The 42nd Parallel: Volume One of the U.S.A. Trilogy (U.S.A. Trilogy, 1)

The first book in the U.S.A. trilogy by American author John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel, was published in 1930. The trilogy continues in the novel entitled 1919 and concludes with The Big Money. If this first volume is an accurate indication of the series as a whole, the U.S.A. trilogy is one of the best written and most important works in American literature of the early 20th century, on a par with great American novels like John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.The 42nd Parallel is a modern Balzacian overview and critique of American society in the first two decades of the 20th century, with a special focus on the class struggle between capital and labor. Stylistically, it combines the muckraking naturalism of works by Upton Sinclair, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser with the cinematic modernism of Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.Although, like Steinbeck, Dos Passos clearly has leftist leanings, this is not a propaganda novel but rather a kaleidoscopic rendering of socioeconomic reality at a crucial time in the history of American labor. Dos Passos writes of Socialism not with the stridently hopeful enthusiasm of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, but rather with the nostalgic melancholy of a lost cause.Dos Passos constructs the book in a collage-like format. The bulk of the text consists of chapters that chart the individual lives of a handful of characters from childhood through education (or lack thereof) to their entry into the workforce and their subsequent struggle or rise. As the title indicates, the characters gravitate towards cities along the 42nd parallel of latitude—New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh—though the narrative occasionally wanders as far afield as Mexico. Each protagonist navigates the sociopolitical landscape to pursue the American Dream in his or her own way, whether that means striking it rich in big business, living independently as a single woman, or working to promote the cause of Socialism. The unflinching, nothing-is-sacred realism with which Dos Passos writes these lives is remarkable. The intricate narratives vividly illuminate the time period in question, yet readers of today will still find much to identify with in these characters’ experiences, making for a very compelling read.Interspersed between these meaty chapters are shorter vignettes, including “Newsreels” that combine snippets of newspaper headlines, popular song lyrics, and radio journalism to offer glimpses into the historical events and general atmosphere of the time. The sections entitled “The Camera Eye” are free-form stream-of-consciousness prose poems that resemble personal reflections or dialogues between unnamed characters. Dos Passos also periodically inserts a brief biographical sketch of an important historical figure from the world of industry, labor, politics, or finance, such as Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Edison, Bob La Follette, and Andrew Carnegie. The “Camera Eye” sections often get overly self-indulgent in their surrealist beat-poetry aesthetic, but the “Newsreels” and biographies really do enlarge the reader’s understanding of the times.Judging by this first book, it would seem the U.S.A. trilogy is not so much a trilogy at all but rather one big novel divided into three volumes. The 42nd Parallel can’t really stand on its own as a complete work of literature. There is no ending to the book nor endings to any of the narrative threads within. Instead, it’s a book comprised of beginnings. Nevertheless, I don’t fault Dos Passos for that because after having read The 42nd Parallel I certainly want to read the next two books to find out what happens to these characters and experience more of the author’s innovative re-creation of this pivotal period in American history.

The most fascinating aspect of Dos Passos’s writing is it is always street-level, using the eyes of men and women moving both through their personal journeys and through the life of a family, a city, and a nation. It is amazing what you can learn of history as the characters act on their own beliefs (or lack of same), and rub shoulders with all types of characters, from Communists to principled politicians. Also intriguing are his uses of free verse “The Camera’s Eye” which is a run-on observation which seems to have little to no bearing to the storytelling, yet is always fascinating. And he also has brief sections that are snippets of headlines, news copy, and song lyrics.I cannot wait to read the next book in the trilogy. For perhaps a one-of-a-kind reading experience, I cannot recommend this book more highly.

No doubt Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner deserve their renown but, perhaps, our daunting even deadly times demand we read their compatriot John Dos Passos. The one who gets the least attention of the four now deserves the most. The timing is right for USA, a three-part novel that’s relevant to our tweets, to our headlines. From Mac in THE 42nd PARALLEL crossing the El Paso-Juarez bridge; to “The Body of an American” in 1919 interred at Arlington National Cemetery; to labor advocate Mary French in THE BIG MONEY organizing yet another protest after Eddy Spellman is shot dead. The Dos Passos narrative method cross breeds novelist and chronicler to enhance both fiction and nonfiction, a hybridization worthy of Luther Burbank.While the concerns of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner characters are largely private, those of Dos Passos characters are often public: social, political, economical, ethical, moral. At the same time his canvas is so broad it includes the opposition. There may be revolution in the air but there’s counter-revolution in the shadows and it’s a doozy. This novel tries to encompass all of society within the segregated realities that word meant in 1930’s America. No surprise Dos Passos himself begins as a socialist and ends as a Goldwater republican. That’s the American way. Or one of them anyway. As the Europeans so kindly point out: America has two political parties, both being conservative.Your smart phone will help elucidate many of the Newsreels and help you bone up on the Dos Passos biography for The Camera Eyes. Both will remain a challenge for you, as they are meant to be. James Joyce did the same and, for Dos Passos, served as a modern model as Defoe and Thackeray served as his traditional models.Does the system, whatever system it may be, and that system’s big interests, control our lives? Hell, if they did back then it’s a cinch they do now. What controls you? Maybe that phone in your hand. Maybe even this very website. Saul Bellow: “It’s true enough that a simple belief in progress goes with a deformed conception of human nature.”

Dos Passos`s unique writing style gives a rich dimension to his work. rather than focus on a character or story line a mosaic of characters help define a place, a time, a nation. Juxtaposed between narrative chapters are vignettes of biographies of men who shaped the time, news clippings, and an inner lens into the author himself. Together these form a rich tapestry of America from a worthy viewpoint that sees the struggle of the working class and the excesses and manipulations of the ruling class. Excellent.

Um rico painel sobre os Estados Unidos no início do século XX - antes das políticas de bem-estar social. A erosão de valores tradicionais (família, religião), o ocaso da vida semi-rural, o homem e a mulher comuns lutando para se manter à tona num mundo impessoal cada vez mais regido pelo dinheiro, a luta inglória de socialistas e anarquistas, o alpinismo social - numa prosa gostosa de se ler.

L'image affichée n'est pas conforme (l'édition est ancienne: les pages sont jaunies, si vous voulez un beau bouquin les éditions plus récentes sont mieux; mais l'avantage de cette édition ce sont les dessins de l'édition d'origine ^^) mais super lecture sinon ^^

The rating I have given for this book has nothing to do with its form of literature. I do not like its message which is so complex and vast that turning it into a socio/cultural manifesto inevitably will divide, rather than unite us.

Although interesting in its own right this is one of the novels known to have influenced Adam Curtis, perhaps one of our most gifted documentary makers. This novel also shares that clear vision of the truth behind the body of lies which is the Establishment.