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The 42nd Parallel: Volume One of the U.S.A. Trilogy

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When I first came across John Dos Passos' USA Trilogy (42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money) as a teenager I thought they were the most exciting books I'd read to date. I was enthralled by its scope, its style, and its highly politicized substance. Dos Passos' montage-style (that seemed to be some sort of homage to the great Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein) mixed interwoven story lines of fictional characters with brief contemporary biographies of famous contemporaries. To that he added "newsreel" items, brief inserts from news clippings of the day that gave some sense of the cultural and political world these characters inhabited. Last, Dos Passos added subjective, autobiographical snippets (the "Camera Eye") that served as some sort of exterior voice of the author. I was concerned when I picked up 42nd Parallel many years later that I would find that my excitement was more the product of teenage naivete than from reading a truly unique literary work. Happily, I was not disappointed to find that the USA Trilogy remains for me, a wonderful piece of writing, one that has fallen inexplicably out of the American literary cannon.

Seventy years later we think of American fiction from the 1920s and 1930s as being dominated by three writers, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. It is not much remembered that at the time Dos Passos was thought of as an essential fourth. When 42nd Parallel was published Edmund Wilson's review went so far as to claim that Dos Passos was "the first of our writers, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who has successfully used colloquial American for a novel of the highest artistic seriousness." Upon publication of The Big Money in 1936 Dos Passos made the cover of the August 10, 1936 issue of Time Magazine.

42nd Parallel is a wonderful title for Volume I of the Trilogy. The 42nd Parallel of latitude runs right through the heart of the USA. Starting from the west it forms the north/south boundary of California, Nevada and part of Utah from Oregon and Idaho. Running east it crosses Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and the New York/Pennsylvania border. After cutting across Connecticut it reaches the Atlantic Ocean just where the Pilgrims landed, at Plymouth Rock.

Dos Passos' 42nd Parallel cuts a similar swath across the USA. Set roughly in the years from 1900 to the First World War, Dos Passos traces the lives of five characters, each from a different part of the country and each with a different class and cultural background. We are presented with the stories of Fainy McCreary (Mac), Janey, J. Ward Moorehouse, Eleanor Stoddard, and Charley Anderson. As the stories progress they converge (personally or geographically) and diverge sometimes as randomly as two ships passing in the night. We have a range of characters from a card carrying member of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies) in Mac to a budding man of wealth and importance in the new field of public relations (Moorehouse). Some hop trains and tramp from town to town looking for jobs or social unrest. Others strive for respectability and try to make a `nice' middle class life for themselves.

In between chapters Dos Passos provides us with biographical sketches of famed Americans such as Thomas Edison, Bob La Follette, Andrew Carnegie, and Luther Burbank. Also interspersed throughout the book are the Newsreels and what Dos Passos called "The Camera Eye" made up of his own musings on his life and times. All of the fictional characters live for the moment and don't engage in any literary musings on the meaning of life and their role in it. The Camera Eye seems, in many respects, to consist of Dos Passos setting out his own interior life, something missing from his characters. 42nd Parallel is a politically charged piece of work and is fully representative of the highly charged and turbulent early years of the 20th-century.

By the time I was finished with the 42nd Parallel any qualms I had about revisiting Dos Passos had long since evaporated. I recommend this book to anyone who, like me, read the book many, many years ago. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't yet discovered The USA Trilogy. You won't be disappointed.

This is the first volume of the USA trilogy. It takes some effort to read because of the innovative form the author uses to relate what America was like before WWI. He centers his book around the lives of several central characters and their adventures. Interspersed biographies of famous Americans like Henry Ford are fascinating. The illustrations by (I can't remember the artist's name) are American classics and are of great value in appreciating the text. The 42nd Parallel was known as the major storm path across North America. Dos Passos tracks the gritty lives of the working and middle class Americans with whom he identifies. His detailed map of our national life shows the great divide between our material well-being today and the struggle for existence waged by working class Americans before the New Deal. Great characterizations and descriptions of early 20th century USA.

"The 42nd Parallel," the first volume of John Dos Passos's "U.S.A." trilogy, is a novel about America and Americans from the 1890s up to the first World War. That sounds ordinary enough, but "The 42nd Parallel"--the title possibly refers to the latitude of Chicago, Dos Passos's city of birth and where a good portion of the action of the novel takes place--is notable more for its style than for its content, not that the latter is uninteresting. Dos Passos invents five young people from different backgrounds and parts of the country and follows the courses of their lives until their destinies eventually intersect.

