Manhattan Transfer

Manhattan Transfer, published in 1925, is a modernist portrait of New York City in the early 20th century. Through a fragmented, cinematic narrative and multiple characters, Dos Passos captures the city’s dynamism, alienation, and social stratification. The novel chronicles urban life with a collage of voices, newspaper clippings, and stream-of-consciousness passages. It is a powerful depiction of modernity, ambition, and disillusionment in a rapidly changing America. Manhattan Transfer paved the way for Dos Passos’s later U.S.A. Trilogy.