Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt, a satirical depiction of life and business in a middle American city, was published in 1922. It was hugely successful, and the name of its central character, George F. Babbitt, has even entered the language, meaning (according to the dictionary installed on my computer) "a materialistic, complacent, and conformist businessman." I have known that much about Babbitt for a long time, since college, I suppose, but I never actually read it (or, to my embarrassment, any other Sinclair Lewis) until now. A shame to have waited, because I enjoyed it enormously. What struck me first of all was how up-to-date it still seems in most important respects. The babbitts Lewis skewers are still with us. The canting preachers, the ignorant, self-righteous politicians, the jingoistic but corrupt businessmen, along with others whom we see today on the news and hear on talk radio, could come right out of Lewis' book, though Lewis admittedly portrays them in colors even more lurid than life. The only recurrent theme that is undeniably dated is prohibition, but even that does not spoil the timeliness of the book, since it mainly serves to bring out a certain kind of self-serving hypocrisy among the characters in the book. Realism about the actual historical moment is not critical.
A danger in satirical writing--and a trap that even very good writers can fall into--is excessive length. That happens, to my mind, in Candide. No one is wittier than Voltaire, but I still find the last third or so of the book far less amusing than the beginning. That is partly because the characters are so completely flat--cardboard figures if you like--but also because the book revolves around such a limited number of themes, mainly optimism and necessity, which eventually become exhausted as a source of jokes. Lewis avoids that pitfall by making Babbitt, if not a believable human being, at least a person who exhibits, from time to time, traces of complexity and glimmers of sensibility. That keeps the book moving and I did not find it tiresome, even though it is much longer than Candide. In the end, Babbitt reverts to being a materialistic, complacent and conformist businessman, and we wouldn't want it any other way; any other ending would be completely out of character and unpersuasive. Nevertheless, his flirtations with infidelity and with liberalism (as he thinks of it) help sustain the book.
I would not call Babbitt a profound book, but it is certainly a very good book. It is hugely entertaining and if, like me, you have missed it up to now, you're in for a treat.
A danger in satirical writing--and a trap that even very good writers can fall into--is excessive length. That happens, to my mind, in Candide. No one is wittier than Voltaire, but I still find the last third or so of the book far less amusing than the beginning. That is partly because the characters are so completely flat--cardboard figures if you like--but also because the book revolves around such a limited number of themes, mainly optimism and necessity, which eventually become exhausted as a source of jokes. Lewis avoids that pitfall by making Babbitt, if not a believable human being, at least a person who exhibits, from time to time, traces of complexity and glimmers of sensibility. That keeps the book moving and I did not find it tiresome, even though it is much longer than Candide. In the end, Babbitt reverts to being a materialistic, complacent and conformist businessman, and we wouldn't want it any other way; any other ending would be completely out of character and unpersuasive. Nevertheless, his flirtations with infidelity and with liberalism (as he thinks of it) help sustain the book.
I would not call Babbitt a profound book, but it is certainly a very good book. It is hugely entertaining and if, like me, you have missed it up to now, you're in for a treat.