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Three Soldiers

John Dos Passos

3.58 · Rating details · 1,084 ratings · 124 reviews

A searing novel exposing the fate of the common soldier during World War I. Driven by the idealism that infected many young Americans at the time (including Ernest Hemingway), author John Dos Passos joined the Ambulance Corps. His rapid and profound disillusionment forms the core of this fierce denouncement of the military and of the far-reaching social implications of its ...more

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Paperback, 362 pages

Published 2006 by Hard Press (first published 1921)

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Sep 11, 2016 antiquarian reverie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war-related, bildungsroman, own, old-time-radio-reference, 1900, john-dos-passos

I was drawn to Three Soldiers after hearing an old time radio show that brings literature to the airways & wanting to know the whole book as John Dos Passos intended. I have always enjoyed a good war story either written or on film when the human element is brought to light & in this novel I was not disappointed. This not a book just about the world war 1, but it is about the American experience in that war seen through a man that was young American, that volunteered his services before America' I was drawn to Three Soldiers after hearing an old time radio show that brings literature to the airways & wanting to know the whole book as John Dos Passos intended. I have always enjoyed a good war story either written or on film when the human element is brought to light & in this novel I was not disappointed. This not a book just about the world war 1, but it is about the American experience in that war seen through a man that was young American, that volunteered his services before America's involvement & also after American intervention. I love books written by people that lived during those times and write their thoughts about it. It was apparent before googling the author that he had socialist leanings and was not too found of America by what he wrote as a young man & later in life he became a Barry Goldwater supporter, total opposite.

The review maybe a spoiler so if you rather not read further because of that, it would perhaps be wise. This book says it is about 3 soldiers but it was mostly about one in particular, John Andrews & many other soldiers. The other two main ones have other issues which makes the military hard on them. This book starts out with the drafting of some soldiers, overseas voyage to France which was described with all its horrors, the war, Armistice & keeping the peace until the troops leave. I was fascinated with the sentiment, the descriptions and the storyline but the main characters were quite unlikable to me & especially John Andrews but I enjoyed the story and will read more of John Dos Passos' novels.

There was such un American sentiment from this author & it was interesting as a young man he was socialist/communist & evolved as he aged to a conservative later in life. John Andrews kept mentioning slavery as regards to the military and his draft. It seems funny looking through 1921 eyes that the he sees USSR as having the right idea about rebellion and that they will be freer than a US soldier drafted who after the war can go back to life whereas the Soviet will be restricted & may have to serve longer depending on government whims. The peace conference after Armistice seem as described to be doomed, as already the defeated Germans are acting up. Knowing that the military is not perfect as anything else, it seems that the author painted more a negative light on the YMCA & rank officials. The soldiers overseas deployment sounded horrific, TB, sickness, packed like sardines & dead bodies thrown overboard. Today's military have that easier it seems. The song that the soldiers sang was cleaned up by the public. The sexual transmitted diseases was down played & as the promiscuity with French woman & excessive drinking.

John Andrews was unbearable young person who seemed to have such child like views that all centered on himself. The book was mostly about him. He thinks & hates his so called slavery in the military but goes along to a point but not anything farther. He finally finds a way to escape after the war ended by getting a military okay for attending a college in Paris for his music ability. It seems strange that the USA would approve such a scheme but he tries hard and convinces. He meets many friends & thinks he loves a girl Jeanne whose family was reduced after the war & she has to work herself. It seems she might love him in return but after he slept with her he decides he wishes he was in love with her. He decides not to see her again, she might have helped him after he deserted. He then meets Genevieve & does not like her but starts to after he decides she will help him with his music. They become friendly & go to the country to see her home. He is picked up by MP & they laugh at him stating he is in a college program. No trial just hard labor & he can't escape or prove his situation. He and another young kid decide to desert by going overboard & swimming to a French barge. It seems that John has only escaped & the other boy is unknown.

He is helped but wants to return to Paris even with all the MP & no longer wearing an uniform which was thrown overboard. He wants to see Genevieve & she is happy until he tells her about his situation. She is disgusted & she lets him down slowly. Her family leaves the country but only she knows of his activity, and tells him to leave the country. His landlady who when knowing he was friends with Genevieve was easier on him but after it came apparent that he was alone & penniless called the MP. He had Genevieve's gun but in the end he could not use it because the landlady took it away. They take him in the end.

