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Summary: One of the greatest novels of the Century !
Review: Sinclair Lewis literally made a spiritual surgeon around the human being with his disventures and trivialities .
This merciless story must have been schoking the most advanced minds in that age . The scandal raised for this work was the clear signal about its inner qualities .
My kind reader ; I believe that any creation process somehow implies the destruction of the established previously order.
Think about the scandal generated for Le Sacre du prientemps in 1913 , the Marcel Duchamp works , The Eroica , The Sixtin Chapel or The Citizen Kane in movies .
If you are an artist and nothing happens beware what you are doing .
This book somehow broke the walls in the early thirties and allowed to Sinclair Lewis to throw his glow to the eternity with this masterwork .
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Summary: Babbitt Ariseth From the Ashes
Review: When the 20's were bursting out all over, we find the antithesis of the Fitzgeraldian hero, a 40 something, unoriginal, humpty dumpty, but groomed sort of fellow called Babbitt. Babbitt's secret desire is to live again, not in the suburban sense, but in a wild and colorful way, and he supresses it until he finally bursts and makes a complete ass of himself. He throws away his Boosterism, his faithful but bland wife, and converges on his quiet midwestern city of Zenith with a fervor that will rock the tabloids and fuel the gossips until the second coming of Christ. Realizing that the futility of his efforts will not free him from the dyed in the wool masses, Babbit submits to becoming a cog in the machine and finally realizes his ambitions through his offspring in a dying F.U. to Zenith and to the world. Hurray for Chicken Croquets and Lettuce Sandwiches, and a toast to Sinclair Lewis who has had entirely to many already.
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Summary: The book for which Lewis won the Nobel Prize.
Review: "Babbitt," published in 1922, was the second straight publishing phenomenon for Sinclair Lewis, who had become a household name in 1920 with "Main Street." By 1930, Lewis had published three more notable novels ("Arrowsmith," "Elmer Gantry," and "Dodsworth"), declined the Pulitzer Prize in a fit of pique, and finally became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The 1920s were his prime years, and none of his novels was more renowned than "Babbitt," which merited special recognition from the Swedish Academy when Lewis won the Nobel Prize.So what is one to make of this novel now? It can be dreadfully dull, and could (indeed should) have been cut in half. It wanders around in search of a plot, and though many of its insights can be funny, overall one has to marvel at how genteel the literature of 1920s was in order to make this book a national sensation. Basically, it is the story of George F. Babbitt, a solidly Republican, supremely self-satisfied, deeply stupid real estate man, who has a sort of midlife crisis in the course of the novel before returning desperately to his earlier state of censorious complacency by the last chapters. Lewis designed him to be an exemplar of his class, and many thought he was. The term "Babbitt" became a popular way of referring to chubby, materialistic businessmen. And then, by the 1940s, the novel had largely faded into oblivion, except in college classes or high school reading lists. Why? Quite simply, because it's not a particularly good novel. It is a reasonably well-written slice of satirical social commentary, and little more. Today, it is merely a cultural relic from the twenties, kind of like the abominably bad "Great Gatsby," which dilettantes rave over as if it were actually a good novel. It isn't, and neither is "Babbitt." But for those interested in how America saw itself just before the Great Depression, books like these might be informative.
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Summary: Fun book
Review: A comincal, engaging book, Lewis tells the story of a 1920's American businessman obsessed with middle-class society and upholding his reputation as an outstanding citizen. His farcical adventures and moral debates highlight American conformist culture and the struggle for individualism
Rating: 
Summary: "I've never done a thing in life I wanted to do"
Review: Classic portrayal of the American businessman, and American business culture. As one previous reviewer titled his review: "shockingly modern". I was drawn to this book after hearing Joseph Campbell quote Babbitt in the "Power of Myth" series: "I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life!", Babbitt tells his son at the end of the novel. He's hoping that his son will be strong enough not to turn into him, and it's a strange moment because it's both sad and uplifting. Babbitt is someone most of us have encountered (or, if we're honest enough to admit it, are or have been to varying degrees) and it's easy to sympathize with his patriotic, capitalist "zippo"! We root for him, while despising him at the same time. He struggles internally with the discrepencies between the capitalist bag of goods he's been sold, and his own natural desires, values, and free will. Like most people unwilling or unable to work hard enough to break out on their own, he settles on an easy compromise: conformity. But only after humorous, sometimes bold, but ultimately futile attempts to "break free" (I'm reminded of Jim Carrey slamming into the physical boundaries of his pre-fab world in the movie, "The Truman Show"). Babbitt is punished by society's worst weapon - ostracism - and he folds neatly back into the herd. One hears the sound of a breaking spirit, and even more sadly, understands.
Rating: 
Summary: Kill me now so i don't have to finish this book
Review: I am 15yo. This is a stupid book. I only got to the second chapter. All he talks about is his shoes and his clothes and what his wife's going to wear. I don't care what his wife's going to wear or his shoes! I'm glad my school only makes us read the first couple chapters of a 'classic' and then allows us decide if we want to read the rest. If not, the suicide rate would be higher for literature class.
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