Richard Moore wrote:
Actually the 42ND PARALLEL is one of the novels in the USA
trilogy. It's been many years since I read the trilogy but I
do recall it getting tedious at times. I would recommend
MANHATTEN TRANSFER (1925) a one-shot for those wanted to
sample Dos Passos in his best remembered style. I like Dos
Passos
a lot. His magazine and newspaper pieces, as assembled in
many collections are well worth seeking out.
Miker, I do think you would enjoy B. Traven. He hated
all governments. Beyond the well-known TREASURE OF THE SIERRA
MADRE (a novel I have reread more than any other single
book), try his THE DEATH SHIP for a tough novel that also
reflects his hatred of bureaucrats and such things as
passports. THE COTTON-PICKERS also comes to mind.
*************** Thanks, Richard. I'm planning on reading both
those Traven books you mention. I can't imagine a better
recommendation. If I recall correctly, THE DEATH SHIP harkens
back to the Twenties. I think I'll read it this fall when I
take a couple months and read some of the precursors to
hardboiled, like the hobo books, Bret Harte, Ring Lardner,
Jack London, and Owen Wister. I might even have to reread
HUCKLEBERRY FINN.
Immediate reading plans call for me to eat all them nasty
words I wrote about short stories and start digging in to the
Twenties and Thirties stuff. I've got Nolan's (?) BLACK MASK
BOYS and Ruehm's collection, a few Bellem stories I never got
around to finishing, and collections by Hugh Cave, Nebel, and
Whitfield. I'll switch off between this reading theme and
Australian with a few Southern Gothics tossed into the mix.
WAHOOOO! Gonna be a great spring and summer. Oh! By the
way... we got the boat back in the lake for the season.
That's another wahoo. ;-)
Just as an aside, I hear that Dos Passos went from the
obvious flaming liberal in his earlier years to an embittered
conservative in his latter years, and that his prose perhaps
suffered for it. The comment I read said that towards the end
of his life he was no longer read. Just what I read. I think
the "no longer read" is perhaps a bit stiff.
Thanks again, miker
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