Product Description

"Don't you know better than to sleep in your O.D. shirt? Take it off."

"Yes, sir."

"What's your name?"

The man looked up, blinking, too dazed to speak. "Don't know your own name, eh?" said the officer, glaring at the man savagely, using his curt voice like a whip. -- "Quick, take off yer shirt and pants and get back to bed."

The Officer of the Day moved on, flashing his light to one side and the other in his midnight inspection of the barracks. Intense blackness again, and the sound of men breathing deeply in sleep, of men snoring. As he went to sleep Fuselli could hear the man beside him swearing, monotonously, in an even whisper, pausing now and then to think of new filth, of new combinations of words, swearing away his helpless anger, soothing himself to sleep by the monotonous reiteration of his swearing.

A little later Fuselli woke with a choked nightmare cry. He had dreamed that he had smashed the O.D. in the jaw and had broken out of the jug and was running, breathless, stumbling, falling, while the company on guard chased him down an avenue lined with little dried-up saplings, gaining on him, while with voices metallic as the clicking of rifle triggers officers shouted orders, so that he was certain to be caught, certain to be shot. He shook himself all over, shaking off the nightmare as a dog shakes off water, and went back to sleep again, snuggling into his blankets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1946709 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .78" h x 6.00" w x 9.00" l, 1.12 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 348 pages

From Library Journal
Narrator George Guidall valiantly brings out the beauty of this American classic (first published in 1921). Three Soldiers' eloquent expression arises from Dos Passos's deep conviction; it's one of the most realistic accounts of military service in France during World War I. The author's concern with individual freedom and "life" rather than mere "existence" as a cog in the military machine is paramount. Military tactics, strategy, or international politics never enter the picture. Dos Passos uses the stories of three young men from all parts of the country to show the courage each must attain to face life, the ultimate reality, not death. And life is the refusal to surrender to dehumanized power. A heartening recording, for all collections.?James Dudley, Copiague, N.Y.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Intense and poignant, Dos Passos's book is a gut-wrenching and frightening tale of loss of innocence. Listeners completely empathize with the hopes and dreams of the three young protagonists, only to be shattered at their inevitable upheaval. Guidall's deeply emotional and reflective narration has the perfect range of humor, passion and temperance to best translate each character into a living, breathing entity. Softly ironic but respectful of textual integrity, Guidall brings such an immediacy to Dos Passos's haunting work that listeners are torn between keeping their tape players on all night and wishing the nightmare would end. J.S.G. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Ingram
Written based on the author's experiences in World War I, a gritty antiwar novel traces the struggle of three American recruits to preserve their humanity in the face of the army's brutal regimentation.