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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Widely praised after its publication and since as a masterpiece of American fiction, The 42nd Parallel gives us a portrait of life in the United States just prior to the First World War, a world of struggle, pleasure, restlessness, pain, joy, and the prosaic plodding of every day life. It focuses it's peripatetic lens on several characters in succession, then causes their paths to cross, sometimes significantly, other times more glancingly, but always with the purpose of throwing into relief some aspect or another of each person's essential nature that we might not have noticed otherwise.
This book is written in a unique style, with snippets of story interspersed with sections call The
Camera Eye and Newsreel, which provide impressionistic glimpses of the times in which our characters are living, a pastiche of events, sights, views, and disasters that informed their world.
Overall, I concur that this is a brilliant and accomplished piece of fiction. I did, however, find a bit off-putting the author's choice to distance himself from his subjects through the use of language and style which tends to alienate more than associate. This was no doubt intentional, but made the reading of it a bit of a slog, though I found this to be less the case as the book went on. Still, a fine read, and I look forward to moving on the the second book of the trilogy.
This book is written in a unique style, with snippets of story interspersed with sections call The
Camera Eye and Newsreel, which provide impressionistic glimpses of the times in which our characters are living, a pastiche of events, sights, views, and disasters that informed their world.
Overall, I concur that this is a brilliant and accomplished piece of fiction. I did, however, find a bit off-putting the author's choice to distance himself from his subjects through the use of language and style which tends to alienate more than associate. This was no doubt intentional, but made the reading of it a bit of a slog, though I found this to be less the case as the book went on. Still, a fine read, and I look forward to moving on the the second book of the trilogy.
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I've been collecting Signet Classic paperbacks when I find them and was curious to learn more about The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos as I wasn't familiar with him or his work. He was kind of a big deal in his day. I've since come across photos of him on the Internet with literary lions like Hemingway. The 42nd Parallel is the first book in his USA Trilogy and was first published in 1930. The whole series covers a fictional narrative of the US at the dawn of what some would call the American Century. God knows they may call this the Mess of America Century. This particular book ends just as WWI is starting.
The book is like a firehose. I'm not sure how folks at the time felt about that. Each chapter of the book contains newsreel headlines, popular song lyrics, and a Horatio-style biography of a rich titan or inventor. It can be a bit confusing at first but should make a 21st-century reader with our short social media attention spans feel right at home. At the time they probably said Dos Passos was creating a new artform, but I say he probably had undiagnosed ADHD. He has not one, but a few characters we follow who appear across a few chapters and then they are left for the story of another character. They are subject to appear again as a side character.
Lucky for me I spent a lot of time perusing old magazines and those Our Times books about the 20th century so the things he mentioned aren't completely new to me. Reading the book I spent a lot of time comparing our time to their time. There is a focus on "damn" socialists, wobblies, and Unions, press freedom, and billionaires creating war to distract us all. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I should mention that this is a story about American WASPs. All the characters fall in that bucket. Others need not apply and are often in the background performing services or some cases prostitution or are there to be commented on in racist terms.
While there are a few lead women characters, most of the main characters are men who spend their time looking for fun-time gals or being cheated out of fun by pregnant girlfriends. That said, there are a couple of career gals who have their own Horatio Alger stories mixed in. I didn't mention yet that this book is illustrated by Dos Passos character sketches.
If things go bad for our young heroes, they can always hop on a rail. There is a lot of hobo-style train travel and characters moving from city to city on their quest for the American dream...along the 42nd Parallel. I looked it up and the Parallel line includes Chicago, New York, Iowa, and a lot of places that make an appearance. This America doesn't seem all that hopeful though. Most folks are struggling to make their way.
I do think this book is worth a go if you want to understand the 20th century. I would like to read it again now that I have the characters and the rhythm down. The last chapter (spoiler!) brings together many characters and ends up in a riot between those for and opposing Americans joining the War with police knocking heads in. We are still having the same arguments a hundred years later. I'd also like to read Jess Walter's book The Cold Millions again which takes place around the same time. I leave you with this scene:
...Doc and Charlie edged their way through to see what the man was shouting in a hoarse barking voice:
"A few days ago I was sittin' in the Cooper Institute listenin' to Eugene Victor Debs, and what was he sayin'?..."What is this civilization, this democracy that the bosses are asking you workers to give your lives to save, what does it mean to you except wageslavery, what is...?"
