1919: Volume Two of the U.S.A. Trilogy (U.S.A. Trilogy, 2)

Jon Dos Passos’s “1919 (Voume 2 of the American Trilogy)” details the lives of some ordinary and some extraordinary American men and women, both real and fictional, in the years of the first world war—some of which were passed in Paris. It captures the sentiments of the times as they were lived, particularly the undercurrents of anti-war and anti-capitalist thinking along with the fears that this provoked. The characters were the unsung progenitors of the greatest generation, without the photoshopping. It ends with a gripping tribute to the unknown soldier of this war and a cynical take on its beneficiaries

No doubt Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner deserve their renown but, perhaps, our daunting even deadly times demand we read their compatriot John Dos Passos. The one who gets the least attention of the four now deserves the most. The timing is right for USA, a three-part novel that’s relevant to our tweets, to our headlines. From Mac in THE 42nd PARALLEL crossing the El Paso-Juarez bridge, to “The Body of an American” in 1919 interred at Arlington National Cemetery, to labor advocate Mary French in THE BIG MONEY organizing yet another protest after Eddy Spellman is shot dead. The Dos Passos narrative method cross breeds novelist and chronicler to enhance both fiction and nonfiction, a hybridization worthy of Luther Burbank.While the concerns of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner characters are largely private, those of Dos Passos characters are often public: social, political, economical, ethical, moral. At the same time his canvas is so broad it includes the opposition. There may be revolution in the air but there’s counter-revolution in the shadows and it’s a doozy. This novel tries to encompass all of society within the segregated realities that word meant in 1930’s America. No surprise Dos Passos himself begins as a socialist and ends as a Goldwater republican. That’s the American way. Or one of them anyway. As the Europeans so kindly point out: America has two political parties, both being conservative.Your smart phone will help elucidate many of the Newsreels and help you bone up on the Dos Passos biography for The Camera Eyes. Both will remain a challenge for you, as they are meant to be. James Joyce did the same and, for Dos Passos, served as a modern model as Defoe and Thackeray served as his traditional models.Does the system, whatever system it may be, and that system’s big interests, control our lives? Hell, if they did back then it’s a cinch they do now. What controls you? Maybe that phone in your hand. Maybe even this very website. Saul Bellow: “It’s true enough that a simple belief in progress goes with a deformed conception of human nature.”

I disliked the characters in this book, almost all of them. I was struck by how little of the war was a part of the book, even when the characters were in Europe. This is my memory of Vietnam and Iraq. But I thought the Great War was a patriotic vision, as in the movies. Of course, this is the reality. Since I did not know much about this era, I was surprised at how times haven't much changed. Our current political situation is so close to the charged and violent atmosphere in 1919. We don't learn. But books like this force us to accept reality.

Dos Passos brings you back to the period when the USA entered the great European War, that is World War One, the war to end all wars. Full of day to day details about the politics, labor struggles, and headlines of the times. It was a fast read for me, and I am a slow reader. It smacks you in the face with the reality of the "Good Old Days." It bore an eerie resemblance to my owns experiences as a college student during the Viet Nam War. If you want to know how the USA got into the state it is now in, read the entire Dos Passes trilogy, USA, and you will see it has always been this way.

1919 chronicles America from coast to coast beforeduringandafter World War One. (Yes, John Dos Passos runs his words together sometimes.) And he tracks the challenges for various Americans as they seek work, or party all night. Not just stateside but around Europe during the war. The tale of labor protesters gunned down in Everett and Centralia, Washington, is especially grim but accurate.

I am not a fan of the camera eye. In addition, longsentenceswithallwordsattacheddonotworkwellforme. Well written prose and interesting narrative from an historical standpoint. I took a two-book pause between its predecessor 42nd Parallel and 1919. I may take a two-decade pause until I open The Big Money, well well after I've read Ragtime, Manhattan Transfer and Berlin AlexanderPlatz.

Dos Passos is one of the great American writers. Makes Hemingway seem cheesy and Faulkner self involved. This triogy is a glimpse into an American that is long gone, but shaped the one we live it. GREAT read!

I first read the U.S.A. Trilogy in the early 1960's. Reading them today of course is like reading them for the first time. The books have aged better than I have. It's as if I have renewed acquaintance with an old friend.