The first to be introduced is a poor kid from Connecticut by way of Chicago named Fenian "Mac" McCreary who, starting out as an apprentice printer not unlike Benjamin Franklin, travels from city to city hopping trains and falling haplessly into a variety of odd jobs--assisting a con man, writing propaganda for a labor organization--until he ends up in Mexico running a bookstore on the fringe of a revolutionary movement. Then we meet Janey Williams, a middle-class girl from Washington, D.C., who makes a living as a stenographer while she is looking for a husband.

Next is a diligent, intelligent boy from Wilmington, Delaware, named J. Ward Moorehouse who after some bad luck in his career and his marriage becomes a successful public relations consultant for corporations. Eleanor Stoddard, a Chicago girl who dreams of a fashionable and cultured life for herself, breaks the social and economic barriers and becomes a highly reputable interior decorator in New York. Finally, Charley Anderson, a North Dakota native, struggles to find and keep work as a mechanic while he roams the country as a vagrant, ultimately volunteering for the ambulance corps in France as the United States enters the European war.

What all these people have in common is that they each epitomize some facet of the new American socioeconomic picture of the emerging twentieth century--the socialist, the working single girl, the corporate image softener. The novel reflects the changes America was undergoing at the time, especially in light of the problematic relations between labor, industry, and government, and the country's potential position as a new global superpower awaiting the biggest, bloodiest war the world would witness to date. Dos Passos wrote this in 1930, so of course he had the benefit of some hindsight; there was no second world war, nor even yet the threat of one, to obscure his vision of the era.

The narratives of the main characters alternate with "Newsreels" that provide glimpses of contemporary events, headlines, and snippets of popular songs; sections called "The Camera Eye" which record random prattle from snapshot subjects and look like modernist prose poems; and brief versified sketches of actual personalities and prominent figures of the day who shaped American history, from Eugene V. Debs to Thomas Edison to Charles Proteus Steinmetz. The novel is experimental in structure, but Dos Passos is breezily conversational in his prose, telling pure stories with natural drama; there is no unbelievable comedy or tragedy here, no sentimentality or jingoism, just life as it is lived.

This first part of Dos Passos' acclaimed "USA" trilogy takes the reader from the start of the 20th-century up to America's entry in World War I through the alternating life stories of five regular (white) citizens. Had he stopped there, the book might have been perfect, but modernist experimentations creep in through the "Newsreel" and "The Camera's Eye" sections and muddy up the work. These are kind of abstract prose collages or montages comprised of headlines, snatched phrases of songs, news clippings, and random phrases -- presumably intended to convey some of the mood and seeming frenetic pace of the time. The fourth element in his brew are brief sketches of notable figures of American history (some more familiar to contemporary readers than others), including Thomas Edison, "Gene" Debs, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Charles Steinmetz (pioneering electrical engineer) and more. However, if one can ignore all of Dos Passos' uneven futzing around with these various elements, there's quite a good social history underneath. When writing about his five core characters, he's very straightforward and proves to be an engaging storyteller.

Dos Passos uses his five characters to show the pre-war period as a time of great change in America, when the political field was still wide open and the opportunities for social mobility were a tangible lure to young people. Probably the closest to his heart is the first one we meet, a poor Irish-American apprentice printer from Connecticut named Mac. His picaresque adventures take him train-hopping around the country and into a turbulent Mexico, taking on odd jobs and working for the labor movement. Raised by Fenian rebels, he's a card carrying Wobbly and proud of it. The middle three characters are middle-class strivers. Janey is a Washington, DC stenographer whose halcyon days of youth end when her teen crush dies in a car wreck and her golden boy brother joins the merchant marine. Eleanor is a naive Chicago girl who is introduced into a "arty" set and eventually works her way up in the world to become a fashionable Manhattanite interior decorator. Both of these women's lives eventually intersect with that of J. Ward Moorehouse, an industrious Delaware boy who manages to latch on to a rich wife and leverages that to make a name for himself in advertising and public relations. A Minnesotan hick named Charley forms the working class bookend to the five characters. Like Mac, he wanders the country, living close the edge and picking up mechanic or carnival jobs where he can, and gets interested in the labor movement.

As the lives of these characters unfold over the decade and a half, we see the energetic face of modern America emerging. The rise and fall of unions, the rise of the working woman, the rise of advertising and media spin, the tension between government and the people, the rise of American hegemony and nationalism, and the inevitable class divide -- the one area that escapes major attention is race. Lest this sound rather dry and boring, the five characters go through personal and professional trials and tribulations familiar to our time. Playing an especially large role in the characters' lives are love and sex, the former generally playing out poorly, and the latter sordidly. There's an interesting tension that surfaces off and on through the lives of the male characters, in which females divert them from their avowed course. This is introduced very early in the book when Mac is warned by his father that he must stay away from women, because women will make you "sell out" and betray the revolution. The idea that a man can't be an effective revolutionary if he's got a woman to deal with is a recurring one -- which is not to say that women don't have their own problems throughout the story -- and it would be interesting to see a feminist analysis of the book. In any event, once you get used to the structure and style and concentrate on the core characters, it remains a very readable and important portrait of America's history from the perspective of a social revolutionary.

