Three Soldiers (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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: 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: Not as much about war as the title would have you believe...
Review: This book is not so much about the First World War(most of the book takes place after the armistice) as about the boredom that is inflicted on soldiers to make them a unit. Even that isn't given in explicit detail, and without this level of detail the rest of the book just falls flat.

Also this book has many footnotes which unfortunately are included at the back of the book instead of at the bottom of each page. It makes for continual flipping back and forth and a most irritating reading experience.