Rating: 
Summary: Strong, but not truly a classic
Review: "Three Soldiers" is John Dos Passos before he found his voice. With the originality of style and narrative punch of "Manhattan Transfer" and "USA" still a few years away, this overlooked writer gave us a good look at the common soldier during and after World War I that is well-written but which occasionally gets bogged down with repetition and the lack of a storyline. Yeah, I know, the repetition and social slavery of the soldier are part of what Dos Passos is trying to get across, but that doesn't make portions like the interminable "The World Outside" section any easier to read. This is probably only considered a classic because of what Dos Passos wrote later. I guess I was expecting World War I to play a larger role, but it really is only a backdrop; there is almost no actual fighting in the entire book, and the novel is less than half over when the war ends (a shame, it was just starting to gather momentum). If you're going to write about the war, at least let us experience some of its horrors with the characters. Still, it is generally a good book, the writing is fine and insightful if, again, a little redundant (the constant description of colors -- the night, nature, etc., got a bit old). But quite nice and recommended as a way to be led into his better works.
Rating:
Summary: Strong, but not truly a classic
Review: "Three Soldiers" is John Dos Passos before he found his voice. With the originality of style and narrative punch of "Manhattan Transfer" and "USA" still a few years away, this overlooked writer gave us a good look at the common soldier during and after World War I that is well-written but which occasionally gets bogged down with repetition and the lack of a storyline. Yeah, I know, the repetition and social slavery of the soldier are part of what Dos Passos is trying to get across, but that doesn't make portions like the interminable "The World Outside" section any easier to read. This is probably only considered a classic because of what Dos Passos wrote later. I guess I was expecting World War I to play a larger role, but it really is only a backdrop; there is almost no actual fighting in the entire book, and the novel is less than half over when the war ends (a shame, it was just starting to gather momentum). If you're going to write about the war, at least let us experience some of its horrors with the characters. Still, it is generally a good book, the writing is fine and insightful if, again, a little redundant (the constant description of colors -- the night, nature, etc., got a bit old). But quite nice and recommended as a way to be led into his better works.
Rating: 
Summary: War and Clarity
Review: An earlier work than his superior "1919," "Three Soldiers" is a little more raw and a little more focused on the human reaction to war's butchery.Unlike "1919" and the USA Trilogy's plethora of characters, "Three Soldiers" focuses simply on, well three soldiers, John Andrews (the Harvard private) in particular. Dos Passos does not set the conflict in the trenches of the Western Front, indeed you will barely find one page of combat. Dos Passos sets the conflict in the emotions and psyche of his main characters. How they respond to the culture that induced them into the war, how they rebel against the stultifying rhythms of army life. As a reader, I sympathized. Dos Passos's characters are endlessly repeating the same cafe scenes. Here's my favorite passage from Dos Passos' "Three Soldiers": "In the light of the one flickering lamp that made an unsteady circle of reddish glow on the station platform Fuselli looked at his pass. From Reveille on February fourth to Reveille on February fifth he was a free man. His eyes smarted with sleep as he walked up and down the cold station platform. For twenty-four hours he wouldn't have to obey anybody's orders. Despite the loneliness of going away on a train in a night like this in a strange country Fuselli was happy. He clinked the money in his pocket. Down the track a red eye appeared and grew nearer. He could hear the hard puffing of the engine up the grade. Huge curves gleamed as the engine roared slowly past him. A man with bare arms black with coal dust was leaning out of the cab, lit up from behind by a yellowish red glare. Now the cars were going by, flat cars with guns, tilted up like the muzzles of hunting dogs, freight cars out of which here and there peered a man's head. The train almost came to a stop. The cars clanged one against the other all down the train. Fuselli was looking into a pair of eyes that shone in the lamplight; a hand was held out to him. "So long, kid," said a boyish voice. "I don't know who the hell you are, but so long; good luck." "So long," stammered Fuselli. "Going to the front?" "Yer goddam right," answered another voice. The train took up speed again; the clanging of car against car ceased and in a moment they were moving fast before Fuselli's eyes. Then the station was dark and empty again, and he was watching the red light grow smaller and paler while the train rumbled on into the darkness."
