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The 42nd Parallel (4-star)
I really enjoyed this part of the trilogy. It's well written and shows the life, struggles & times in the USA at the turn of the century to WWI.
These characters stem from the working class. They all struggle for comfort, stability, security. The struggles are real. Jobs are lost, bosses take liberties, landlords ask high rents for squalid conditions. It's a hand to mouth existence that all the characters want to leave behind.
Very socialist. I hadn't realized the USA was so socialist at this time. The people can see that their labours and hardships bring wealth to their bosses and their companies. Change is coming....now the war has come to the USA. Will that change the coming change?
Looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.

1919 (3-star)
Much different in tone than the first book. There's a somberness throughout of futility, boredom and an unfocussed look at one's future. The World is at war. That would make one's future unfocussed and uncertain and perhaps one would try to find superficial "joys" wherever one can. But it doesn't make for an interesting story.
I enjoyed some parts of this part of the trilogy but, all in all, this is a dull story that really doesn't go anywhere. Like the characters in this story, we readers are also waiting for the end of the war and this wait is full of dullness. We also take our pleasure in the few short sections of interesting story-line.
Onwards to the third part of the trilogy.

The Big Money (2 star)
Well times have changed. The USA is rolling in money. Fortunes are to be had.
But our characters fail to grab on to any of it for any length of time. How distressing! Thing is......while this trilogy is supposedly a segment of American Life & History and shows changing, revolutionary, economically secure times, these people make their own problems and lose every brass ring being hung before them. These people make their own problems and never seem to learn, hence only repeating the same problems again and again.

The Trilogy (3 star)
As a whole, this is an interesting read.
There are three sections to most chapters:
1. News clips taken from actual newspapers. These give an idea of the changes happening in the country surrounding the characters. Some of these news clips can cause one to go down rabbit holes to search out the original story (ie: the Pig Lady)
2. Camera Eye: a stream of consciousness method of writing telling a life of what is supposedly based on the author's life. Mostly not necessary to the novel but interesting for itself.
3. The story of a character. Reading about these people is like watching a train wreck happening.

Popped in between a few of the chapters is a history of a famous person. These were interesting; a lifetime in a few pages. A life boiled down to basics. Some persons included are: Henry Ford, Rudolf Valentino, Thomas Edison, Isadora Duncan.