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It Can't Happen Here- Sinclair Lewis - Jan. 2016
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In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here.Lewis’ book was a product of the times when it was written. The title was meant as sarcasm –IT (meaning fascism) can happen here, just as it had in numerous places around the world. A decade before Lewis began writing his book, Benito Mussolini rose to power as the first “fascist” leader. Then, in 1933 (only two years prior to the publication of It Can’t Happen Here), Adolf Hitler rose to power using fascist strategies and doctrine. As the United States confronted the Great Depression, dissident voices also emerged, including Senator Huey Long (the Kingfish) of Louisiana and the writer Upton Sinclair.
http://www.calhum.org
I began the book last night and was immediately immersed. Lewis is a joy when he relates activities of town citizens. There is a mixture of making fun of them but also valuing the fact they are part of an active community. There were a few names mentioned that i had to look up, just to see if they were real or not but that is typical of reading satirical material from the past.And some of the names are a gas! Looking forward to exploring the book further with others here.
I love Sinclair. This is a great book to be reading in 2016. I will put this on my maybe list. I have already read it once. I own the book so it is nice to reread.I was reading The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler
This might be a good companion book to It Can't Happen Here, especially if you are in the fiction/ nonfiction challenge.
This is something that i wrote for Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
It is about a fascist symbol on our money. Given the time that this money was minted and in circulation i think it will add some history to your reading.
Note my comment i added as well.
Cosmic wrote: "This is something that i wrote for Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
It is about a ..."
Thanks for the book recommendation and the interesting take on Cather in the Rye.
Deb, I too found myself looking up a lot of names. For people who read it when it was published these people would have been familiar. The problem is I look them up and then follow all the various wiki links and before I know it an hour is gone.
I wasn't familiar with Julius Streicher chapter 5 for ex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_...
I agree, Cosmic, this is a very good year to read this Lewis book.
I am guessing it's why my local library selected it. It's the first book in what may be an ongoing book club. This first selection has me very excited as most book clubs that I've been part of leaned toward chick lit. I am looking for a book club where I can learn from others.
Cosmic, yesterday i was having GoodReads trouble. Today all seems fine but i still can't get to the message you shared in the link. I see i am over the age, do i also need to join the group in order to see it?Sometimes it is painful to read this book, due to the realization things haven't changed as much as we might like to think. Our appliances change but for some, progress cannot be seen in our views of other humans. Painful, as i mentioned.
Alias, i hope this book group is a keeper for you. Fine beginning, i must add.
I'll let you know, deb. The meeting is Thursday. I hope by then my cold is gone. Right now it's hard for me to read with this head cold as my head is pounding. I did manage a few chapters though. I am at the point where Buzz becomes president and in a one week institutes his authoritarian measures.
You are a bit ahead of me, then. Eager to see what develops. I hope your cold eases...as well as the snowplows arrive.
My cold is a bit better thank you. I am up to chapter 24.
As to the snow, the city has plowed the streets well. However, in a city where half the people don't drive and walk, it's still a bit of a disaster. Most sidewalks are shoveled, however, the crosswalks are impassable. Either you have the snow piled up into mountains from the plows or lakes of slush to wade through.
With my shoulders/arms still giving me a lot of grief, I am quite concerned about going out in this. Unfortunately, I do have things to do on Wednesday and Thursday. Oh well, I'll try to be positive.
Best of luck negotiating the crosswalks. When i was there once after a snow folks helped one another with those corners. I was most grateful, as I am quite the Tumbler on Ice!
I went to the new library book group tonight. It Can't Happen Here was the first book they selected.There only was one other person besides my neighbor who I went went. The discussion was led by one of the librarians. He was only at this branch temporarily as his branch was being renovated. He was very good.
We discussed the current political race. And Donald Trump. We talked whether we thought about the idea that the U.S. could become a fascist state. The librarian asked if thought the Doremus character was believable. We also discussed how Doremus changed over the course of the book. We all marveled at how amazing the book was given it was written in 1935 and how much he seemed to get right about the future.
It was a nice discussion. I hope that more people join the group and it takes off. I am sure many didn't know about the group. Also the snow and cold kept others away.
Where are you in the novel, deb ?
I'm only on chapter 20. I rather like Doremus. He seems more believable than many of the others, imo. I'm wondering if i'll change my mind as i continue reading.I am sorry there were so few in attendance. I hope it was just a reaction to the weather. Or maybe more people need to discuss how on-target this book for 2016? I'd like to see more mention of it. Or maybe there has been & i've missed out on it. That is quite possible.
Did the leader give you the next title for group discussion? Do you think you'll continue? I envy you. Even though i'm not near my library when we travel, i would still enjoying reading a book with them via their web site. For some reason they ended the group around the time we moved closer. Hmmm. :-)
madrano wrote: "I'm only on chapter 20. I rather like Doremus. He seems more believable than many of the others, imo. I'm wondering if i'll change my mind as i continue reading.That was also one of the questions. How believable were the characters? I'll give you my answer after you are done.
I thought Doremus was a believable character. One man thought he would have reacted more strongly in the begining. I suggested he had to worry about his family. Which prompted the question, what do you think you would do if you saw this happening? I think it's easy to think you would be brave. It's not so easy when you can be thrown in a concentration camp, killed or tortured.
I'll definitely be continuing with the group as long as the books chosen are the type worth discussing. If they start with the chick lit. I am out of there. We weren't given the next title. I guess they will use the survey form they handed out to see what type of book people are interested in.
Another plus with a library group is you don't have to buy the book. I am much more willing to read outside my comfort zone when I don't have to buy the book. I also enjoy the social aspect of the group.
I agree, it's easier to gamble if you don't have to put money into the book. I hope they live up to your hopes, at least. This is a promising beginning.I agree about Doremus. The sense i have of him in the beginning is that he is rather private and likes watching the world around him, instead of partaking in it. His initial reaction seems in line with that--he writes his opposition but not, or so it seems to be, in a strident manner.
We all like to believe we would stand up to the sort of tyranny represented in this book but agree with you, when it's real and the consequences are to our loved ones, as well as ourselves, it's less clear. That's why i like D's daughter and her encouragement.
I finished the book as i was struggling with a vicious cold and cough. The end of it is in sight, for me, but DH has begun coughing. At least i can help him through it.THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW!!
I know i don't have to add the spoilers warning but i want to make certain folks know. Overall i liked the book, particularly the ending. I kept wondering how Lewis would end the story, even to the point of suspecting it might be a "dream", as i remember in the third chapter Doremus fell asleep.
That the battle goes on at the end is wonderful way conclusion. As the story progresses, it was somewhat balanced in illustrating how many citizens were fine with the alarming changes, crime fighting and their own status. That he also explained the changes in society, as well individuals was right but i wasn't sure he would do so.
I suppose my only disappointment in Doremus was Lucinda and his affair with her. His dismissal of his wife as a minor thinker and a heavy obligation made me sad. How much of that is a result of living with him? ANYway, not a major point. A larger disappointment was that Lewis had Sissy stating that she might have a "mild curiosity" about what it would be like to be raped by Shad.
Prior to that it was a great paragraph and moment when Lewis had her making a strong statement about the oft heard comment that rape is "a fate worse than death." She declared there were worse fates but then has her naming one as running an elevator as a job was small. After the "curiosity" statement came the meat, "But I’d be willing to have even that happen if I could save one decent person from his bloody blackjack. I’m not the playgirl of Pleasant Hill any more; I’m a frightened woman from Mount Terror!”
I know that is a minor point but there i am.
In all, i feel the book was clever in covering as much as it did. Unfortunately there were some incredibly boring spots when i wanted to stop reading. This is not the Lewis i knew but, honestly, he had a strong point to make and it was more pressing than any of his other works, i believe.
Alias, i'd like you thoughts on the book as a whole now. I'm glad we finally read it and do not believe we could have chosen a better year to read it!
madrano wrote:A larger disappointment was that Lewis had Sissy stating that she might have a "mild curiosity" about what it would be like to be raped by Shad. "Prior to that it was a great paragraph and moment when Lewis had her making a strong statement about the oft heard comment that rape is "a fate worse than death." She declared there were worse fates but then has her naming one as running an elevator as a job was small
Excellent point. I wish I had recalled that when I went to my meeting. What do you think Lewis was trying to say? Was he using rape as a metaphor for something?
As to boring parts, I said at my meeting at times it seemed to remind me of Ayn Rand, not in philosophy of course, but the way they both kept hitting the reader over the head again and again to make their point. I do think the book would have benefited from 100 page cut.
Glad to hear your cold is better.
Deb, I shared your thoughts about Sissy with a friend who just read the book. She noted you have to keep the story in context of it's time. Not analyze it from our post modern feminist era. She noted "I think he was trying to show how modern Sissy was - when really today it is far from a modern thought."
I agree with your friend, to be honest, Alias. I do think Lewis was appearing modern and that's why i included the entire parts i liked. He really looked good there. Indeed, when you look at the other aspects, he included minorities and the very poor in the book, which many such books don't. I didn't want to let the words pass by, however. They were too inflammatory to me now to do so. Coupled with the way he treated the idea of Emma and her wifely self, i saw steps backward. On the other hand, he really surprised me with Mary and her kamikaze act. She ended up being more active, really, than even Sissy or Lucinda. Although, to be fair, both were necessary to make the point, imo.
Interesting point as to whether the rape mention could have been a metaphor. It probably could be. She is one of the few characters who actually explain their thoughts about the consequences of their actions, other than just "getting caught." The idea that she was willing to sacrifice herself if it stopped one person from being pistol-whipped was well put. We didn't see much of that and certainly not an understanding of the act with its possible consequences. Even Mary didn't verbalize it, although had she, others would have managed to dissuade her from following through, i believe.
In the end it isn't a story about the females, it's the story of Doremus. He felt his inaction was to protect his family, or so the narrator explained. But in the end, where were they? He didn't even know.
This is the sort of story one is glad was written at the time. Naming specific people (Coughlin, for instance) as borderline villains was important. And readers needed to see they weren't alone in their discomfort in what they heard, nor as complacent that "it couldn't happen here."
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler (other topics)It Can't Happen Here (other topics)
It Can't Happen Here (other topics)
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