Dan Fuselli was annoying also but not as bad. He wanted to advance but he could not and ended for some reason on KP duty. His girl Mebe who he stated he loved until he had found a French girl to have relations with & Mebe married someone else soon after he was deployed. Always thinking he was grand but every time.

Chrisfield was in rage & he ended killing Anderson with a grenade. He advances but deserts also but do to thinking someone knows about what he did in killing with rage. He did not mind being rank and file and not thinking.

OTR NBC University Theater link added - The book I remember being quite different but not too much.
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com... ...more

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Aug 23, 2013 Kim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, lost-generation

John Dos Passos was politicized by his experiences of war. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in Italy and France and his experiences led him to become a Communist. Later, his experiences during the Spanish Civil War caused him to become disenchanted with the left and his politics became increasingly conservative during the 1950s.

When this novel was published in 1921, it caused a sensation. A direct result of Dos Passos’ World War I experiences, it’s a passionate anti-war polem
John Dos Passos was politicized by his experiences of war. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in Italy and France and his experiences led him to become a Communist. Later, his experiences during the Spanish Civil War caused him to become disenchanted with the left and his politics became increasingly conservative during the 1950s.

When this novel was published in 1921, it caused a sensation. A direct result of Dos Passos’ World War I experiences, it’s a passionate anti-war polemic, albeit one that deals less with the horror of actual warfare and more with the pettiness, corruption and cruelty of military life. The work relates the experiences of three young American men with different backgrounds and motivations, who embark for Europe to serve their country. Ultimately, the narrative focuses on John Andrews, a sensitive Harvard-educated musician, whose attitudes most closely reflect those of the author.

Had I not listened to the audiobook version of the novel immediately after listening to Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, I suspect that I would have liked it more. While the writing is powerful and unsentimental, its verbosity does not compare well with Hemingway’s simpler, less cluttered style. The novel would have been much better, I think, – and probably more widely read today – if the prose wasn’t weighed down by quite so many adverbs, adjectives and similes. Even though I usually love ornate prose, the language in this novel at times made me impatient. Further, I was never in any doubt as to what the author wanted me to think and how he wanted me to feel, when I would have preferred to simply feel and think for myself.

That said, I don’t regret the time I spent listening to the novel, which was beautifully narrated by George Guidall, and I plan to read more of Dos Passos’ work. My interest in his writing has been sparked by my “Lost Generation” reading project. It’s been interesting to discover a writer who was well known and critically well received in his time. It’s a shame that he’s not better known now.
...more

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Dec 08, 2009 Eric rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: war, ficciones, great-war, malick-should-film-it

One of the reviews on this site said reading Three Soldiers is like watching a movie, “the best kind of movie.” One that doesn’t explain its images or dilute the story with too much exposition. Terrence Malick in his 1970s prime directed this in my head. Malick’s storytelling style would fit the austere and oblique parts of Three Soldiers, and the novel’s big theme of desertion would jive with one of Malick’s favorite motifs: the freebooting idylls of fugitives living it up before doom closes in ...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Trevor rated it really liked it

Shelves: literature

In the end you are fundamentally alone and no matter how much you would like to imagine that others could complete you or even just understand you, the saddest truth is that even this is far too much to ask.

If this review is to have no spoilers, then this must be a kind of non-review. However, in some ways this review might tell you more about this novel than any other I could write.

This is a painfully sad story, a realist novel told about First World War – so pain is obligatory. The guiding met ...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Melki rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, war

There were once three soldiers of The Great War. And three characters that I can't say I really cared about. Maybe it's because after 450+ pages, I still hadn't figured out what made them tick. What makes that odd is that they spent the entire book lost in introspection and talking about themselves.

They did a lot of eating and talking about what they missed about home. They huddled up to keep warm and discussed how they couldn't wait to get to the front. Then they drank cognac at small cafes an ...more

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Sep 04, 2010 KOMET rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-out-of-residence, world-war-i-novels, mass-market-paperbacks, john-dos-passos

"Three Soldiers" is one of the earliest novels to come out of the First World War to express the disgust and disillusionment felt by many Americans who had participated in it.

