Reviews

Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos

jplassman's review against another edition

3.0

I wasn't that interested in the characters but I kept reading because I was fascinated by the description of NYC in first 25 years of the 20th century. It was both foreign and familiar and I don't know if he rendered the feel of the city accurately but it seemed as though he did.

mcfade28's review against another edition

I unfortunately didn't connect with this book at all. Too many characters with too many unrelated story threads, and I didn't find many of them overly compelling. Will avoid leaving a rating as I think my attention span was the main issue

alexcolleyhart's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

mupdike's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting book. It's set during Prohibition and follows several different people over several years. It was hard to follow at time because the author didn't mark the transitions between the people he wrote about. Other than that once you get the hang of reading in this style the stories were very good. The book gives a lot of color and detail about what it was like to live in NYC during Prohibition.

anneliehyatt's review against another edition

3.0

i have a fair deal of issues with this book, so then why is the ending making me cry

hmm—beyond beautiful language, dos passos has mastered his own voice. you grow to love the characters. had no idea what was going on for most of it though, frustrating plot and scenes that go nowhere, characters that disappear, things that happen without any expalanation…

ida_s's review against another edition

3.0

This is an interesting read for the detailed picture it paints of a specific time in New York City. It is a bit difficult to keep track of all the different characters, which made me a little less emotionally invested than I like to be when I read a book.

kxiong5's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting aesthetic experiments — like Virginia Woolf type drifting without the focus on character — that don’t always feel like they work? But I can see why Dos Passos is doing what he’s doing.

chairmanbernanke's review against another edition

4.0

A great book of NYCer lives and lifestyles.

athenidel's review against another edition

5.0

Bustling, jumpy and intense. For me, Manhattan Transfer was a different reading experience than I'm used to, but in a good way! Looking deep into New York life, you never get a sense that you're standing still, in the moment. There's always things going on around the single bit of narrative you're reading. Dos Passos' writing directly places you there, with fleeting looks at characters and detailed descriptions of the busy city. I, surprisingly, liked the complexity of this novel. It's not every day you get a book that pushes outside the boundaries, goes beyond what typically a novel can do. The wide range of characters either succeed or fail tragicly (Bud's story got to me), and, ultimately, thats just the way the city goes.

5/5 for storytelling, in a mish-mash sort of way. Writing that truly made me go 'wow'.

Favourite Quote: The terrible thing about having New York go stale on you is that there's nowhere else. It's the top of the world.

mmillerb's review against another edition

2.0

disjointed style may have been groundbreaking at the time of its writing, but i found it dry and ineffectual. dialog often felt like it was bludgeoning me to death
unrelated facts from dos passos’ wikipedia: e e cummings said he was the least american-looking person at harvard in 1912 and late in his life he campaigned for goldwater and nixon