"Hey, shut up, youse...If you don't like it go back where you came from," came voices from the crowd.
"Freedom to work so that the bosses can get rich...Opportunity to starve to death if you get fired from your job."
The book is like a firehose. I'm not sure how folks at the time felt about that. Each chapter of the book contains newsreel headlines, popular song lyrics, and a Horatio-style biography of a rich titan or inventor. It can be a bit confusing at first but should make a 21st-century reader with our short social media attention spans feel right at home. At the time they probably said Dos Passos was creating a new artform, but I say he probably had undiagnosed ADHD. He has not one, but a few characters we follow who appear across a few chapters and then they are left for the story of another character. They are subject to appear again as a side character.
Lucky for me I spent a lot of time perusing old magazines and those Our Times books about the 20th century so the things he mentioned aren't completely new to me. Reading the book I spent a lot of time comparing our time to their time. There is a focus on "damn" socialists, wobblies, and Unions, press freedom, and billionaires creating war to distract us all. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I should mention that this is a story about American WASPs. All the characters fall in that bucket. Others need not apply and are often in the background performing services or some cases prostitution or are there to be commented on in racist terms.
While there are a few lead women characters, most of the main characters are men who spend their time looking for fun-time gals or being cheated out of fun by pregnant girlfriends. That said, there are a couple of career gals who have their own Horatio Alger stories mixed in. I didn't mention yet that this book is illustrated by Dos Passos character sketches.
If things go bad for our young heroes, they can always hop on a rail. There is a lot of hobo-style train travel and characters moving from city to city on their quest for the American dream...along the 42nd Parallel. I looked it up and the Parallel line includes Chicago, New York, Iowa, and a lot of places that make an appearance. This America doesn't seem all that hopeful though. Most folks are struggling to make their way.
I do think this book is worth a go if you want to understand the 20th century. I would like to read it again now that I have the characters and the rhythm down. The last chapter (spoiler!) brings together many characters and ends up in a riot between those for and opposing Americans joining the War with police knocking heads in. We are still having the same arguments a hundred years later. I'd also like to read Jess Walter's book The Cold Millions again which takes place around the same time. I leave you with this scene:
...Doc and Charlie edged their way through to see what the man was shouting in a hoarse barking voice:
"A few days ago I was sittin' in the Cooper Institute listenin' to Eugene Victor Debs, and what was he sayin'?..."What is this civilization, this democracy that the bosses are asking you workers to give your lives to save, what does it mean to you except wageslavery, what is...?"
"Hey, shut up, youse...If you don't like it go back where you came from," came voices from the crowd.
"Freedom to work so that the bosses can get rich...Opportunity to starve to death if you get fired from your job."
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have some conflicting feelings about this book. It was my first assigned book for this year of university so obviously it will just automatically rank lower because I’ve been forced to read it. But that aside, there was a lot of this book that I really enjoyed, but there just wasn’t enough to get attached to and I felt like I was forcing myself to persevere in the middle for a bit.
This book provides a really interesting insight into the Lochner Era in America. Through it’s varying perspectives and narrative forms it’s gives a really jarring yet quite whole view of this era in terms of industrialisation, labour movements, the First World War from the American perspective, and what it means to be American in general during this period.
I like the form of the book, the camera eye and the newsreels provided a really strange, abstract, modernist style that I think I will find really engaging to play about with and analyse during class. However, the multiple character perspectives meant that although I got a wide range of perspectives, I didn’t really spend enough time with any of them to care about their highs and lows throughout the book. I really liked Mac’s story in the first 100 pages and I really liked Charley’s story.
One other note, I have never heard so many slurs for all different kinds of people in my entire life. If John Dos Passos was meant to be satirising racist viewpoints, it does not come through for the most part. Just a warning about the average way minorities are spoken about in 1930s America.
Overall, this book was interesting for its historical context and its narrative style, but outside of a reading list I don’t know if I’d recommend this book. At least not with any urgency.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Need to reread. Also need to read the whole trilogy
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Enjoyed this book! Love how there are points of view from the 5 characters some of which become to know each other later. The Camera View chapters were a bit strange. Overall I love the writing and stories will read the 2nd book as well.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced