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Babbitt

Sinclair Lewis

Start date: July 1, 2026

Finish date: September 30, 2026

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Mar 25, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

I read this because it was thoroughly discussed by Azar Nafisi in her book 'The Republic of Imagination.' And, she has reliably led me to another great American writer. Leave it to an Iranian. Anyway, Babbitt was quick read about George, upper middle class small business man who is striving to become even more 'upper.' He's not exactly stupid, and he's not exactly immoral. He just takes the path of least resistance. He marries a nice girl, one he likes, but doesn't love, because he doesn't want I read this because it was thoroughly discussed by Azar Nafisi in her book 'The Republic of Imagination.' And, she has reliably led me to another great American writer. Leave it to an Iranian. Anyway, Babbitt was quick read about George, upper middle class small business man who is striving to become even more 'upper.' He's not exactly stupid, and he's not exactly immoral. He just takes the path of least resistance. He marries a nice girl, one he likes, but doesn't love, because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings. His marriage requires that he go to work, and give up his legal and political aspirations. He dedicates himself to his family and his real estate business. By all outward measures, he is successful. He makes money, he lives in a lovely suburban home. He dresses fashionably. He engages in shady business practices, but is quite able to ignore that fact, and focuses on the fact that he's doing the bidding of other large and successful bankers and business people in town, so it must be the "right" thing. When an employee engages in something directly and obviously fraudulent, he fires the person and makes the client whole. He's not immoral, and he just doesn't think things all the way through -- the way many of us choose to ignore some of the less savory details of our lives. Just gloss over it. George almost (ALMOST!) takes his life back, but gets sidetracked by booze (essentially), he runs into an old college friend who is a labor organizer and well known supporter of liberal causes. That gets him thinking about his old aspirations. A strike affects the whole town of Zenith, and George finds himself (somewhat surprisingly) sympathetic to the strikers, he finds that his business associates are over emphasizing the violence and horror of the strikers/workers. He tries to take a stand. He finds a girlfriend, but that leads to a lot of almost daily drinking (this is during prohibition). He wants to be independent in thought, he wants to stand up to his cronies at the Boosters and Elks, but he can never quite nail down his beliefs which makes it hard to fight for them. Instead he just parties and drinks. And when push comes to shove, he folds. He joins the novel's equivalent of the "america firsters" and returns to his plodding life with his dull family; and his 'civic' associations. ...more

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Nov 18, 2022 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-book-club

Probably three and a half stars rounded up. Cleverly written at times, with a satirical style which (as someone in my book club said) reminds me of the later writings of Kurt Vonnegut. Important and relevant themes, too. Not consistently compelling, however, although the action certainly picks up in the second half.

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