Scan barcode
iridium's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This took so long for me to read. I kept thinking that the amount of characters was confusing, and that was part of it, but a bigger part of it was that I was rarely emotionally attached to any character due to the writing style and the abrupt changes in perspective. I know it's supposed to be "avant garde" but it made it a slog to get through.
I will definitely give John dos Passos another chance. There's a lot of really good, interesting stuff here.
I will definitely give John dos Passos another chance. There's a lot of really good, interesting stuff here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Suicide, Antisemitism, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol
anovelemily's review against another edition
4.0
Dos Passos' prose is almost unmatched in the modernist movement. I really love the leaps and bounds he goes to make the novel experimental and interesting. The snapshots are genius, the characters are way ahead of their time. I only mark this below 5 stars because, while it's the first of its kind, it does read very choppy sometimes and can be hard to follow if you're not taking note of each character and significance. If choppiness is an issue for you as a reader, I recommend looking into his USA series, which is essentially an expansion of this sort of style but it is definitely more polished, refined and easier to follow. I do still love the ingenuity here and would recommend it to those that don't mind a few hurdles.
annakarlien's review against another edition
3.0
Really interesting and quite dark in places - kind of the New York equivalent of what Ulysses does for Dublin.
ness's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. The disconnected nature of it jumping among the various characters and eras meant I had to pay close attention to what was going on: Manhattan Transfer is not a skimmer. It was chaotic, gritty and desolate; if a character was happy, it didn't last very long. Great book, and I can't wait to read it again.
jiujensu's review against another edition
4.0
A lot like Anna Karenina (for me) in the number of people it follows, how they intersect sometimes and in the topics covered- education, privilege, being stuck in your hometown vs making a big change, marriage, capitalism. All these things demonstrate the biggest theme, what is success- money or experience or some other personal fulfillment. It wasn't a fast read, but interesting for the way some characters we met at birth or at a young age and followed to adulthood.
A favorite moment is when Ellen, fresh from witnessing a fire, contemplates all the directions she COULD take her life in just a walk to a taxi on the way to doing the same thing she always does - "There are lives to be lived if only you didn't care. Care for what, for what; the opinion of mankind, money, success, hotel lobbies, health, umbrellas, Uneeda biscuits. . . ?"
A favorite moment is when Ellen, fresh from witnessing a fire, contemplates all the directions she COULD take her life in just a walk to a taxi on the way to doing the same thing she always does - "There are lives to be lived if only you didn't care. Care for what, for what; the opinion of mankind, money, success, hotel lobbies, health, umbrellas, Uneeda biscuits. . . ?"
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Now that's a whole other kind of fiction. Something to cherish and treasure. It reads like a movie but the good kind. It doesn't really have a plot instead it follows the lives of a few characters throughout the years in early 1900, through WW1 and right before the 1929 crash but you can feel it coming. Written in 1925, translated in French in 1928, it still is as interesting and vibrant as it was then. New York shines through all the pages. Dark and light, how the richs live and how the poors die. How one survives and how your life becomes filled with shades of grey. It's a wonderful voyage into the past and makes you think about how we live now and how not a lot has changed really.
litdoes's review against another edition
4.0
Published in the 1920s, this cinematic novel was one of the first literary works of that era to revolutionise the use of the montage and collage technique as it follows a revolving door of characters as they live out their lives in New York.
Modernist in the way the lives of individuals are ellipted as the reader glimpses little pastiches and move on, filling the gaps as he negotiates street corners, back alleys and high society cafes with the cast, the novel seems to present a composite picture of the bustling city rather than any one character.
Success and failure is very much a concern with the disparate cast, as each one tries to find his or her place in society, whether it is as an actress, or a lawyer in search of a ground-breaking case. The one character, Stan Emery, who questions this overwhelming concern, claiming that “I’ll like to meet somebody who wanted to fail. That’s the only sublime thing,” does not quite survive the chaos he makes out of his life, while survivors either change like a chameleon to adapt, like Ellen, who becomes Elaine and then Helena, at different stages of her life, or opt out of the city entirely, like what Jimmy Herf does.
In an urban, cosmopolitan city, where anonymity is the new norm for the waves of immigrants from their rural communities, modes of social relationships also become more distant. There is a sense of spectacle when one witnesses an act of arson by a “firebug”. The reader follows the camera eye of the narrative as it scans the crowds and views the whole catastrophe from a position first from a higher and more distant position, and then as one in the crowd, but never getting close enough to feel the heat.
Modernist in the way the lives of individuals are ellipted as the reader glimpses little pastiches and move on, filling the gaps as he negotiates street corners, back alleys and high society cafes with the cast, the novel seems to present a composite picture of the bustling city rather than any one character.
Success and failure is very much a concern with the disparate cast, as each one tries to find his or her place in society, whether it is as an actress, or a lawyer in search of a ground-breaking case. The one character, Stan Emery, who questions this overwhelming concern, claiming that “I’ll like to meet somebody who wanted to fail. That’s the only sublime thing,” does not quite survive the chaos he makes out of his life, while survivors either change like a chameleon to adapt, like Ellen, who becomes Elaine and then Helena, at different stages of her life, or opt out of the city entirely, like what Jimmy Herf does.
In an urban, cosmopolitan city, where anonymity is the new norm for the waves of immigrants from their rural communities, modes of social relationships also become more distant. There is a sense of spectacle when one witnesses an act of arson by a “firebug”. The reader follows the camera eye of the narrative as it scans the crowds and views the whole catastrophe from a position first from a higher and more distant position, and then as one in the crowd, but never getting close enough to feel the heat.
srm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
It took a while for me to settle in with the style, but I grew to love it and the looks at all these disparate characters and their lives.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, and Abortion
Minor: Racial slurs
mariah_reads's review against another edition
3.0
many little vignettes makes it hard to keep track of recurring characters and plots. but it does give you the frantic-ness and depression of nyc at that time. Ultimately I appreciated the form of the book in that it contributed to the overall feeling the author was trying have the reader experience, but was not my favorite read.
laviniag's review against another edition
It really seemed readable back at uni; New York in the 20's is something I'm fascinated about. Problem is that I got really bored at some point while reading, a few years later. Maybe it just wasn't the time for it then.