Dos Passos (who had served as an ambulance driver in Italy during the war) introduces the reader to 3 distinctive characters who are representative of America's diversity. First, there's Chrisfield, an Indiana farmboy who's a bit rough round the edges and always spoiling for a fight. Second, there is Dan Fuselli, a first g "Three Soldiers" is one of the earliest novels to come out of the First World War to express the disgust and disillusionment felt by many Americans who had participated in it.

Dos Passos (who had served as an ambulance driver in Italy during the war) introduces the reader to 3 distinctive characters who are representative of America's diversity. First, there's Chrisfield, an Indiana farmboy who's a bit rough round the edges and always spoiling for a fight. Second, there is Dan Fuselli, a first generation Italian-American from San Francisco who looks upon the Army as a gateway to a better life after the war. He goes out of his way to make himself useful to his superior officers in base camp (and later in France) in hopes of gaining advancement. Making sergeant is his ultimate dream, for an NCO (non-commissioned officer) is in a position to assert authority over the men in his charge. Third, comes John Andrews, a New Yorker by way of Virginia (where he spent his early life with his mother) and a Harvard graduate, too, who enters the Army as an idealist. He's excited about being part of a great crusade, as he sees it, to "make the world safe for democracy" and give Kaiser Bill a real butt-kickin'. The 3 men meet during basic training, which proves to be a dispiriting experience for all of them. The regimentation and discipline -- as well as contending with the Army bureaucracy and the general Army ethos --- weigh them down.

Fuselli is the first to be shipped to France. Dos Passos gives the reader a bird's eye view of Fuselli's departure from base camp to embarkation point on the East Coast, and the subsequent voyage to France. Reading these passages almost made me feel that I was on deck an overcrowded troopship, huddled in an Army trenchcoat for warmth, looking out over the ocean and wondering how many U-boats are lying in wait.

Once situated in France, Fuselli is chagrined to learn that, instead of being posted to a unit bound for the Front, he is, instead, posted to a rear-echelon medical unit. This doesn't sit well for him. But he bides his time currying favor with his superior officers. Eventually, his unit is called up in the wake of the German offensives of the spring and summer of 1918. But Fuselli allows himself to be talked into applying for reassigment to another unit (in staff headquarters) on the eve of departure for combat in hopes of receiving a permanent promotion to corporal. (By now, he had risen to the rank of private first class.)

Chrisfield and John Andrews are also sent to France, where each of them experience some combat in the late stages of the war. But what contrasts this book with Erich Maria Remarque's "ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT", is that the reader gets no real sense of combat, of being on the frontlines. Dos Passos is much more interested in looking at the interior lives of the 3 men more than having them displayed as chess pieces on the battlefield. The novel is a polemic on what Dos Passos sees as the futility and absurdity of the First World War. What's more, in France, he focuses more on telling Andrews' story, so much so that most of the book is taken up with him. I won't say much more, for fear of giving away the gist of the story.

But I will say that "THREE SOLDIERS" made for much better reading than "A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR", which I came to thoroughly hate for its verbosity and its main character's arrogance and pomposity. ...more

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Apr 18, 2014 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: early-20th-century, kindle

I wanted to read a World War I novel. Instead, I read a novel about some men who hated the army. dos Passos would have served his audience better had he provided some detail that leads to these men hating the army. There is some complaint that all they do is go on marches, although we're never there when they actually *do* go on marches. Yep, the army needs its men kept busy, to work as a unit, and to gain physical strength - they still do this and it still works. And, somehow, dos Passos seemed ...more

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Dec 18, 2010 Tim Weakley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2012

My first experience with Dos Passos and I am looking forward to reading 1919 now. It really reminded me of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, not in subject but in outlook and desperation of character. Each of the three soldiers ends up in his own desperate straits and finds their own way to a conclusion. What happens to them during the war and how their inner fortitude or lack of it help or hinder their progress makes for a heartbreaking story.

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Jan 30, 2015 Erik Graff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: WWI fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: literature

I read this novel, based on the author's experiences as a volunteer ambulance driver in WWI, at grandmother's cottage in SW Michigan because I had been mightily impressed by his USA trilogy. Sadly, I was disappointed, but then it was only his second novel. ...more

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Jul 22, 2020 Larry Bassett rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: war, audio, kindle

I have been listening to several John Dos Passos books recently. I am still waiting for one to really grab me like I had expected them to. They all seem somewhat dated and I wondered how they were when people read them at the time they were written. This book was published in 1921. Events in this book are during and just after World War One.

