Babbitt (1922)

His last despairing fling before the paralyzed contentment of middle-age'
By sally tarbox on 27 Mar. 2014
Format: Paperback
George F Babbit is a respectable 'pillar of the community' in the fictional city of Zenith. Married with kids, an increasingly successful realtor in a world of 'good little people, comfortable, industrious, credulous', a good social life...and yet beset by the realisation that:
'perhaps all life as he knew it and vigorously practised it was futile; that heaven as portrayed by the Rev Drew was neither probable nor very interesting; that he hadn't much pleasure out of making money; that it was of doubtful worth to rear children merely that they might rear children who would rear children. What was it all about? What did he want?' Whether Babbit finally breaks with his conservative and conventional life forms the story.

I really enjoyed Lewis' humorous touches, especially the characterization of his mundane domestic life:
' "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", he enlightened Mrs Babbit, for quite the first time in fourteen hours.'
Also his comic takes on advertising and religion (which he focussed on more fully in later work 'Elmer Gantry'.)
The realisation that this is all there is, is as relevant today as back in the 1920s, and this was an excellent read. ( )

This book would had have been better if Babbit had made unexpected drunken love to Sir Gerald or something, but unfortunately, he didn't, and this was an altogether waste of time.

Could not get into it. ( )

Babbitt is the paragon of the middle aged, successful American businessman and petty bourgeois. Everything is going well until midlife crisis knocking on his door. Neither he nor his family or colleagues are unable to handle the situation... for a while. After that of course everything goes like it was before. The Hungarian translation is very old fashioned unfortunately. ( )

From the beginning it is clear that things are never going to work out in a way which causes Babbitt to feel personal fulfillment and any sort of a real happiness, and he seems to be aware of this. To keep his livelihood he has to participate in the conformist culture of business Zenith, and this culture actively squashes independent thought. He did have one opportunity for real human interaction, with Paul Riesling, but that opportunity is taken away. Sometimes George Babbitt searches for some moral compass but he always ends up disappointed in the people who he thinks might have this and his understanding of what is ethical does not change.

We still have this issue. We have become more sophisticated in language use but the we-are-good and they-are-bad sort of polar thinking has continued in various formats. Independent thought and action is tolerated more in some places than others, but it often seems to be seen as lack of willingness to engage in the larger spirit of community. Babbitt experienced this expectation of conformity spread throughout his whole life and he cannot in the end escape the advantages of having a group of people wielding power to support one of its own. This may be because Babbitt has no sense of his individual identity separate from the groups that have claimed him.

This was a better and ultimately more enduring book than Arrowsmith. Even though the reader knows from the beginning that Babbitt is not headed anywhere good, there are moments of humor and compassion for him. ( )