The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A. #1) in Classics Without All the Class

May 18, 2013 Leo Walsh rated it it was amazing

If you were to ask a literati in the 1940's what American authors would still be read in 2013, Dos Passos would have been mentioned in some amazing company: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. But I had never read him. The closest I came was a science fiction classic, Stand on Zanzibar , which used Dos Passos' techniques. I though pretty average, so was sort of lukewarm at the thought of pulling The 42nd Parallel off the shelf.

So I was shocked when I dusted it off, and cracked open If you were to ask a literati in the 1940's what American authors would still be read in 2013, Dos Passos would have been mentioned in some amazing company: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. But I had never read him. The closest I came was a science fiction classic, Stand on Zanzibar , which used Dos Passos' techniques. I though pretty average, so was sort of lukewarm at the thought of pulling The 42nd Parallel off the shelf.

So I was shocked when I dusted it off, and cracked open the book. Amazingly detailed account of American life a century ago. Dos Passos' style reminds me, in some ways, of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass -- it embraces everything American. From the low -- the rambling man & union rabble rouser Mac who travels from New York to the Mid West to Canada to miners' camps out West to San Francisco to Mexico -- to the high -- the influential PR man J. Ward Moorehouse.

Dos Passos' style is clean, crisp, American prose. Descriptive, but action oriented. Little introspection but, like Tolstoy, running a myriad of well-developed characters through actions and reactions that seem completely believable.

The most interesting thing for me is seeing labor and unions portrayed in such a positive light. My grandfather was active in the labor movement in the 1920's, and had been beaten several times by Pinkerton Guards in strikes. But I had been fed anti-union fiction, especially in the movies -- consider, for instance, Marlon Brando fighting a corrupt union boss in On the Waterfront , or the movie Hoffa . Where labor leaders are portrayed as thugs, generally in the hip-pocket of mobsters.

This is not true.

Another thing I appreciated was Dos Passos' equally compelling portrait of Capitalists like Moorehouse. He sees them not as evil people. Instead, Moorehouse, like the labor leaders, seem dedicated to opening productive channels of communication between owners and labor.

All in all, a very engaging, quick-reading classic that gives a pretty objective and all encompassing view of America in the early 20th Century. Highly recommended. Better than The Great Gatsby in my opinion. I cannot wait to tackle the other two dusty volumes that make up the trilogy. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2020 Beth rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

A modern classic. After I got used to the stream-of-consciousness passages and allowed them to just roll over me and set a mood, I enjoyed reading about these fictional characters set within crucial points of American history. Dos Passos captures the spirit of the USA of the times and I look forward to the second book of this trilogy.

1 like · Like · see review