It is about American soldiers in France. None of the story actually happens in the trenches that are the famous WWI setting. In fact the armistice is about h ...more

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Feb 25, 2016 Jeff rated it it was amazing

In Three Soldiers, John Dos Passos presents a raw depiction of the American experience in the First World War, devoid of any idealism whatever. This novel is presented in six parts, with titles such as "Making the Mould" (Part One), "Machines" (Part Three), and "Rust" (Part Four). The theme of a soldier being treated like a machine resonates throughout the novel, and we sense the futility of trying to push against the mechanistic power of the military. The narrative relates the experiences of th ...more

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May 13, 2014 Adam Smith rated it it was ok

Three Soldiers more like Three Pretentious Assholes. I realize that Dos Passos was giving his perspective of the war and his distaste for the military. The writing style was nicely portrayed but the characters were disappointing. I'm pretty sure that the only trees that Dos Passos is aware of are poplars. If there is ever a mention of the scenery, (and there are quite a few) he always mentions poplars. There could be a drinking game made out of it.

*Spoiler*

The book starts with the Italian kid fr ...more

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Feb 18, 2015 Maxanna rated it really liked it

John Dos Passos is considered by many to be one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Jean-Paul Sartre considered him the best. Passos is part of the "Lost Generation", the generation of young men (and writers) that grew up with World War I. Like Hemingway (at one time a close friend of Passos), he served in the ambulance corps during WWI. "Three Soldiers" is about WWI and paints the impact of the war in dark, despairing tones. Like an impressionist painter, the context is vividly dr ...more

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Oct 15, 2019 Jerry Pogan rated it liked it

This one just never made it for me. All of the action was in the first and last parts of the book with an endless boring section in the middle. The book focused on three soldier with the first part mostly featuring Fuselli then going with mostly Chrisfield and Andrews in the middle and eventually focusing on Andrews toward the last section. The book started off good describing young men anxious to join the army to fight in WWI hoping for glory like what they saw in the movies, but what they foun ...more

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Jul 21, 2007 Josh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Most of the great American modernist books are forgotten, passed over for Faulkner (eh) and Hemingway (double eh). But Three Soldiers is doubly neglected, because to the (very limited) extent that people still rad Dos Passos, it's pretty much Manhattan Crossing and the U.S.A trilogy. The trilogy is wonderful, but I prefer Three Soldiers -- the sociological observation is still leavened by a romantic sensibility. And WWI is the best possible illustration of the transformation of American society ...more

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Oct 28, 2018 Mark Fallon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

One of the great joys in my life are the friends who send me books. Thankful to my friend, Steve, for sending me this classic.

A peer of Hemingway and Faulkner, Dos Passos shares a story based on his own experience as an ambulance driver in World War I. The tone of his book is less like others in the Lost Generation, and more like Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O'Brien, veterans of wars that came after "the war to end all wars". ...more

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Apr 09, 2012 R.L. Robinson rated it it was amazing

Passos wrote primarily for a select audience. As a result, it can take a bit of time to find a way into his work.
It's the same case here, but I've seldom read something that was so anti-war, written at a time when the anti-war movement was in its infancy, just after the end of the Great War. ...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Namrirru rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: us, novels

This is my favorite book on war I have ever read, which says a lot since I hate war and I generally don't like books on it. Hemingway, eat your heart out! ...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Les Robinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction

Hemmingway totally rips this off for A Farewell to Arms which isn't half as good as this one. A classic modern novel of WWI. ...more

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Sep 15, 2013 David Cain rated it it was amazing

Beautiful, brilliant, thought-provoking and inciting, this personal argument against society, civilization and war will never stop digging at cherished illusions and demanding answers.

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Jun 03, 2016 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very depressing but wonderful view into World War I, what military service can do to people, and the changes engendered that can change the course of their lives.

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Feb 09, 2018 Gary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Hauntingly beautiful....this is not a thriller per se.....but I truly enjoyed it and the ending....blew me away.

