All About Books discussion

It's week 47, the year is 1922 and the book is Babbit by Sinclair Lewis.

From the article:

"Babbitt, dedicated to Edith Wharton, was published in the same year as Ulysses (No 46 in this series) and likewise explores the passage through life of a middle-aged man. Coincidentally, the opening chapters follow the eponymous house agent's life during a single day. However, George F Babbitt, a self-intoxicated bully from the fictional city of Zenith, is a world away from Dublin's childless cuckold, Leopold Bloom. Similarly, Babbitt, a satire on 20s America by the controversial Sinclair Lewis, was a bestselling entertainment (the antecedents of which are found in Mark Twain, No 23 in this series) with an artistic intention far removed from Joyce's "silence, exile and cunning".

read the article here

I have read this (and the book is on my shelf to prove it!) but honestly, I don't recall anything about it. To me, Sinclair Lewis is the guy who wrote Elmer Gantry...

Leslie wrote: "I have read this (and the book is on my shelf to prove it!) but honestly, I don't recall anything about it. To me, Sinclair Lewis is the guy who wrote Elmer Gantry..."

Never read anything by him

Babbit is the only one of his books that I've read. I remember liking it (feeling it had some good satire and interesting points) but not necessarily being knocked out by it / in love with it. As with Leslie, my memory of exactly what happened in the book is hazy.

I haven't read this. Beginning to sound like a broken record! When the 100 books started I thought I would have read lots but I've not. Might make this a challenge for the next couple if years when they are all announced. I've got more chance of finishing it than the 1000 books before you die list!