Babbitt (1922)

Considering the length of time it took me to read this book, I must have found it boring. Yet I acknowledge that Lewis wrote a provocative book for its time, and well deserves its place in the historic canon.

Throughout the book, Babbitt faced the truth that life is absurd to the degree one thinks their actions have importance. He also recognized that running away from one's circumstances is impossible as one can never escape oneself.

Lewis also dealt well with the theme of friendship among men, while also showing that without nurturance, friendship cannot survive. Nothing new in this, perhaps, but it seems more of a feminine story line and it was nice to encounter it here.

So, another unread classic is crossed off the list! ( )

The social satire is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1922, and if we were all honest with ourselves, we know someone a lot like Babbitt. The book is a perfect and timeless social satire that will force you to take a look at your own life, wants, and ambitions in a new light and I’m so glad that Nafisi's Republic of Imagination put it on my radar. For the review, visit The Book Wheel. ( )

For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. After sampling about a dozen more well-known offerings, I was left to select those with which I was less familiar. That is how I came across Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.

George Babbitt is a middle aged real estate broker, living in the fictional city of Zenith, somewhere in the Midwest in the year 1920. George is upper middle class, conservative, a pillar of the community, if just a notch below the upper crust. He belongs to a variety of service organizations and men’s clubs. He has a wife of 25 years and three children at home.

The first three quarters of the book is taken up with explaining just how “normal” and “routine” George’s life actually is. Were it not for the insight into 1920s everyday life, it would be hopelessly boring. As it is, it is only bearable. It is only near the end of the story that George begins to wander from the straight and narrow, undergoing a mid-life crisis of sorts. The consequences of George’s “walk on the wild side” are moderately entertaining. ( )

Lewis nos apresenta com mestria a sociedade do americano médio através de Babbitt, que é um pequeno negociante da década de 20. Ele é a figura real do burguês-padrão: seus pensamentos são ingênuos e conservadores, suas análises sobre os mais diversos assuntos são superficiais, seus desejos estão sempre a favor de sua vaidade e suas atitudes comerciais tem o objetivo altruísta de promover o progresso de sua cidade.

Envolto por tanta mediocridade, o personagem resolve dar um basta na vida acomodada que leva e partir para grandes aventuras, em busca de ideais mais nobres onde a felicidade certamente estará ao seu alcance. Sua batalha será dura, contra uma sociedade mesquinha e de mente curta. Terá que lutar contra sua família e principalmente contra a sua própria essência burguesa. Será que Babbitt vai realmente largar sua vida confortável e falsa? Ele terá força de vontade suficiente? Ele está preparado para a liberdade? Ou tudo não passa de caprichos de um homem infantilizado pelo meio? ( )

Blindly delving into old classics is always kind of interesting: has it aged well? What makes it a classic? Babbit started out really promising: very funny in an old fashioned, observational humour kind of way. I knew I had some sort of meaningful story ahead of me (it's a classic, after all), and having read the first chapter I really looked forward to reading a timeless story delivered in an entertaining manner. Unfortunately a lot of the humour dabbed off rather quickly, leaving "only" a good story.

And there can be no doubt, the story is inarguably very good. It's about a man, Mr. Babbit, who is relatively rich, and has a relatively high standing in society. Most of his life consists of hustling to become richer and achieve an even higher standing. The motivation behind him living this way isn't entirely clear: is he doing what he wants to do, or is he just doing what society expects of him? How badly does he want society to approve of him? Even if it does lead to esteem, money, power, and positions, does that make it worth living your life after a template, following the path everyone expects you to follow? Do you have a choice?
Thoughts like these had never really occurred to Mr. Babbit until a few events leads to him down a path where he has to face up to a few of these questions.

For me the book is at its best when we see Babbit struggling with these questions, and the ways in which he confronts them feels believable. The story also feels like it ended up where the characters made it end up, rather than being a pre-determined chain of events in which the characters were just… well, characters.

Having said all of the above, there is quite a bit of fluff around everything. The fluff wasn't all that interesting to me, and there also seemed to be a "the role of the man in society"-thread that, while I could appreciate, I couldn't really relate to. Some of the fluff is rather good satire, and most of it serves a purpose. Still, there is a little too much of it, and unfortunately the story does drag along at times.
It's still an interesting book, and it is easy to see why it is significant. As always, it is also fun to see how some things never change ("the youth today" were as hopeless in 1922 as they are now), and while Babbit is not a page-turner, nor especially exciting, it's worth the time spent reading it. ( )