This send up of religious institutions was so devestating that many religious leaders called for Lewis to be stoned to death for writing it. His biting, insightful, and humorous look at religious hypocrisy is as pertinant today as it was when it was first written.

The pure strength of Lewis's prose is refreshing after reading more recent authors. His control and understanding of syntax, grammar, and words maintains a strength and clarity of voice throughout the work. However, he does not sacrifice wit or levity for all his precision.

There are occasions when his passion overcomes him and his critiques fall a little heavy-handed, but these moments are rare and short. He never falls to the sort of surrogate lecturing that many 'political' authors do, and so does not risk boring or underestimating his reader.

He certainly never partakes in the more grievous sin of lecturing the audience as the narrator. Indeed, he rarely makes a point towards his own opinions without undermining it with a little hypocrisy or hubris on the character's part.

The absurdity of Voltaire's satire has nothing on the ridiculous yet believable world created by Lewis. Hyperbole is the haven of the idealist. Realism is more interested in engaging reason than inciting passion, and while Lewis's understated wit never insults his reader's intelligence, it still presents an unsettling and prescient view of power, ignorance, and the masses. ( )

Should be required reading upon reaching one's 18th birthday ( )

Elmer Gantry is such a cad.

The eponymous character of this religious satire, he's really not that likable. Charismatic, certainly, but not endearing in any sort of way. One of the star athletes of Terwillinger College, he is in love with himself and his own voice. An obvious choice for him is to become a Baptist preacher--to save people's souls, of course! It has nothing to do with the power or prestige that comes along with it, not at all. He has a talent of getting himself into (and out of) touchy circumstances, little worse for the wear. The story follows the young man as he attends seminary and his various postings and resulting scandals. Throughout the book, these situations get fairly nasty (at least for others if not for Elmer)--it was like watching something horrible and not being able to look away. Oh, Elmer.

Even though the novel was originally published in 1927, its still surprisingly relevant if not as scandalous as when it was first written. Having been raised Baptist in the Midwest (albeit, not in the early 1900s), it was interesting how much I was able to recognize and how much I able to identify with many of Lewis's sentiments in the book. Although much of the novel is devoted to Elmer and Protestant hypocrisy, it is also an exploration of faith, belief, and humanism in America (even if it is rather tongue-in-cheek). Sinclair Lewis invested in quite a bit of background research before writing Elmer Gantry, and it shows.

I enjoyed reading this book very much, although it seemed to have lost quite a bit of momentum by the end--the first half or so of the novel was much better than the second. However, I did find the language and prose fantastic throughout with plenty of one-liners to go around. I would read it with a smirk on my face for much of the time. It was very good, if a bit slow going at times.

Experiments in Reading ( )

historical drama

Novel by Sinclair Lewis, a satiric indictment of fundamentalist religion that caused an uproar upon its publication in 1927. The title character of Elmer Gantry starts out as a greedy, shallow, philandering Baptist minister, turns to evangelism, and eventually becomes the leader of a large Methodist congregation. Throughout the novel Gantry encounters fellow religious hypocrites, including Mrs. Evans Riddle, Judson Roberts, and Sharon Falconer, with whom he becomes romantically involved. Although he is often exposed as a fraud, Gantry is never fully discredited.