It took me a bit to get into the flow of the novel. There are three levels of narrative in the book, and two of them - The Camera Eye and Newsreel - are positively Joycean. On top of that, the narratives about individual characters - the most detailed of the three levels - are written so that once you get to know a character, Dos Passos introduces a new character (there are 4 total) in a new narrative. It can be a little exhausting at times.

Once I got past that, the richness of the language and brilliance of the story became evident. His style is simple, somewhat similar to Steinbeck's, and reflects the "common man" quality of the people he has created. But his scope is far greater than that of any of his contemporaries. It is truly a work of genius. Dos Passos, through 1000 pages (of all 3 volumes) and a dozen main characters, has managed to accruately tell the story of a coming-of-age United States in a human, compelling way.

To read John Dos Passos' "The 42ND Parallel" is a unique reading experience that I highly recommend, though not to everybody. It is a great book, but very intellectual, slow and sometimes confusing --therefore it requires a lot of concentration from the reader. But those who adventure this superb work are likely to be very pleased. This is a great portrait of the USA circa 1900 --a remarkable read.

To begin with, the format of the story can be a major drawback. Not only is it segmented, but also, from time to time, sections that haven't much to do with the narrative itself pop up. Sections named "Newsreel" and "Camera Eye" may not make the main narrative --or narratives --move on, but they are important to set the mood and give historical background to the reader. They can put off the reader, or helpful, it only depends on how much one likes historical context.

Each main character is a book itself. They have long stories that are told from the beginning. Each one has his or her main conflicts, supporting characters and so forth. But the closer we get to the end, the clearer it is that all the storylines will get together in the end. And this is one of the biggest accomplishments of Dos Passos. Many writers try to do this kind of device and fail --they are neither convincer, nor surprising. But this is not the case in "The 42ND Parallel". You may have a feeling the narratives will eventually meet each other in the end, but the end is so engaging that surprises us.

Since "The 42ND Parallel" is the first installment of a trilogy, clearly, it has no ending so to speak. The narratives come to a finale, but still there is water to pass under the bridge. The last paragraph is the perfect hook for the next novel. It leaves the reader with a natural excitement to read "1919".

There is great vitality in this novel; mirroring the hungry droves of Americans crossing their lands, entering into others and landing in the midst of the embattled end of European monarchies. World War I. Great may not be the correct adjective, as so much of this leap involved the dark side of capitalism, imperialism and the hegemony of the corporate state over the common individual.
There is plenty of sex, scandal and people being less than ideal- there is also a fascinating running panorama of the names of history lessons, made real and woven into the plot which is nothing less than epochal. We find Debs, Edison, the Molly Maguires, the Czar, Wilson- they are vividly real and for that alone, dos Passos has produced a invaluable addition to the purely American literature that is evocative and chillingly foreshadowing of the state of affairs visited upon this nation and the rest of the world in 2003. I will wait a while before the next book in this trilogy, but not too long.

I won't write a separate review for each of the three novels in this trilogy, since really they only work when read together as one massive tome anyway.

"U.S.A." is John Dos Passos' attempt to paint a verbal mural of life in America in roughly the first quarter of the 20th Century (the story ends somewhere around the beginning of the Great Depression). It's a massive undertaking, and is the kind of stuff I usually love: a large cast of characters swirling through a complex plot. Characters are introduced and drop out of one volume only to be picked up in someone else's story later in the trilogy; stories mix and mingle, with a main character in one plot line becoming a supporting player in someone else's. Interspersed among the conventional narrative chapters are brief biographies of real-life figures of import in American cultural and political history: Carnegie, Henry Ford, Isidora Duncan, Teddy Roosevelt. And if that were not enough, Dos Passos also throws in "newsreel" sections, which are abstract word montages comprised of newspaper headlines, song lyrics, political slogans, etc.

I don't know much about Dos Passos, but I imagine this was a fairly revolutionary work for its time. The biography and newsreel sections alone give the work the feeling of nonfiction, but even the narrative portions of the trilogy feel as if they are historical accounts rather than fiction. That makes the books both interesting and ultimately a bit tedious. After three good-sized novels, Dos Passos' clinical, objective tone begins to wear thin, and the reader begins craving some juicy, lyrical, imaginative prose to take its place. That is why I can't quite bring myself to give this work 5 stars.

