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The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A. #1)

John Dos Passos

Start date: September 1, 2019

Finish date: November 30, 2019

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Mar 21, 2023 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads, early-20th-century, world-war-one

I wasn't very far into this when I knew I was reading something very special. Yes, it is an experimental novel where its construction is unusual. I suppose "unusual" is an understatement. This novel, and I'm hoping the trilogy, is a reflection of United States society. Politically Dos Passos was a socialist/communist. The time period of the novel is pre-WWI, a time when that movement was beginning to be come popular. There was less opportunity for people to rise economically. Dos Passos uses his ...more

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Jan 09, 2019 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-read-all-editions, american-dream, literary, travel, culture, economics, experimental, history, politics, identity

I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but this was an outstandingly good read. The format is interesting and unconventional (alternating bits of five different main characters' stories with selections of newspaper headlines and song lyrics, with stream of consciousness vignettes, and with mini biographies of historical figures of the 19teens). These 3 other types of sections add a sense of time and place, and density to the stories woven among them, tying the stories together in a way that the c ...more

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May 30, 2023 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 1001, 2023-read, rws-2023-spring

I liked this novel more than I expected to. Having read that it was an experimental novel and that it didn't exactly have a plot--more a series of characters--I expected to find it either too hard to follow or too shallow to enjoy. Neither is true--the characters are very well drawn. I got more taste for some of these characters in a scant 50-75 pages as I've gotten from whole novels in other books. The author succeeds at painting a very clear picture of America during the around WWI.

I started ...more

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