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”It was speech that clung to the ears, the link that tingled in the blood �� USA.
USA is the slice of a continent. USA is a group of holding companies, some aggregations of trade unions, a set of laws bound in calf, a radio network, a chain of moving picture theaters, a column of stock quotations rubbed out and written in by a Western Union boy on a blackboard, a public library full of old newspapers and dog-eared history books with protests sprawled on the margins in pencil. USA is the world’s greatest river valley, fringed with mountains and hills. USA is a set of big-mouthed officials with too many bank accounts. USA is a lot of men buried in their uniforms in Arlington Cemetery. USA is the letters at the end of an address when you are away from home. But mostly, USA is the speech of the people.��

The most ambitious of the Lost Generation writers �� John Dos Passos made his famous contemporaries appear as pigmies next to his massive, experimental masterpiece. While Hemingway and Fitzgerald were exploring personal tales of machismo and crack-up, Dos Passos tackled the story of an entire nation and era, and did it with a brilliant, never before seen, experimental style.

USA presents a birds-eye view of America during the first three decades of the 20th century. It is the novel as massive mural, the novel as collage. It has no more plot than does your life or mine, yet remains constantly engaging. Dos Passos alternated his narrative between several different devices. He follows, in turn, many flawed, Everyman protagonist from their youth onward, allowing him to explore the development of American business, labor, arts, and entertainment, giving the perspective of the common man. This is broken up by many mini biographies of giants of the era who, unlike the protagonists, made history and were remembered by it. Interspersed with these are Newsreel segments, that give quick snippets of period headlines and popular song. Dos Passos injected his own, autobiographical voice as well in stream of consciousness interludes labeled The Cameras Eye.

USA’s ever shifting focus creates an ultra modern feel that belies the fact that it was written over nine decades ago. The constant cutting in and out between protagonist and the variously styled interludes feels remarkably similar to channel-surfing or scrolling through an internet feed. Its experimental style lends itself perfectly to audiobook, which I consider the optimum way to experience it.

The fragmented collage that is USA’s story is as bleak as it is fascinating. Dos Passos chronicles the beginning decades of the American century as a time of great promise, huge ambition, and constant striving, all consummating in hollowness, disappointment, and despair. In this, his work is similar to his Lost Generation buddies �� just far more ambitious, fascinating, and on a far grander scale.