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Jul 11, 2018 Rob Christopher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So fresh, so vivid. A masterpiece.

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Jan 07, 2021 William Haverinen rated it liked it

It is mostly about one World War 1 soldier, written in 1921. He is a Harvard grad, a musician, in the war as an enlisted man. There was less emphasis than I expected on the experiences in battle, but the chapters on the war were powerful. Three Soldiers is more about about the loss of freedom one experiences in the army, which brought back memories of my experience as a Vietnam era draftee. I guess when published the book was controversial in its realistic, non-romantic view of the common soldie ...more

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May 23, 2018 Amory Ross rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history

Three Soldiers is a war journey that follows three soldiers, although only one gets heavy focus. In brief: it has a Hemingway style with a Remarque view of The Great War. Despite some of these shortcomings, Dos Passos message is unmistakable in its pessimism.

While Dos Passos is regarded as one of the best writers in American history, this focus in World War I felt unfinished. The characters are evenly distributed across the American map, and each of them have monumental struggles toward success. Three Soldiers is a war journey that follows three soldiers, although only one gets heavy focus. In brief: it has a Hemingway style with a Remarque view of The Great War. Despite some of these shortcomings, Dos Passos message is unmistakable in its pessimism.

While Dos Passos is regarded as one of the best writers in American history, this focus in World War I felt unfinished. The characters are evenly distributed across the American map, and each of them have monumental struggles toward success. Yet they are hardly represented evenly across the pages. Two of the three soldiers - Fuselli and Chrisfield - are underdeveloped. On top of that, Andrews himself (the soldier focused on for almost two-thirds of the book) really doesn't have an likable personality. Some critical essays have pointed to Andrews being Dos Passos himself since Andrews is a graduate of Harvard. Much of the book is spent wondering if there will be any closure to the three characters' struggles. And when Dos Passos unravels the theme into our lap, it risks leaving a bad taste in the reader's mouth. The message could be too bitter.

Throughout the tale, Dos Passos uses dialogue to carry the story. Like Hemingway who bragged about his ability to have masterful drunken dialogue in his stories, Dos Passos creates a thick drawl in Chrisfield's words. Lines have to be re-read to understand what he said. Furthermore, Dos Passos gives the reader a healthy dose of French dialogue that will leave one nearly fluent in French by the end of the story. Dos Passos does not provide any translations to help us out with the meaning of the French comments.

It is the view of the War, though, that becomes intriguing. Dos Passos uses Andrews' experiences as his message-bearer: that the American army, having very little to do after the Armistice, becomes unraveled from leadership on down. Andrews is like a prisoner in the American army. He sees the dark side of War. Much like Remarque's attempt to avoid the glorification of war, Dos Passos makes it very clear that enlistment is the antithesis of his purpose. Andrews is blocked time and time again with bureaucracy. He can't connect with people on a personal level or on a professional level within the army. As a matter of fact, the easier the request in the American army during World War I, the harder it is to get approved. Since the War is winding down, deserters are aplenty and Andrews wonders why he continues to try army channels to get something he feels he is owed. Andrews' goal becomes putting the greatest distance between the army and himself. "Remember how sentimental history books used to talk about prisoners who were let out after years in dungeons, not being able to stand it, and going back to their cells?" This quote by Henslowe, another soldier, leads the reader to believe that even if Andrewes was able to distance himself from the War, he risked crawling back to the only life he had now: a soldier's life.

This is a great book for anyone interested in World War I fiction. There were times where pages had to be re-read to understand what John Dos Passos was trying to say, but his message is lucid on the final pages. This 1921 book is certainly not for everybody. There are no intense battles scenes, there are no hurrah moments- it's all quite dark and pessimistic. If pessimism about World War I sounds appealing, then this might be a book worth reading a couple of times. ...more

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May 31, 2017 Scott Stirling rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Three soldiers turns out to be mostly about one of them, John Andrews, the Dos Passos avatar, a composer from Virginia, AWOL in Paris and Chartres after being injured, getting into a special education program for music, and then swept up by MPs into a labor detail.

