheets of light poured out of shop windows.

Another scene I liked was where one soldier stepped out of a his marching platoon to watch some frogs in a puddle - a simple, perfect moment of life set against slaughter.

The book had a very modern feel to it, and a good, but dispiriting ending.

Manhattan Transfer now sits glaring at me from the shelf. I'll get to it one of these days. Maybe.

One of the great joys in my life are the friends who send me books. Thankful to my friend, Steve, for sending me this classic.

A peer of Hemingway and Faulkner, Dos Passos shares a story based on his own experience as an ambulance driver in World War I. The tone of his book is less like others in the Lost Generation, and more like Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O'Brien, veterans of wars that came after "the war to end all wars".

Dreamy, inexplicable behavior by three soldiers in WWI. They all come to bad ends for no particular reason, seemingly compelled by mental weakness. One wonders why one continues reading

It is mostly about one World War 1 soldier, written in 1921. He is a Harvard grad, a musician, in the war as an enlisted man. There was less emphasis than I expected on the experiences in battle, but the chapters on the war were powerful. Three Soldiers is more about about the loss of freedom one experiences in the army, which brought back memories of my experience as a Vietnam era draftee. I guess when published the book was controversial in its realistic, non-romantic view of the common soldier's experience. It did not seem in the least controversial today.
Dos Passos was in the war himself after graduating from Harvard, so I suspect this is a very personal view of the war.

A very “young” work, emotionally immature and also poorly constructed; did Dos Passos even have an outline or plan for it? It’s about three soldiers only nominally as most of it is about John Andrews, a Harvard man, aspiring composer who rebels against any exercise of authority from the army to social propriety; everything “enslaves” him. The war ends half way through and the rest is devoted to Andrew’s trying to find himself in Paris. His inchoate anti authoritarianism, it’s hardly radicalism, bounces him from situation to situation and things don’t turn out well. A lot of this reads as an exercise book in which Dos Passos was trying out themes and techniques for his later novels. The descriptions, such as of men marching, weighed down by packs or the Parisian scene are very well done.

I'm not sure I found this actually 4-stars-worthy, but it was definitely more than 3 stars. It didn't change my life, but it was good. And damn, that ending!

My first experience with Dos Passos and I am looking forward to reading 1919 now. It really reminded me of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, not in subject but in outlook and desperation of character. Each of the three soldiers ends up in his own desperate straits and finds their own way to a conclusion. What happens to them during the war and how their inner fortitude or lack of it help or hinder their progress makes for a heartbreaking story.

Hauntingly beautiful....this is not a thriller per se.....but I truly enjoyed it and the ending....blew me away.