USA: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / the Big Money (Library of America) [Hardcover]

This one volume version of 'USA' trilogy must surely rank along with all the greatest American works of literature; it's a truly breathtaking panorama of one of the most turbulent times of American and world history. The book works on several levels. First, as a fiction, it is gripping, compelling, with often fast-paced action; the reader will fly through it. The characterization is grand, with cleverly interplayed action as protagonists meet and re-meet against the awesome backdrop of the political and historical turmoil that inspires but often wrecks their own ambitions and dreams. Of the characters, the sailor, Joe Williams, is by far the best, and Dos Passos writes well at getting into his thoughts, though not in a overly detailed intellectual way, that may leave some readers thinking that Dos Passos was a bit light on the deeper feelings - but that would not have fitted the style; what could be more expressive than when Joe feels "all funny inside", unable to articulate but able to 'feel' his emotions? One slight gripe is that several of characters become a bit similar; too many young men passing through the American Red Cross and through the plot - the author's own experiences coming out in too many of his characters.

The next level is as a social history. If someone is looking to find out how things were in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century then (I guess) this book is for them. By the time the reader has finished this book, they'll be pretty well informed about the politics and history of the time. The snippets of headlines and popular songs also add to the colour. One fascinating aspect for me as a Briton was how the Americans were viewed in Britain prior to their entering the war in 1917; Dos Passos' view on the British is a little irreverent though highly amusing.

A third level of the book is as a critique of America and this is invaluably aided by the short biographies of some of the nation's movers and shakers - the 'hands that built America' if you like - scientists, politicians, workers' rights activists, architects, mavericks. Dos Passos shows us both the strengths and weaknesses of the nation. Industrial might but a disturbing picture of how anyone who wishes to help the workers is treated by the system and the industrialists; the irony of being against (often falsely reported) German barbarism in the war and the reason for entering the conflict while silently condoning the murder of domestic strikers and once the war is over, how national hatred is turned on communists, culminating (in the book) in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial - two Italian immigrants sentenced to death on dubious evidence. America is depicted as a highly successful dictatorship, masquerading under the name of democracy, but still the land of opportunity and dreams - the American Dream. America sustains them but then beats them down. Woodrow Wilson is shown as a rather naive but hypocritical man: he wins an election on being anti-imperialist but sends Black Jack Pershing to invade Mexico; he's re-elected to keep America out of WWI. These lessons are extremely relevant for today and we see how Wilson's ideals impede the proto-neocons in their thirst for oil and their jealousy of, in this case, the British Empire as it snaffles up oil from the Middle East to Baku while Wilson, blind in his own idealism and sense of his righteousness, is led by the unscrupulous Lloyd George and Clemenceau at the Treaty of Versailles. The reader will see that absolutely nothing has changed in American politics, and I feel that is one of Dos Passos' messages; or rather, from Lincoln and the Civil War to the birth of American imperialism there had been a great change, but now it can only get worse as Lincoln's ideals are replaced by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt's belligerence.

The biggest mystery is why is this book so unread? Perhaps its length, but then people still read 'War & Peace'. Technically, Hemingway and particularly Faulkner look pretty shaky against Dos Passos, perhaps even Steinbeck - Dos Passos is simply a better writer. Perhaps it's the writer's own name, and people are put off by his Portuguese name, thinking the work is a translation?! I don't know. Maybe because he often offers no hope, no deus ex machina - most of the characters have pretty miserable ends! But I do know that this book is a rewarding read and book you'll love to read again. It's also enjoyable just to re-read the favourite parts and make your own book from them, as the characters easily slip into and out of each other's lives. It should be every reader's didactic mission to 'tell as many people as possible about this book'.

