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polliam's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
emmagetz's review against another edition
4.0
“The terrible thing about having New York go stale on you is that there's nowhere else. It's the top of the world.”
I read this for my lit history class as our last novel exploring the modern metropolis. I really liked it! The writing is was beautiful and cinematic, and the ensemble cast of characters was really compelling. It was a diverse group too, much more so than you would expect from most famous modernist novels. It was incredibly complex, so I would like to revisit it in the future.
edenseve63's review against another edition
4.0
Dos Passos journey around the island Manhattan is a panorama of the people who would make the 20th century the American century. Dos Passos writes with a cinematic eye and giving the reader a feeling they are peeping through windows at other people's lives. No wonder Dos Passos would go on to journalism, his sense of detail is acute. One has the sense Dos Passos is so precise in the detail to lend as much humanity and dignity to his characters as possible as they represent all struggling humanity. A must for any library and school.
carryanneb's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the style but as the portrayal of the city of new York was in the focus it was really exhausting to follow the characters, as not much happened to them and they did not interest me...
annasophie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The city is the real protagonist in this story and the way Dos Passos writes is mind boggingly amazing
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
dianacantwriteanything's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-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? Yes
4.5
catastrofe's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.0
blackoxford's review against another edition
5.0
Hopeless Migration
New York City was, perhaps still is, defined not so much geographically as spiritually by the unfulfilled aspirations of the people who migrate to it. And those migrants historically have come as much from the American hinterland as they have from across the ocean.
Manhattan Tranfer was a stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Newark, New Jersey before the tunnel under the Hudson connecting the mainline to Manhattan was completed. Once you arrived there, you had nowhere else to go but New York City. Dos Passos begins and ends his novel in this forlorn non-place. It is the entrance, for those already in America, into a world that was unique even within the uniqueness of America.
No one in this world is a native. All come because they are dissatisfied and become more dissatisfied as they acclimate to its brutality. It is a place of power not beauty, of deceit rather than wit, of crowded isolation.
These migrants want what others already have in New York City. They think that means money and opportunity. But more often they find that it’s disappointment and squalid, bare survival.
Immigrants from abroad come with nothing but hope. Migrants coming through Manhattan Transfer come with illusions rather than hope, and leave with less of both.
New York City was, perhaps still is, defined not so much geographically as spiritually by the unfulfilled aspirations of the people who migrate to it. And those migrants historically have come as much from the American hinterland as they have from across the ocean.
Manhattan Tranfer was a stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Newark, New Jersey before the tunnel under the Hudson connecting the mainline to Manhattan was completed. Once you arrived there, you had nowhere else to go but New York City. Dos Passos begins and ends his novel in this forlorn non-place. It is the entrance, for those already in America, into a world that was unique even within the uniqueness of America.
No one in this world is a native. All come because they are dissatisfied and become more dissatisfied as they acclimate to its brutality. It is a place of power not beauty, of deceit rather than wit, of crowded isolation.
These migrants want what others already have in New York City. They think that means money and opportunity. But more often they find that it’s disappointment and squalid, bare survival.
Immigrants from abroad come with nothing but hope. Migrants coming through Manhattan Transfer come with illusions rather than hope, and leave with less of both.