Rating: 
Summary: Tell me What The True Message Is
Review: Babbitt is a very intriguing story. A businessman has a mid-life crisis and realizes somewhere along the line his life is not all that great. He doesn't love anything; he isn't the man he wants to be; he isn't where he wants to be. Nothing goes write for George Babbitt. Somewhere along the line Babbitt gets the idea he'd found happiness but soon after realizes it's just an illusion. Babbitt is a powerful character drownded in greed, in desperation, a pathetic man. He never did anything he wanted to, as he says, but he never figured out what he wanted to do either. Babbitt is an incomplete man, but somehow Sinclair Lewis drew a complete picture of Babbitt's pathetic life. Therein lies the greatness of the novel and Lewis' powerful storytelling.
Rating: 
Summary: The Quintessential American
Review: Babbitt, the main character of the book, is nothing less than the quintessential American, albeit satirically stereotyped. Exuberant, practical, naive, progressive, blindly optimistic, cheerful (on the surface), and out to get the bucks. Of course, not all Americans are exactly like Babbitt, but if America was said to have a national character, or some sort of behavioral and psychological mean, Babbitt would be it (see, for example, "The Ugly American"). He is the common man. The self-made businessman. He's the kind of guy that wouldn't ask for directions from his wife. He's the lover of gadgetry and automobiles. The smoker of fine cigars. The conservative Republican. The loyal tax-payer. The supporter of the troops. The anti-communist. In short, he is the man in the middle who makes it all happen -- and as it is today, the man in the oval office who really makes it all happen. This book will split your sides it is so funny at times. At other times, it will make you feel like crying, as Babbitt's nagging sense of alienation and dishonesty reminds you of many people you see around you, perhaps even yourself. Sinclair had a commanding grasp of the American Spirit, and it scared the Bejezus out of him. Read this and you will be frightened too. If you live in America, you will find that there is something all too familiar between these covers, like waking up with a hang-over and staring into the mirror for too long. The image is distorted, aging, and less-than-ideal. As I read, I kept thinking to myself, This is like the tale of an American Ivan Illich, only he never quite wakes up to the innanity of it all. Sobering.
Rating: 
Summary: Are We A Nation of Babbitts Yet?
Review: Before reading "Babbitt," a 1920s-era cavalcade of a middle-class social climber's daily life and decline--by one of America's most illimitable muckrackers--ignore, if you can, academic whiners who insist Sinclair Lewis wrote second-rate novels that have lost their luster. Even if you find Lewis' almost chirpy, concise and unusually witty treatment of George Babbitt--booster, scoundrel, moral klutz--offputting and oddly reminiscent of the typical "personality profile" you'd probably find in "People" or "Newsweek"...you'll be amazed at how closely "Babbitt" mirrors the conventional business ethic behind today's headlines. Eighty years after its initial publication, "Babbitt" resounds with the kind of disgust anti-WTO protesters registered in 2000 against America's empire of "market forces"--and what that kind of misbehavior can do to a person. But perhaps eighty years has been far too long--at least long enough for us to forget Lewis' powerful message. Yes, long after the nation's initial sip of The Gilded Age revealed a dissonant aftertaste--one that resulted in both civil unrest and the eight-hour workday, medical benefits for employees, Social Security and hundreds of other hard-won reforms--the reappearance of a new, lean-and-hungry Babbitt on the cusp of the 21st Century requires that we never forget to remember where avarice, hubris and self-satisfaction have led us before. Babbitt is rich. Now what? Did we already ask you to take a look at George Babbitt? Well, just take a look at that good old George Babbitt--an orotund, well-dressed farmboy who honestly believes that a smallish fortune in real estate is proof positive that he is "superior" and some kind of Renaissance Man. Really nothing more than a self-deluded social climber desperate to gain more status and lose the private celebrity of a rootlessness he can't grasp, Babbitt is driven by the forces that made him: Having been taught to confuse "consuming" with "power", "real estate" with "substance" and "self-interest" with "morality", Babbitt never seems to understand where his superficial understanding of himself and the world is bound to end. Still, without what constantly elludes and haunts him--what more to expect from a walking market survey?--Babbitt just knows he'd be nothing. Even when opportunity knocks and the reader sees how far out of his league he has managed to malinger, Babbitt the Fool threatens to snowball right into oblivion. His values just aren't up to snuff when it comes to footing the bill in the purchase of his illusions. He's a cross between a bush-league Donald Trump and Frankenstein. Sinclair Lewis is perhaps the only Nobel-Prizewinning author who never gave up his day job: As a novelist, Lewis remained a journalist at heart. Not content to muse and muddle over deep feelings or states of being, Lewis, in the style of any good muckracker, literally cut to the chase, opting pragmatically to hook-up with a large audience rather than appease a small circle of critics--who, by the way, came along for the ride anyway. This popular novel about the boundaries of what we now call "pop culture" may ring like a tin trumpet in the ears of those who are now accustomed to a more up-to-date tone-of-voice. But remember: The tone-of-voice Lewis used in "Babbitt" mirrors the superficiality and cloyed nature of his subject. "Babbitt" is an uproariously political novel that wields political correctness like a crowbar.
