His magnum opus, John Dos Passos's U.S.A. Trilogy is an expansive, and, at times, impressionistic, literary equivalent of a Diego Rivera mural for big-picture reach. Comprised of three titles--The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and Big Money—it covers the first quarter of the twentieth century, and obviously WWI. Weighing in at 1,251 pages for the editions I read, the U.S.A. Trilogy is nonetheless a real page-turner--for great literature lets you read much more with less effort.
Dos Passos uses a multi-pronged approach to filling out his literary canvas. Four types of chapters, but used consistently across the novels. An impressionistic THE CAMERA EYE (XX) reports: "a squirrel was scolding in the whiteoak but the Pennypacker girls all the young ladies in their best hats singing the anthem who were the Molly Maguires? thoughts, bulletholes in an old barn mine pits black skeleton tipples ..." (p. 112, The 42nd Parallel). A collagist NEWSREEL (XX) combines found text (actual newspaper headlines), free form prose, and snatches of poetry to give the reader the Zeitgeist.
A third technique, and a favorite, are short bios of era notables. Revealing, factual, and imaginatively told portraits of, say, William Jennings Bryant ("The Boy Orator of the Platte") or Steinmetz of General Electric ("Proteus), but two of many across the trilogy.
The fourth and traditional technique is straight-ahead character-driven narratives about ordinary people caught up in the river of humanity's folly, triumph, and insanity. But these narratives have Dos Passos’s twist, signalling his confidence in the literary mural he’s served up. For so often, the story of a Mac, a Janey, an Eleanor Stoddard, a Charley Anderson ends, snaps off, without any resolution, without the meaning of a “bow tie.”
Yet, these page-turning, absorbing lives we read about that end inconclusively are not the disappointments we would have in other novels. We’re in this great sweep of a mural that is all of America. Would one life make a difference?
In the U.S.A. foreword, E. L. Doctorow states Jean-Paul Sartre found it was “exactly in the novel's refusal to redeem its characters that he found its [U.S.A.’s] greatness." Or in the existentialist philosopher's words, "The pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container does not depend on the individual histories of the molecules composing it."
Read the U.S.A. Trilogy for its scope of the American experience and adventurous literary technique with a surprisingly contemporary feel.
The 42nd Parallel, 1919, Big Money, all by John Dos Passos, Foreword by E. L. Doctorow. All First Mariner Books editions, 2000.
Image credit: loa.org.
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
more posts
9:19:20 milkboneboxershorts@yahoogle
Labor Day 9:7:20 The Essential Essential Workers
7:19:20 A Russian Journal, a book review
6:19:20 DUI
5:16:20 Renan's Life of Jesus, a book review
4:25:20 Leatherman Micra, a tool review
3:24:20 Survival Tool, Then & Now
3:2:20 The Plague, a book review
2:28:20 Next Car?
12:22:20 Amazon Effects
12:18:19 Modern Times, Today
11:25:19 Who Killed Civil Society?, a book review
10:25:19 Working at the Food Pantry
9:30:19 Remembering Hal Blaine (1929--2019)
8:24:19 Losing Earth, a book review,
8:18:19 Library-Genesis & Parasitic Paywalls
7:25:19 Disposal Problems
5:18:19 My New Summer Sandals
4:22:19 The 3-Speeder
3:19:19 My Jewish Bloodline
3:3:19 Does Portland Have Tenements in Its Future?
2:3:19 Garage & Garbage
1:26:19 Genial Coarseness
1:7:19 One Writer's Tools
12:20:18 Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering, a book review
12:16:18 Reading Plan 2018, a Resolution Kept
11:14:18 "A House Divided," an essay
10:27:18 How to Act Rich
9:1:18 The Self-Service Library in Bigfoot Country
8:9:18 Bicycling in the Path of Self-Righteousness
7:28:18 Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America, a DVD review
6:23:18 Why Honor Matters, a book review
5:26:18 Men Without Women, a book review
5:23:18 Haircuts
4:22:18 Why I Shred Junk Mail
4:4:18 Keeping My New Year Resolution
3:24:18 Extreme Water Conservation: Payoff
2:14:18 My Shaving Kit Comes Full Circle
1:23:18 Extreme Water Conservation
12:23:17 Lenin: The Man, The Dictator, and the Master of Terror, a book review
11:27:17 Mapping the Ether, or the Topography
of a Webpage in Real Time
11:21:17 To Save, or Spend, Change
11:13:17 uzbl & "Faster Dial-Up" Redux
10:29:17 The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement
Became the World's Largest Religion, a book review
10:23:17 Running a Laptop off a $1 Thumbdrive
10:14:17 In Pursuit of the $1 Thumbdrive
10:5:17 Zabriskie Point
9:30:17 19th Century-Style Photographic Prints
7:2:17 DIY Prescription Eyeglasses
6:22:17 Free Geek: "helping the needy get nerdy"
5:27:17 Reading My Great Grandfather's 1868 Diary
4:27:17 The Bickford Fuse, a book review
4:14:17 Why I, Too, Will Not Fly United Airlines Again, Ever.
