John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

Dated now and with references to people and events that are close to forgotten.
I had read the trilogy "USA" in 1972 and thought it was revolutionary writing and loved its locomotive narrative.
Dos Passos' diaries and letters are worth reading. He comes across as a retiring thoughtful man with a genius for inventive expression and someone keen for experience.
We follow his development from student to volunteer ambulance service in Europe and Army service in World War I. He was a frequent traveller always interested in how the working citizen was being influenced by the mass movements of the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Over a lifetime Dos Passos gave away his socialist beliefs to such an extent that he ended up a Goldwater advocate in 1964. This change was influenced by his ever growing distrust of communism and political "isms".
There is wonderful correspondence with Hemingway, Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, Fitzgerald and E.E. Cummings to mention the most well-known.
His life at Harvard, travels in Spain, the Near East and Russia, the USA in the Thirties, the Spanish Civil War (where his disquiet with communism was fully realized) and post World War II are all covered.
He was often in straitened circumstances (the correspondence often shows him requesting a loan of a couple of hundred dollars to tide him over). He suffered ill-heath for decades and tragedy struck when his first wife was killed in a car crash. To the end of his days he remained an affectionate man with a healthy capacity for disbelief in the prevailing discourse.
Each period of his life is provided with an introductory piece by the editor in the form of a biographical narrative.
Good reading.… (more)

I alternated between being drawn in and bored by this glimpse into a part of New York in the twenties. Much of the writing is absolutely gorgeous--Dos Passos is a brilliant imagist and the book drips with shimmering sentences. The most interesting part for more was seeing an earlier version of his unique style that he put to such powerful use in the U.S.A. trilogy [b:U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money|261441|U.S.A. The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309200622l/261441._SY75_.jpg|6503267]. I've recommended this work to so many people and would definitely start and maybe even end there.… (more)

Reason Read: Reading 1001 botm September 2023, TIOLI #9
This book was published in 1925 and covers the time period of the Gilded age to the Jazz age in New York City. It is a series of overlapping individual stories and narrative collage (These works tell visual stories of individuals, businesses, organizations and communities. They are bold, personalized forms of visual communication, identity and storytelling.) John Dos Passos was an American socialist novelist and in this work he is showing New York to be a city in motion; there are ships, trains, buses, taxicabs. On importance is the Manhattan transfer which stands for people who are just passing through. Architectures include the skyscrapers and the bridge, Broadway and Wall street.

Themes also include youth and wealth. A person needs to look good, to be young to survive in New York. Another is the wealthy capitalist and the trade unions. Interestingly, the press is a symbol of distrust. One character is a radical journalist and another one wants to be a reporter. He is unable to get his articles published because they don't fit the mainstream idea. Some things don't change. The implication that the media is blamed by a judge as emboldening burglars. Some things don't change I guess.

There are 4 main characters and several secondary characters; Ellen Thatcher a successful actress, several marriages/divorces. Bud Korpenning; farmer roots unable to make it in the city. George Baldwin; young lawyer makes a successful law suit thant benefits Gus the milkman. Jimmy Herf, his mother dies, he has money and can go to school and go into business but chooses instead to enlist and also be a reporter.… (more)