Reviews for Three Soldiers

The average rating for Three Soldiers based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-09-11 00:00:00 Nirvana Cd I was drawn to Three Soldiers after hearing an old time radio show that brings literature to the airways & wanting to know the whole book as John Dos Passos intended. I have always enjoyed a good war story either written or on film when the human element is brought to light & in this novel I was not disappointed. This not a book just about the world war 1, but it is about the American experience in that war seen through a man that was young American, that volunteered his services before America's involvement & also after American intervention. I love books written by people that lived during those times and write their thoughts about it. It was apparent before googling the author that he had socialist leanings and was not too found of America by what he wrote as a young man & later in life he became a Barry Goldwater supporter, total opposite. The review maybe a spoiler so if you rather not read further because of that, it would perhaps be wise. This book says it is about 3 soldiers but it was mostly about one in particular, John Andrews & many other soldiers. The other two main ones have other issues which makes the military hard on them. This book starts out with the drafting of some soldiers, overseas voyage to France which was described with all its horrors, the war, Armistice & keeping the peace until the troops leave. I was fascinated with the sentiment, the descriptions and the storyline but the main characters were quite unlikable to me & especially John Andrews but I enjoyed the story and will read more of John Dos Passos' novels. There was such un American sentiment from this author & it was interesting as a young man he was socialist/communist & evolved as he aged to a conservative later in life. John Andrews kept mentioning slavery as regards to the military and his draft. It seems funny looking through 1921 eyes that the he sees USSR as having the right idea about rebellion and that they will be freer than a US soldier drafted who after the war can go back to life whereas the Soviet will be restricted & may have to serve longer depending on government whims. The peace conference after Armistice seem as described to be doomed, as already the defeated Germans are acting up. Knowing that the military is not perfect as anything else, it seems that the author painted more a negative light on the YMCA & rank officials. The soldiers overseas deployment sounded horrific, TB, sickness, packed like sardines & dead bodies thrown overboard. Today's military have that easier it seems. The song that the soldiers sang was cleaned up by the public. The sexual transmitted diseases was down played & as the promiscuity with French woman & excessive drinking. John Andrews was unbearable young person who seemed to have such child like views that all centered on himself. The book was mostly about him. He thinks & hates his so called slavery in the military but goes along to a point but not anything farther. He finally finds a way to escape after the war ended by getting a military okay for attending a college in Paris for his music ability. It seems strange that the USA would approve such a scheme but he tries hard and convinces. He meets many friends & thinks he loves a girl Jeanne whose family was reduced after the war & she has to work herself. It seems she might love him in return but after he slept with her he decides he wishes he was in love with her. He decides not to see her again, she might have helped him after he deserted. He then meets Genevieve & does not like her but starts to after he decides she will help him with his music. They become friendly & go to the country to see her home. He is picked up by MP & they laugh at him stating he is in a college program. No trial just hard labor & he can't escape or prove his situation. He and another young kid decide to desert by going overboard & swimming to a French barge. It seems that John has only escaped & the other boy is unknown. He is helped but wants to return to Paris even with all the MP & no longer wearing an uniform which was thrown overboard. He wants to see Genevieve & she is happy until he tells her about his situation. She is disgusted & she lets him down slowly. Her family leaves the country but only she knows of his activity, and tells him to leave the country. His landlady who when knowing he was friends with Genevieve was easier on him but after it came apparent that he was alone & penniless called the MP. He had Genevieve's gun but in the end he could not use it because the landlady took it away. They take him in the end. Dan Fuselli was annoying also but not as bad. He wanted to advance but he could not and ended for some reason on KP duty. His girl Mebe who he stated he loved until he had found a French girl to have relations with & Mebe married someone else soon after he was deployed. Always thinking he was grand but every time. Chrisfield was in rage & he ended killing Anderson with a grenade. He advances but deserts also but do to thinking someone knows about what he did in killing with rage. He did not mind being rank and file and not thinking. OTR NBC University Theater link added - The book I remember being quite different but not too much.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-23 00:00:00 Lou Miller John Dos Passos was politicized by his experiences of war. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in Italy and France and his experiences led him to become a Communist. Later, his experiences during the Spanish Civil War caused him to become disenchanted with the left and his politics became increasingly conservative during the 1950s. When this novel was published in 1921, it caused a sensation. A direct result of Dos Passos' World War I experiences, it's a passionate anti-war polemic, albeit one that deals less with the horror of actual warfare and more with the pettiness, corruption and cruelty of military life. The work relates the experiences of three young American men with different backgrounds and motivations, who embark for Europe to serve their country. Ultimately, the narrative focuses on John Andrews, a sensitive Harvard-educated musician, whose attitudes most closely reflect those of the author. Had I not listened to the audiobook version of the novel immediately after listening to Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, I suspect that I would have liked it more. While the writing is powerful and unsentimental, its verbosity does not compare well with Hemingway's simpler, less cluttered style. The novel would have been much better, I think, - and probably more widely read today - if the prose wasn't weighed down by quite so many adverbs, adjectives and similes. Even though I usually love ornate prose, the language in this novel at times made me impatient. Further, I was never in any doubt as to what the author wanted me to think and how he wanted me to feel, when I would have preferred to simply feel and think for myself. That said, I don't regret the time I spent listening to the novel, which was beautifully narrated by George Guidall, and I plan to read more of Dos Passos' work. My interest in his writing has been sparked by my "Lost Generation" reading project. It's been interesting to discover a writer who was well known and critically well received in his time. It's a shame that he's not better known now.