Rating:
Summary: GREAT WAR NOVEL
Review: Dos Passos delivers Big Time, clear, concise writing with realistic dialougue that reveals the characters through their own words.
A CLASSIC!!
Rating:
Summary: Minor Work by an American Great
Review: Dos Passos's attempt to expose the reader to the plight of the common American enlisted man in WWI rarely manages to achieve the impact one suspects he must have been seeking. It's not about the horrors of battle at all--the three soldiers of the title encounter no real fighting, and half the book takes place after the armistice. Rather, the book is about the horrors inflicted on the minds and spirits of men by the military machine and its inhuman procedures. Dos Passos does this by bludgeoning the reader with the endless drudgery of the soldiers' existence as they meet in boot camp and make their way to France. His three soldiers as clearly meant to cut across the strata of American society: Italian-American San Franciscan, Midwestern farm boy, Harvard-educated pianist, and he clearly shows how they all get ground down and reduced to nothing by the army. In doing so, the book becomes more of an anti-war, pro-personal freedom manifesto than it is a story with a plot. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just isn't done very delicately and thus makes for a rather tedious read. In the end, it's clear why this is considered a rather minor work by an American great.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than a textbook
Review: I probably shouldn't have read this after the great and mighty USA trilogy since anything else he did only pales to that great work but this is a fine, if little known work from a great writer. As people who have read the USA trilogy know, Dos Passos absolutely hated WWI and everything it stood for and here he got to take out his anger on a few targets. While not as focused as 1919 was, he shows his feelings with a deft touch and a depth of feeling that was rarely seen in war novels, his characters aren't all brilliant, the only really three dimensional one is Andrews but they depict a cross section of American life and through their adventures he shows what his firm belief was: that the machine of the army sucked the spirit out of someone and turned them nearly into a automaton. And without focused on the gory battles, he shows the horror of the war in a way that few writers have. Definitely a book that needs to be looked at again and should be ranked with The Naked and the Dead, and Red Badge of Courage (among others).
Rating:
Summary: Better than a textbook
Review: I probably shouldn't have read this after the great and mighty USA trilogy since anything else he did only pales to that great work but this is a fine, if little known work from a great writer. As people who have read the USA trilogy know, Dos Passos absolutely hated WWI and everything it stood for and here he got to take out his anger on a few targets. While not as focused as 1919 was, he shows his feelings with a deft touch and a depth of feeling that was rarely seen in war novels, his characters aren't all brilliant, the only really three dimensional one is Andrews but they depict a cross section of American life and through their adventures he shows what his firm belief was: that the machine of the army sucked the spirit out of someone and turned them nearly into a automaton. And without focused on the gory battles, he shows the horror of the war in a way that few writers have. Definitely a book that needs to be looked at again and should be ranked with The Naked and the Dead, and Red Badge of Courage (among others).
Rating:
Summary: Intense, skillful, expression of war's toll on the psyche
Review: The Signet Classic publication of John Dos Passos' brilliant anti-war novel provides us access to another significant account of the Great War and the writings of this 'lost generation' novelist. Although first released over seventy-six years ago, the novel's timeless message relating the effects of war and military life on the psyches of three young men is as relative today as in 1921. Dos Passos' indictment of the war and America's role in it, contrasts starkly with the crusade like image of the War presented to the American people. The novel accurately reflects the diversity of a conscript army embodied in the three soldiers; a first generation Italian-American from San Francisco, an Indiana farm boy and an east coast Harvard man. Each enters the service with confidence in the role they would play in this clash between good and evil. The transformation of these young men carries through until the end of the war. Although, they all survive there is little left of their former selves. The brilliance of the language and the depth of feeling demonstrated by the author will captivate the reader. This novel rightly belongs alongside cumming's The Enormous Room, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Hemingway's Farewell to Arms
Rating:
Summary: May be best visionary use of words
Review: The story is so so to good, but the images at work make the book a charm of life. I look forward to reading all of his works. Its the life that flows from every sentence that is hard to turn down.
Rating:
Summary: May be best visionary use of words
Review: The story is so so to good, but the images at work make the book a charm of life. I look forward to reading all of his works. Its the life that flows from every sentence that is hard to turn down.
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