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Manhattan Transfer (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
A portrait of New York City, drawn by describing the interconnected lives of dozens of people - bankers, chefs, bums, cabdrivers and others. Written in an impressionistic style, with vivid descriptions and bursts of overheard conversation, it has more in common with films than traditional novels.
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First Sentence
Three gulls wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled cabbage heads that heave between the splintered plank walls, the green waves spume under the round bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, crashes, gulps the broken water, slides, settles slowly into the slip. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Three gulls wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled cabbage heads that heave between the splintered plank walls, the green waves spume under the round bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, crashes, gulps the broken water, slides, settles slowly into the slip. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Now we are post credit-crunch this is probably a very good time to read this unusual American novel. At times it was hard to believe that Manhattan Transfer is describing the New York of 80+ years ago, so contemporary did it sometimes feel to me. The blurb on the back implies it is a novel about early 20's N.Y., but this is rather inaccurate. My grasp of history is not good enough to be precise, but the story certainly spans a period of over twenty years, and only reaches the twenties in the third of the three sections into which it is divided.
The prose style is idiosyncratic to say the least: the author loves creating German-style compound words, and frequently employs very individual spelling and punctuation. Some people might want to employ the dread phrase "prose poem" to describe it. The novel flits from character to character every few pages, sometimes even more often, with many appearing only once (so that very often I found it necessary to rifle through the earlier pages to try to confirm whether a character had appeared previously, and to see what had happened to him or her before)
This novel will probably tax the patience of many readers, but though I found it difficult to read more than 10 or 20 pages in one sitting, I was determined to finish it. I enjoy meeting people in pubs, even if I never see them again, and so I felt very comfortable with this book, because much of it is set in bars or restaurants, and characters are presented very vividly whether or not they will reappear later, and with something of the same intensity that one drink too many sometimes brings about. Although the city of New York always dominates over the humans I found the characterisation very satisfying.
Dos Passos was more or less contemporary with F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Manhattan Transfer is, like the Great Gatsby, a book about New York and the American Dream. I far preferred Manhattan Transfer - I don't "get" Gatsby, and it is a mystery to me why it is so highly thought of. Though Manhattan Transfer occasionally drags, and though I sometimes wished for the kind of notes present in "real" Penguin Classics, I am very glad to have been introduced to this book. If you know nothing more about it try the "Look Inside" facility, as this gives a good impression of what you are in for if you decide to read this fascinating novel.
The prose style is idiosyncratic to say the least: the author loves creating German-style compound words, and frequently employs very individual spelling and punctuation. Some people might want to employ the dread phrase "prose poem" to describe it. The novel flits from character to character every few pages, sometimes even more often, with many appearing only once (so that very often I found it necessary to rifle through the earlier pages to try to confirm whether a character had appeared previously, and to see what had happened to him or her before)
This novel will probably tax the patience of many readers, but though I found it difficult to read more than 10 or 20 pages in one sitting, I was determined to finish it. I enjoy meeting people in pubs, even if I never see them again, and so I felt very comfortable with this book, because much of it is set in bars or restaurants, and characters are presented very vividly whether or not they will reappear later, and with something of the same intensity that one drink too many sometimes brings about. Although the city of New York always dominates over the humans I found the characterisation very satisfying.
Dos Passos was more or less contemporary with F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Manhattan Transfer is, like the Great Gatsby, a book about New York and the American Dream. I far preferred Manhattan Transfer - I don't "get" Gatsby, and it is a mystery to me why it is so highly thought of. Though Manhattan Transfer occasionally drags, and though I sometimes wished for the kind of notes present in "real" Penguin Classics, I am very glad to have been introduced to this book. If you know nothing more about it try the "Look Inside" facility, as this gives a good impression of what you are in for if you decide to read this fascinating novel.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
A superb novel to read, and then re-read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having heard about this author relatively recently I was keen to read some of his work.
I had been forewarned that he uses a kind of cut and paste technique to give an impression of a diversity of characters living their busy lives together in a bustling city, and I rather liked that idea. However, in practice I found the individual storylines just a little to fragmented to carry me along. I had such little time with the characters I just had no real empathy for them. In fact for me the experience really was like being in a very large group of people in that the faces of the characters and all the things that might make them individual to us were simply lost in the confusion of the crowd. Furthermore it really did seem to me that like the old cliche, they were all busy going nowhere.
I had been forewarned that he uses a kind of cut and paste technique to give an impression of a diversity of characters living their busy lives together in a bustling city, and I rather liked that idea. However, in practice I found the individual storylines just a little to fragmented to carry me along. I had such little time with the characters I just had no real empathy for them. In fact for me the experience really was like being in a very large group of people in that the faces of the characters and all the things that might make them individual to us were simply lost in the confusion of the crowd. Furthermore it really did seem to me that like the old cliche, they were all busy going nowhere.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Underwhelming...
I recently got into a mini-debate on this very site about the merits of Portuguese-American writer John Dos Passos' `Manhattan Transfer' versus that of one of my most revered works... Read more
Published 3 months ago by BlestMiss T
excellent
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I haven't finished it yet and am trying to slow my reading of it because I do not know what I will do when I am finished! Read more
Published 15 months ago by Wee Shook
A Great Collection of Characters
A great book. I love that great collection of characters that have occasionally an entangled life. They live for money, success but they don't find love and happiness. Read more
Published 16 months ago by SergeEscudé
a fantastic read
I presented this book as one of 4 with 'New York' as the theme for choice at a book group and was surprised that it was chosen as it sounded a little 'odd' from the reviews I took... Read more
Published on 30 May 2010 by heyjude
A Different Read
From the outset you know you're reading something expansive, something just as massive and varied as the city of Manhattan itself. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2009 by Brian Ó Cuinn
Worth persevering with...
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2002 by r.g.stares@swansea.ac.uk
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