Dos Passos’ ‘USA’ trilogy was published in the 1930s, and chronicles the lives of a few ordinary Americans in the years during and following WWI. Although the USA celebrates 1776 as the year of its birth, in one sense the modern world superpower was being forged in the first few decades of last century (the period covered by this book), as immigrants came in their millions and the first skyscrapers went up in New York, heralding its conversion from a dingy port to a major city. Even as it was changing as a country, the USA was making political and ideological choices that have shaped the last 100 years of its (and the world’s) history. ‘USA’ is a fictional examination of the attempt (and, ultimately, failure) of socialist groups to influence the development of the country, something that seems almost unthinkable today. It paints a picture of a politically diverse country struggling with its choices, and a country that could easily look very different today.
The book itself follows the lives of a few characters, examples of ordinary, unremarkable Americans, from their birth to their deaths, as they try to find their places in the burgeoning USA. As they make their way in life they encounter the temptations and promises offered by capitalism, socialism and consumerism. Although the book purports to be biographies of these people, it is really about how they are affected by, and try to change, the prevailing political winds, and how modern, capitalist America was born. Their stories are interspersed with short biographies of real historical figures (such as Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Edison), a powerful way of juxtaposing the ‘little’ people with the ‘big’ ones, and showing the nexus within which they interact. The characters of the main stories also criss-cross each other’s paths; sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely, adding to the ‘One Nation’ feel. There are also ‘camera eye’ pieces (short prose poems from American life) and ‘Newsreels’ (cinema-style shorts re-telling the news of the day). All of these are combined in an attempt to create a biography of a whole nation in the 1910s and 1920s. We are left with a fascinating left-wing view of the USA that history has largely confined to the dustbin.
‘USA’ is a hugely ambitious book, and one, I thought, that didn’t always succeed. There were just too many distinct narratives, too many stories being told, and I found it difficult to keep track. I thought that the book overcomplicated a fairly simple point, and didn’t need to be a 1200 page epic which, I must be honest, got a little bogged down in places. Also, I found that Dos Passos’ book fell between two ideas: one in which it tried to be a comprehensive biography of the USA in the 1920s, and one in which it told its story from the perspective of the socialist movement. It tried to do both and ended up doing neither especially well, in my opinion. However, the structure (stories interspersed with Biographies, Newsreels and Camera Eyes) was brilliantly realised, painting a detailed picture of one perspective of early twentieth century USA. There were some sublime moments of prose, not least concerning the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti (Italian-American socialists executed for murder in what was almost certainly a political act), in which the socialists realise that they are beaten, and that America will be run by their enemies for the foreseeable future. This passage, which begins ‘So we are defeated, America...’ is perhaps the finest prose I have ever read; a heartrending and lonely cry, and extremely beautiful. Moments like this made reading the whole book worthwhile.
I don’t think it really matters what your political view is, or your opinion of where America is at now, to appreciate ‘USA’. It was fascinating (for me) just to know that socialism has ever existed as a significant force in the domestic politics of America, and also to see how modern America was born from the choices it was making in the decades covered by this book. The book is obviously written with socialist sympathies (though it should be noted that Dos Passos turned to right-wing Republicanism at the end of his life) but it is more about the possibilities that existed as a nation was born. It was undoubtedly a bit of a slog. I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t be doing so again. However, if you are prepared to put the work in, there is a fantastic novel about an America that no longer exists (and most people assume never existed) hiding in there somewhere.

The Dos Passos trilogy USA is an amazing literary achievement. The author immerses ficcional characters in the American History. All this is featured blending newsreels, popular American culture and icon American historical individuals. John Dos Passos puts his ficcional characters in historical situations, giving to the reader an impressive way of observing the development of American society from the end of nineteen century to the thirties. Each ficcional character acts under the real circumstances of events. What is amazing is that the author, mixing a lot of different devices (news, folksongs, cinema events, press statements and so on and so forth), does not for a moment loses the overwhelming poetic pathos of his narratives.

Each ficcional character is, notwithsanding, free/responsible for the options she takes. Their failures are the result of their individual shortcomings. It is why Dos Passos work is not only a hymn to the solidarity among the outcasts but also an extremely vivid defense of individualism.

The author style is extremely experimental, transporting with it an enormous sense of modernity (speedness, novelty but also individual frustration).

Moreover, the USA allows the reader to grasp the mood of American society during not only the period encompassed by the trilogy but also today: e.g., the press influence to create a favourable environment to an external intervention, the propaganda framework trying to diminish the humanity of the occasional American foe,etc.are invariants of American power nowadays.

The text, as referred, is extremely poetic and gives a tender room to the footlosers of American society. In fact it sounds as a pessimistic undertaking about North America lost of innocence (the historical period 'narrated' corresponds to the transformation of USA into a Superpower).

It is recurrent in some American literary circles to discuss which is the best American Novel. Consideing this kind of bad taste contest as acceptable, the John Dos Passos' trilogy should be very well fitted to fill that honour.