The other two, Fuselli and Chrisfield, have less focus but there are a couple sections devoted to them: Fuselli's early strivings for corporal and a position of recognition, and Chrisfield at the front, taking the life of a despised li Three soldiers turns out to be mostly about one of them, John Andrews, the Dos Passos avatar, a composer from Virginia, AWOL in Paris and Chartres after being injured, getting into a special education program for music, and then swept up by MPs into a labor detail.

The other two, Fuselli and Chrisfield, have less focus but there are a couple sections devoted to them: Fuselli's early strivings for corporal and a position of recognition, and Chrisfield at the front, taking the life of a despised lieutenant with a pair of grenades, after killing several of the enemy, also with grenades.

The war action is minimal, almost completely seen in anticipation, or from a great distance, or on approach to the front lines, or related via dialogue by characters who seem to have had more direct experience with the war than any of the novel's main three characters. The Armistice ending WW I is reached about two thirds way through the book. The remainder mainly follows John Andrews as he recovers from an injury and then makes it to Paris to study music for a while and have a good time, before a minor infraction lands him in trouble and leads him to resolve to go AWOL (again). And then he goes to find himself for the next couple hundred pages before the MPs catch up to him as a deserter (though the war is already over).

Dos Passos, like Hemingway, worked an ambulance crew in WW I, picking up body parts and wounded infantry, participating in the war, seeking experience (as writers) and patriotic duty. Dos Passos and Hemingway both had their minds blown by Paris while in France for the war. Three Soldiers has a lot in common, thematically, with Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. But even John Andrews on his best day (arguably when he sleeps with Jeanne, the French blonde he later discards for the unlovable Genevieve) never has quite as peak an experience as Hemingway's characters fishing, drinking and watching bullfights in Spain and France.

Dos Passos's three soldiers all suffer and get raked over by the military in various ways, and all struggle with the conformity and rigidity of the military, and all the demands it places on men. Much of the action of the novel demonstrates military organizational inefficiency and oppression at mass scale, tracing the paths of three young soldiers and how they deal with or react to it during and after a major war.

There's a lot of good stuff in this book. A lot of history, early 20th century Paris, personal biography, good dialog, wide range of themes and ideas, rich descriptions of inner thought processes, and a pessimistic attitude to war and the military in general. ...more

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Jul 04, 2016 Christopher Sutch rated it liked it

Although there are undeniable moments of brilliance Dos Passos's first novel, there are also serious and tedious issues with it. What he did well was some truly remarkable thinking about the implications of the basic training-indoctrination process on individual and mass psychology. Much of what he writes, especially early in the novel where he compares the soldiers produced for World War I in America to mass-produced, assembly line commodities, anticipates the thinking of some of the Frankfurt Although there are undeniable moments of brilliance Dos Passos's first novel, there are also serious and tedious issues with it. What he did well was some truly remarkable thinking about the implications of the basic training-indoctrination process on individual and mass psychology. Much of what he writes, especially early in the novel where he compares the soldiers produced for World War I in America to mass-produced, assembly line commodities, anticipates the thinking of some of the Frankfurt school theorists 15 years after he published this book. It's quite clear that Dos Passos was doing a lot of reading in philosophy, economics, and perhaps sociology while he was working on this novel. He also does some very wonderful things with prose registers; different characters think and speak in different linguistic registers, which reminded me of James Joyce's work in _Portrait of the Artist_ and _Ulysses_. The problem, though, can be summed up with the fact that the title is entirely inappropriate: Dos Passos did indeed write about three soldiers, but two of them drop away fairly quickly in the course of the novel. Over half of the book focuses on John Andrews and, unfortunately, he is not a strong or compelling enough character to support the textual weight Dos Passos places on his shoulders. Certainly Andrews, an aspiring composer who hates the life of of order and discipline he is forced to endure in the army during the war, is the character that Dos Passos would probably have been most familiar with (in terms of life experience and class situation). But Andrews is such a lazy, whiny, indecisive and, ultimately, weak-willed character that it was a relief to reach the end of the book regardless of what happens to him. Either Dos Passos intended the book to be a strong critique of Andrews's (in some ways default) philosophy of anarchism, or the author could not control his characters and plot enough to clearly let the reader know how to take Andrews's futile attempts to break out of "the mould" of his training. The text is so cluttered and unclear that it's a little difficult to know how to take it. The book is worth reading, but not something I'd keep around to reread (unlike, for example, Dos Passos's brilliant _Manhattan Transfer_ or the grand and ambitious scope of the _USA_ trilogy). ...more

