Babbitt

By: Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by: George Guidall

With his breathtaking social insight and his graceful sentences, Sinclair Lewis—a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner—stands out as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. At turns lyrically soul-searching and scathing in its honesty, Babbitt captures the essence of the 1920s while remaining a timeless piece of literature. Babbitt, the ultimate conformist and social climber, seeks power in his community and self-esteem from others. Outwardly, he is the ultimate “big booster,” and he toes the company line with “zip and zowie.” In his dreams, however, he is tormented by the emptiness of his soul.

Public Domain (P)1998 Recorded Books, LLC

An outstanding story and performance

First off, I will listen to any book read by George Guidall. I feel like I am in a theater when he performs, he will give just the right flavor and tone to a sentence that could be read in a hundred ways. Then there is the superb writing by Sinclair Lewis. The characters are at once real and caricatures; the city of Zenith is familiar even though it is 1920s. This novel used to be about conformity, chasing money, and about the shallow nouveau riche, but as I see it today, the book also tells us a lot as a historical novel and makes one think how come we in the middle class are so, so much poorer today, in terms of worldly goods but also quality of life, than our counterparts 100 years ago.

A wealth of Americana

While F Scott Fitzgerald wrote about people with money, Babbit by Sinclair Lewis is about ordinary Americans - it is full of satire and humanity. It leaves me wondering if Sinclair Lewis was cancelled by past generations for the constant satire of Americans, for holding up a mirror to the typical reader, or because Americans think the America of Babbit is extinct.