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thomp649's review against another edition
4.0
[a:John Dos Passos|4778|John Dos Passos|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1408375256p2/4778.jpg] (1896-1970) was one of those American intellectuals who started the 20th century as a Communist and ended up as a Goldwater Republican. The writings collected in this volume provide some insight into that transition. For me, that would be reason enough to read it, especially given the verve that Dos Passos imparts to his observational writing. I'm less taken by the poetry that you'll also find here, but it fits. Dos Passos does a lot of describing the mood and scene in poems written before his 4oth birthday. And he had seen a lot. He volunteered as an ambulance driver in World War I, and returned to bear witness to many the many changes in Europe that culminated in World War II. If you bear this back story in mind, you will be fascinated by the transition in his observations and writing style. I would recommend beginning your read with the selection of his letters at the back of the book. We start with him about to ship off for service in the ambulance corps and watch his hopes for socialist revolution grow in response to his first-hand experience of war. The letters are full of youthful enthusiasm (including that special cynicism that only the young can muster), and they tell the back story behind other writings included in the text.
The first volume of travel writings included here, [b:Rosinante To The Road Again|6284486|Rosinante To The Road Again (1922)|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382942737l/6284486._SX50_.jpg|6468511] is a lightly fictionalized account of wanderings through Spain shortly after the first war ended. It conveys the appreciation that Dos Passos developed for the rural countryside. That would get stated explicitly in one of the excerpts from [b:Journeys Between Wars|56854831|Journeys Between Wars|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611724650l/56854831._SX50_.jpg|461182], written after a visit early in the Spanish Civil War. [b:In All Countries|56505136|In All Countries|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1609547252l/56505136._SY75_.jpg|88186282] also consists of vignettes from his experiences with violence and oppression in various places—Mexico, Russia, the United States—between the wars. Here we get his first inklings that Soviet communism may not be the model of progress he had hoped it would be.
The other travel book in this volume is [b:Orient Express|713361|Orient Express|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1177554424l/713361._SY75_.jpg|17073080]. It's an adventure through the Middle East that reminded me of the trip recounted in [b:The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It|307844|The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611839347l/307844._SY75_.jpg|6551286], taken a half-century earlier. This collection is rounded out with essays written between 1916 and 1941, and published in places like The New Republic and The Nation. Here we see Dos Passos transitioning from thinking there is nothing good or original in America to seeing America as the refuge and best hope for European culture.
Perhaps I should add that I've never succeeded as a reader of Dos Passos' more celebrated fiction. Maybe I should give [b:Manhattan Transfer|126587|Manhattan Transfer|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406085394l/126587._SY75_.jpg|1168729] another try, but my point would be that readers who come to this book from his fiction might be disappointed, while readers who want some insight into that fascinating period between the 20th century's two great wars will be amply rewarded.