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May 05, 2017 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-owned

3.5 stars. Dos Passos' Three Soldiers was the first great American novel of the Great War, but it isn't actually about the war itself. There are no long descriptions of trench warfare or battles. Instead, it's about the men who stumble into the war -- searching for escape, or for direction, or for a career, or for adventure, or for an Ideal -- only to discover they had been sold a bill of goods. Instead of making the world safe for Democracy, they found themselves "slaves" in a mechanized system 3.5 stars. Dos Passos' Three Soldiers was the first great American novel of the Great War, but it isn't actually about the war itself. There are no long descriptions of trench warfare or battles. Instead, it's about the men who stumble into the war -- searching for escape, or for direction, or for a career, or for adventure, or for an Ideal -- only to discover they had been sold a bill of goods. Instead of making the world safe for Democracy, they found themselves "slaves" in a mechanized system that trapped them, subjugated them, stole their youth (and their lives), and left them without direction or purpose. Despite the title, the novel focuses mainly on one solider, Andrews, a Harvard-educated musician who is obviously very much based on Dos Passos himself. We see him transform from idealistic young man to directionless deserter, disillusioned and lost as the war ends and he is still trapped in the "Army of Occupation," slaving for the financial interests of the country that has forgotten him and the men like him who never wanted to be long-term soldiers.

The novel has a stark ending, and it must have been powerful for readers in 1921 (especially veterans), as Dos Passos has soldiers expressing ideas that would have been considered treasonous and would have shocked those on the homefront who bought into idea of all-American doughboys fighting jauntily for Democracy and Freedom. I will admit that the novel has lost some of its bite in the intervening century, as Americans have gone through the Vietnam conflict, which brought all these realities into the open and changed how America views itself (and its military obsession) in a way that makes Dos Passos' novel seem a little tame in comparison. But we shouldn't fault Dos Passos for that. If anything, he looks ahead to a century in which America comes to realize that its reality doesn't match its rhetoric, and that our politicians continually misrepresent war to a population who buy into the propaganda, only to cut adrift those soldiers who do the dirty work.

Dos Passos' novel remains a touchstone for understanding Lost Generation pathos in the century where the United States would see both a meteoric rise in its military might and a searing self-reflection on the painful truths about its wartime atrocities on the road to becoming a superpower. ...more

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Jan 10, 2014 Walter rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-historical-wwi

I had high hopes for "Three Soldiers", but I was mildly disappointed by it. This novel was written by John Dos Passos based on his own experience as a soldier in the First World War. It is the story of three soldiers in France during and immediately after the war who struggle with being soldiers in France. One of the soldiers serves relatively honorably in the trenches, one of them becomes a student at the Sorbonne on a soldiers' scholarship program, and one of the soldiers goes off the deep end ...more

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Mar 12, 2014 Fred rated it liked it

Shelves: world-war-1

John Dos Passos is a great novelist, one of the great American novelists of the early 20th century. But this is not a great novel. It lacks a dramatic structure that can keep the reader going and the dialogue is weak. Though it is about "Three Soldiers" it almost reads like three short stores and there is very little about battle. Still, it is an authentic novel of the post World War 1 generation and the issues that he addresses -- loneliness, emptiness, conflicted patriotism, despair -- are dee ...more

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About John Dos Passos

John Dos Passos

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John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.

He received a first-class education at The Choate School, in Connecticut, in 1907, under the name John Roderigo Madison. Later, he traveled with his tutor on a tour through France, England, Italy, Greece and the Middle East to study classical art, architecture and literature.

In 1912 he attended Harvard University and, after graduating in ...more

Books by John Dos Passos

U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money

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“... life is to be used, not just held in the hand like a box of bonbons that nobody eats.” — 17 likes

“It seems to me,” he said very softly, “that human society has been always that, and perhaps will be always that: organizations growing and stifling individuals, and individuals revolting hopelessly against them, and at last forming new societies to crush the old societies and becoming slaves again in their turn….” “I thought you were a socialist,” broke in Genevieve sharply, in a voice that hurt him to the quick, he did not know why.” — 1 likes

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