3:21:17 The Revelation to John
3:4:17 FUD
1:29:17 A Platonic Slide Into Tyranny
12:29:16 We Wanted Workers, a book review
12:10:16 Popular Mechanics Magazine, May 1933, a review
11:27:16 Deoderant Confession
11:10:16 Grisi Neutral [Neutro] Soap
10:24:16 Finding Solace in Camus
9:24:16 A 35-Year-Old Calculator
8:27:16 My Sanctuary
7:27:16 And the Weak Suffer What They Must?, a book review
7:7:16 Yogurt
6:12:16 The Squinty Prius
5:26:16 The Disconnect of Vote-by-Mail
5:17:16 The Still Pond
5:12:16 Marina and Lee, a book review
4:28:16 A Little Catechism Goes a Long Way
4:15:16 Au Revoir, Cloudburst Recycling
3:11:16 Screen Magnetism
2:4:16 We've Got Algorithms
1:18:16 Forgiving Portland's City Bus Line
12:28:15 The Gluten Lie, a book review
12:12:15 Ten Things I Buy at Dollar Tree
12:11:15 Bio-slime
12:3:15 My Logging Habit
11:11:15 The Internet Is Not the Answer, a book review
10:21:15 How I Write When I Write
10:8:15 Dentists
9:17:15 The Other Portland
8:20:15 Gods Without Men, a book review
8:19:15 Oregon's Most Obscure Traffic Law
7:31:15 A Small Death
7:23:15 China Shakes the World, a book review
7:16:15 Out Damn Spot!
5:31:15 My New Library Card
5:21:15 Let Me Be Frank With You, a book review
5:08:15 Portland's Rabbit Hutches
4:21:15 The Sea Lions at Astoria
3:26:15 Sacrificing for a Lower Water Bill
3:10:15 The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, a Book Review
2:5:15 Pinhead Books aka e-books
1:15:15 Good Riddance to Old-School Shaving!
12:20:14 Three Whys I Quit Reading a Book
12.12.14 the life-changing magic of tidying up, a book review
11.12.14 Oil Changes
10.29:14 Grapefruit
10.17:14 Doomsday Preppers, a TV series review
9.30:14 The Trigger, a book review
9:10:14 Clipboard People
8:23:14 Ukraine Diaries, a book review
8:21:14 My Home Darkroom on a Shoestring
7:29:14 Right Speech
6:28:14 Pacific Power's Wily Ways
6:20:14 My New Clarks Sandals
5:31:14 Portland's Water Woes, Again
5:10:14 Faster Dial-Up
4:11:14 Update on Stockpiling Light Bulbs
4:10:14 The Next 100 Years, a book review
3:15:14 A Cruel and Shocking Act, a book review
3:8:14 Ukraine: Another Revolution Gone Awry
2:9:14 The Flight (and Fight) of the Hummingbird
1:25:14 My Frugal Byways
1:20:14 Walden on Wheels, a book review
1:2:14 Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, a book review
12:27:13 Micro-Apartments
11:28:13 The Moneyless Man, a book review
11:23:13 The Lost Art of Walking, a book review
11:10:13 The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, a book review
10:23:13 The Biker Angel
10:11:13 No Self-Serve Gas in Oregon
9:28:13 A Street Cat Named Bob, a book review
9:23:13 The Life & Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, a book review
9:18:13 Autumn Leaves
8:19:13 The Worst Car Driver & Why
8:12:13 The Gardener from Ochakov, a book review
7:25:13 Le Havre by Kaurismaki
7:20:13 This Ain't California
6:27:13 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, a book review
5:29:13 My Linux (Mis)Adventures
5:25:13 Southern Cross the Dog, a book review
5:5:13 Russian Tumbleweed
4:16:13 "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster
3:26:13 Camera-rama
3:25:13 Moore's Law
3:13:13 Grocery Shopping
2:28:13 Razor Blade in Moonlight
1:27:13 Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet Design, a book review
1:6:13 Alleys
12:9:12 White Bread, a book review
12:4:12 Update on Old-School Shaving
11:12:12 Ten Great Buys at Dollar Tree
11:6:12 My New Russian Camera
10:29:12 Leaf Day
10:2:12 The Russian Navy in New York?
9:21:12 The Righteous Mind, a book review
9:14:12 Revolution, 1989, a book review
8:23:12 Train Whistles in the Night
8:2:12 Why I've Stockpiled Light Bulbs
7:22:12 Old-School Shaving
7:16:12 Злектроника МК-52, computer de minimus
7:4:12 Ivan's Childhood by Tarkovsky
6:21:12 The Unabomber, a modern Thoreau?
6:12:12 Do the gods exist?
6:7:12 My "Retail Therapy"
5:28:12 On Taxes, We Should Go Green
5:17:12 Portland's Trash
5:6:12 The Toaster Project, a book review
4:24:12 No Seconds
4:12:12 Portland's Runaway Utility Bill
4:8:12 The Repossession, a book review
3:30:12 How I Got Published in Mississippi Review
3:18:12 Rothko
3:9:12 The End of Money, a book review
3:1:12 gutenberg.org
2:18:12 Beauty Plus Pity, a book review
2:5:12 Kirk's Castile Soap
1:29:12 Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer, a book review
1:22:12 Thirst, a book review
1:17:12 My IBM ThinkPad 1999-2012
1:11:12 String Beans
12:22:11 Spiritual TMJ
12:16:11 1Q84, a book review
12:11:11 How Portland Became Portlandia
12:1:11 The Fixie
11:20:11 Camus' Insight
11:13:11 Old & Worthy
11:7:11 Life Is Tragic
10:31:11 A Matter of Death and Life, a book review
10:25:11 Dead Letter, Email Fatigue
10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse, a book review
10:11:11 Rereading Pirsig
10:1:11 The Sisters Brothers, a book review
9:26:11 The Great Stagnation, a book review
9:16:11 Coffee, The Affordable Luxury
9:12:11 The Genius of Value
9:5:11 Death and the Penguin, a book review