A review by duparker
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos

3.0

This is a complex and complicated book, that is written in such a way that it feels like three books crammed together, none of which tell a complete story. Taken in parts, there is a wonderful use of language and creativity in how the writing is presented. Similar to a Jack Kerouac book there are multiple layers and they are presented as stream of consciousness. The characters exists, but they don't have a clear purpose. In other words there was no start middle and end of the story. It is more or less snap shots of the time and days of these people, in their lives. The newsreel sections help to layout a sense of time, but there is no real connectivity for those times, and the camera lens sections are even more out of place, but fun to read.

I loved the experiment, and loved the complexity, but didn't like the lack of connection and didn't appreciate the brand new character being presented in the last chapter, which left the book with an uncomfortable cliff hanger.