Manhattan Transfer: John Dos Passos (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Information

It also covers a considerable span of years, though you have to deduce this from internal references - no clues are given. The author frequently has an angry, alienated voice as he describes the shallowness of the actions of his characters. Considered by many to be John Dos Passos's greatest work, Manhattan Transfer is an "expressionistic picture of New York" (New York Times) in the 1920s that reveals the lives of wealthy power brokers and struggling immigrants alike. The time period covered is two to three decades, from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age, so through the First World War. Furthermore, it has a second role, no less important: to embody History, merciless History that feeds on people and events to show that only the masks change, the stage and the plot remain the same.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. In it we meet a large ensemble cast of characters who are struggling, failing, and some few succeeding in the brutally, exciting New York City of the Jazz Age.Later on, everything gets complicated and complex in the cobweb of life in the world second biggest metropolis, populated with both Europe-driven immigrants and people coming from inland states to make a good life in New York – the city of all promises to come true. The story coalesces around a handful of characters, the main protagonist being Matt, a military bigwig who just arrived in Manhattan before 'lift off' if you will. I presented this book as one of 4 with 'New York' as the theme for choice at a book group and was surprised that it was chosen as it sounded a little 'odd' from the reviews I took along. Li ho letti in clandestinità ai tempi del fascismo, e come tutte le cose proibite hanno assunto un significato anche superiore alla loro importanza effettiva.

We just join up with them again for the slide into disillusionment and divorce, and even that is not told in a particularly dramatic way. Think of Henry Miller’s Paris, with its siren song that entangles the artists to better devour them. Manhattan Transfer's ferociously exciting to read, not only because it so accurately represents the physical sensations of modernity in just as innovative a manner as Joyce, Woolf, and Faulkner, but because its politics are critical -- if some readers protest against Dos Passos' sketchbook characterizations, keep in mind he's attempting to paint a portrait of a merciless capitalist system here and its effect on people across the social strata. For instance, in the beginning the book,the child Ellen is born, and the novel carries her to a school- age.

The specific vibe of a city is an emergent phenomenon, driven by the contingent faiths of its inhabitants. The opening chapter(s) of the extraction can seem long and a bit gory but most of the characters are being introduced and it gets a lot better after that. Et là, les défauts commencent à arriver, d’abord sous la forme de personnages plus beaux que nature (un colonel de l’armée capable d’improviser à peu près n’importe quel plan en deux battements de cils, son ancien lieutenant, devenu chef des services techniques de New-York (lesquels services sont prodigieusement équipés)), et d’autres encore, dignes d’un superman à la manque, et sans doute représentatifs d’une Amérique urbaine (et encore, j’espère que non, parce que dans ce cas, le miroir tendu donne de la mariée un portrait assez laid). Sottovento, arrivava odore di marcio dalle navi cisterna all’ancora, un poco inclinate da un lato, con la bandiera gialla della quarantena afflosciata all’albero maestro. However,in the same section, the time lapse for Max, a wanderer hoping to find a job in the city, is only a few days.

Above suicides, lost loves, lost jobs, minor thefts and big larcenies, strikes, war, prohibition, the city blankly contemplates the struggle of generations, knowing so well that no one can truly leave. I'm going to be extra careful not to add any spoilers, because this book is actually worth reading unspoiled.Per il resto è uguale, per quel che mi riguarda lo poteva ambientare nel 2025 e avrebbe scritto comunque un romanzo realista. I far preferred Manhattan Transfer - I don't "get" Gatsby, and it is a mystery to me why it is so highly thought of. E’ un telecamera che zooma infilandosi tra le mura, cogliendo sguardi e raccogliendo frasi nel bel mezzo del loro accadere.