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Babbit Sinclair Lewis 9781426406072 Books

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Babbit Sinclair Lewis 9781426406072 Books

I don't think there was anyone in the 1920s who would have believed that this book would be completely forgotten. By all accounts, it was destined to be a classic critical novel of the American experience. You can't read anything about the '20s and '30s that doesn't comment on Babbitt (sold 130,000 copies its first year, HL Mecken loved it, it won Lewis a Nobel Prize). Calling someone a "Babbitt" was considered an insult and the phrase became a constant topic of conversation in the media and literature.

Yet, here we are 80 years later, and you've probably never heard of the term or the book. Even English and history teachers pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know why, it's insightful and funny. Perhaps it's because the biting satire of American suburban middle class life cuts deeper now than it did then. We prefer the glamour of Fitzgerald's jazz age to the notion that "the American Dream" is more often pursued and achieved with painful earnestness by unaware buffoons than anyone else.

The book is a little tough to get into at first because of the '20s style newspaper-speak, but get through it--it's worth it. It doesn't matter if the book is old or out of style, at its core it's about the fight against conformity and a critique of what Thoreau called the "life of quiet desperation."

It's as timely as ever, as far I'm concerned.


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Babbit Sinclair Lewis 9781426406072 Books Reviews

This book was published in 1922 and is a fine piece of satire. Its lead character is George Babbitt, a successful real estate magnate, living in the mythical city of Zenith, which is populated by several hundred thousand people.

The most impressive thing about this book is how realistic Babbitt is as a human being. This comes out at its greatest in the last part of the book when Babbitt comes to experience what has come to be known since the 1920’s as a mid-life crisis. Prior to this crisis he was a faithful husband, a staunch reactionary Republican (anti-union, anti-immigrant, supportive of repression against socialists) and a faithful attendee of the Chatham Road Presbyterian Church. However he comes to have very deep doubts about these stances. In the ensuing mid-life crisis, the excuses he makes for his behavior and the conflicting feelings he has about being a non-conformist are portrayed vividly by Lewis.

There is a tone of irony throughout the book and Lewis provides amusing scenes where Babbitt’s ignorance, desire for respectability, hypocrisy, pride in his high standing among local businessmen and other qualities are on display.

Some of the book’s scenes and recurring themes that are my favorite
• Where Babbitt begins exploring opportunities to cheat on his wife. He eventually starts an affair with a woman but because this was the innocent 1920’s, Lewis makes no mention of sexual relations between the two.
• The desire of Babbitt and his wife to enter the first tier of Zenith’s social elite.
• The scene where Babbitt, his son Ted and wife are discussing home study courses.
• The scene where Babbitt is listening approvingly to a flowery and mystical sermon by his pastor, the Reverend Dr. John Jennison Drew, and remarks to himself “I certainly do like a sermon with culture and thought in it.”
• The scene where Babbitt seeks spiritual consolation from Dr. Drew in regret over his behavior during his mid-life crisis.
• When Babbitt and his wife throw a party at their home and some of the attendees give the opinion that the prohibition law should only apply to working class people and not upper class sorts like themselves.
• The scenes relating to Babbitt’s speeches. For example there is his speech before the Zenith Real Estate Board, which includes him reading an awful prose-poem by his friend Chum Frink.

There is plenty of scenes showing Babbitt as an amusing figure in all his human weaknesses. However, through the description of his relationship with his best friend Paul Riesling, he is also shown by Lewis to have a more serious aspect. That serious aspect is further imparted to the reader as the book goes on and feelings of general unhappiness with life deepen within Babbitt.

One of Lewis’s very impressive skills on display in this book is that of his mimicking the manner of speaking common in various mediums of the 1920’s, whether it be in advertisements, preachers’ sermons, newspaper articles or speeches by businessmen at fraternal lodge meetings. Another impressive skill is Lewis’s description of the city of Zenith itself, including that of its different neighborhoods and leading businessmen.

This is a very well done book. Some people might be thrown off by the elaborate descriptions of scenery peculiar to the 1920’s, for example that relating to Babbitt’s house, or the use of real estate terms. However I got through these aspects OK. . Also in the book, an understanding of the highly conservative, anti-socialist and anti-union political climate in the post-World War I United States might assist the reader’s comprehension.
Babbitt is about a man who is outwardly successful, living the American dream, who is living a seemingly perfect life in a perfect American city. The cracks in this façade are all over the place, and inwardly he feels a deep discontent. When he rebels, however, the forces of conformity exert enormous pressures to bring him back in line. He does come back, but the dissatisfaction is still there, and ultimately he defends his son's choices to live his life the way he wanted instead of conforming. The theme is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago.

My favorite quote from the book

"He felt that he had been trapped into the very net from which he had with such fury escaped and, supremest jest of all, been made to rejoice in the trapping."

I like Sinclair's fluid style. The imagery is colorful and evocative. His rampant humor shows he doesn't take himself too seriously, unlike many other writers at the time. Uses irony to an extreme to highlight the comical situations his characters are in. The prose is easy flowing, but unfortunately relies on too much slang that dates it.
I don't think there was anyone in the 1920s who would have believed that this book would be completely forgotten. By all accounts, it was destined to be a classic critical novel of the American experience. You can't read anything about the '20s and '30s that doesn't comment on Babbitt (sold 130,000 copies its first year, HL Mecken loved it, it won Lewis a Nobel Prize). Calling someone a "Babbitt" was considered an insult and the phrase became a constant topic of conversation in the media and literature.

Yet, here we are 80 years later, and you've probably never heard of the term or the book. Even English and history teachers pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know why, it's insightful and funny. Perhaps it's because the biting satire of American suburban middle class life cuts deeper now than it did then. We prefer the glamour of Fitzgerald's jazz age to the notion that "the American Dream" is more often pursued and achieved with painful earnestness by unaware buffoons than anyone else.

The book is a little tough to get into at first because of the '20s style newspaper-speak, but get through it--it's worth it. It doesn't matter if the book is old or out of style, at its core it's about the fight against conformity and a critique of what Thoreau called the "life of quiet desperation."

It's as timely as ever, as far I'm concerned.