Still, anyone interested in American literature and cultural development should at least give this trilogy a chance.

This book is amazing, much like the other books in this series.In fact I'm thrilled to see that they have finally released it in aversion other than the expensive Library of America version.

When I first read this book (with the others) two years back, I was astounded that it isn't more appreciated. I made some inquiries with some of my college lit profs. and found that while many have read the book, few would teach it due to shear bulk. But this book needs to be taught. It is a history lesson, and it is also written in a style that we don't often see. I would almost call it a documentary. The fictional sequences create some fascinating characters - characters that meet and move on to meet other characters whom we've already been introduced to. Set amid the plot Dos Passos gives us small snipits of news as well as biographical illustrations of such people as Henry Ford and The Unknown Soldier (which is one of the most brilliant scenes I've ever read in any book).

So do yourself a favor: read this book. You might actually learn something ;-)

"But mostly U.S.A. is the speech of the people." So says John Dos Passos in the prologue to his outstanding U.S.A. trilogy which spans the first several decades of the 20th century. THE 42nd PARALLEL, the first book of the trilogy, ends just as the First World War is beginning. Dos Passos, talking about the country, fairly summarized his own astounding work of art.

With this trilogy, Dos Passos captures the essence of America at the beginning of the last century. His prose is remarkable and distinctive. With a few efficient strokes, Dos Passos draws full and vibrant characters inhabiting a world that, through this novel, the reader comes to know.

"After a while the boys stirpped to their bathingsuits that they wore under their clothes. It made Janey's throat tremble to watch Alec's back and the bulging muscles of his arm as he paddled, made her feel happy and scared. She sat there in her white dimity dress, trailing her hand in the weedy browngreen water...The cream soda got warm and they drank it that way and kidded each other back and forth and Alec caught a crab and covered Janey's dress with greenslimy splashes and Janey didn't care a bit and they called Joe skipper and he loosened up and said he was going to join the navy and Alec said he'd be a civil engineer and build a motorboat and take them all cruising and Janey was happy because they included her when they talked just like she was a boy too."

While the prose is excellent and the stories compelling, this novel has several experimental aspects. The novel shifts from character to character. In this way, Dos Passos is able to present a broad, though hardly complete, cross-section of America. From train-hopping Mac to dissatisfied Eleanor Stoddard to budding businessman J. Ward Morehouse, various slices of lower, middle, and upper class life are made real and the issues of the day made urgent. The true main character of this work is America and only by shifting among characters could Dos Passos reveal and examine America as he wanted.

The more conventionally narrative portions of the novel are separated by "News Reels", "Camera Eyes", and short biographies of major figures of the day (such as Eugene Debs, Andrew Carnegie, and William Jennings Bryan). The News Reels, to my ear, succeed in giving a sense of the political mood of the time. Though television did not yet exist, the effect is much like flipping through our myriad channels catching sound bites from talking heads, bits of commercials, and snatches of songs. Dos Passos achieved this effect by crafting the News Reels out of incomplete snippets of newspaper stories spliced among bits of political speeches and popular songs. Because it is so unconventional, it can seem disjointed and, perhaps, pointless at first. With repetition, the reader, at least this reader, starts to feel and appreciate the rhythm. In the end, Dos Passos achieved the effect for which I assume he aimed.

The Camera Eye sections consist of stream of consciousness rambling presented in run-on sentences: "...and everything was very kind and grave and very sorry and frigates and the blue Mediterranean and islands and when I was dead I began to cry and I was afraid the other boys would see I had tears in my eyes...I was so sorry I never remembered whether they brought me home or buried me at sea but anyway I was wrapped in Old Glory."

These sections work also. Reader preferences will vary, but I felt these sections added to the novel and, contrary to the ideas of some, did not clutter the narrative. They provide a different, sometimes more intimate, psychological aspect of the times. The narrative itself addresses the characters' minds in a more oblique fashion, whereas these Camera Eyes provide a direct glimpse into the thoughts of yet another character.

The biographies are short, uniquely insightful, and always entertaining. These biographical sketches are alone worth the price of admission.

THE 42nd PARALLEL is not a typical novel in that characters seem to aimlessly wander in and out of the primary story. As I mentioned before, the true subject is not a particular individual, but America. To present America requires examining its people, but the destiny of any one individual is inconsequential to the whole. Dos Passos manages to tell a compelling story about the U.S.A. without telling a complete story about any one individual. Characters as often disappear not to be seen again as die. When they die, America moves on. The trilogy is enthralling. Dos Passos is a master, the trilogy his masterpiece.