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: "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: This book is not involving
Review: From the jacket cover, Babbit would seem to be a highly provocative novel about the true nature of the American dream. While it is about the American dream, the book seems to run only on one joke: Babbit's rampant materialism. This joke wears thin within the first 30 pages, and the reading the 400 more pages is a tedious task.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Venom
Review: George F. Babbitt is an upper-middle class businessman in the great city of Zenith. In "Babbitt", Sinclair Lewis gives us the story of Babbitt's fall from and redemption to the good graces of Zenith's Floral Heights' society. With George F. Babbitt, Lewis has attempted to personify the modernizing struggles of early twentieth century America. Lewis uses Babbitt to stand in for the forces of conservatism which fought against the unionization and socialization of America's labor force. Babbitt also represents the bourgeois lifestyle that has been the ideal of American existence (except for the upper class) since Europeans began colonizing it. In Babbitt we see the supposed struggles that middle class people are supposed to experience because of their empty, meaningless lives. Here's where I have my falling out with "Babbitt." Lewis attempts to portray Babbitt as representative of an entire class of people. The brush that Lewis paints with in "Babbitt" is far too wide to be realistic. Had he tried to make Babbitt an example of one man's struggles, then it would have been successful, at least to a point. Lewis is a known "crank" (to borrow a term popular in his day). Usually he is able to focus his derisiveness to a fine point. His work in "Main Street" and "Arrowsmith" are examples of the sharpness of Lewis's best efforts. However, "Babbitt" has none of the crisp commentary of these works. It bludgeons the reader with something beyond social commentary that borders on misanthropy, or at the very least, class envy. Lewis's venom in "Babbitt" is meant to kill and not merely to wound. One gets the impression that Lewis detested George F. Babbitt and men like him. Perhaps he felt these men were below the likes of a distinguished author or painter or some other artist. Lewis cannot hide his distaste in "Babbitt" and it ruins what could have been an interesting examination of a man learning his own mind.
Rating:
Summary: So those were the good old days?
Review: George F. Babbitt is middle-aged and middle-class. He lives in a medium-sized home in a medium-sized city in the Middle West. He's a middleman--he sells real estate. He went to a state university and depends on his secretary to fix the spelling and grammar in his letters. His children fight over who gets to use the car. His life is pretty straight and narrow, until he begins an affair when his wife is out of town and all of a sudden things aren't so middle-of-the-road anymore. Sound like anyone you know? But "Babbitt" was published--almost unbelievably--in 1922. Funny how little some things have changed. Lewis's satire on suburban life and its conformities was an instant hit. Even today, we know what a Babbitt is--a guy who's all show and no go--whose lifestyle and opinions have been furnished for him but maybe whose soul is a little out of whack. It's a pity that schools usually assign the much slower-paced "Main Street". Read "Main Street" to see what life used to be like. Read "Babbitt" to see how we got to where we are today.
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.
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.
|
