Babbit

Satiric yarn about how the good ol' boy network self-perpetuates. Chuckled through out, but laughed out loud once, when reading that Mrs. Babbitt spent 17 days in the hospital after an appendectomy.

A bit slow but still worthwhile as the author definitely is a good writer and has Made Babbitt an interesting character that even moves you in the End.

For the most part, this is a book about an 48 year old grump's midlife crisis. I hated every single minute of this story. George F. Babbitt struck me as wholly offensive and obnoxious from the very first and he only got worse. While I know, on one level, that this is probably to make a point, I cannot accept that he never gets a comeuppance for being an idiotic jerk. He constantly espouses viewpoints as his own, even though he's simply repeating what he has heard or read in the newspaper.

Once again, I listened to an audiobook. It's hard for me to say whether it was a good performance of the novel or not, since I so hated the novel itself. From the first, I really wanted to punch Colacci in the face to make him stop talking. His voice is grating and annoying. This inclines me to say that thus this is not a great audiobook, but, still, such a voice does fit perfectly with the truly awful people in the story. I do imagine that Babbitt sounds exactly like that.

A more fair criticism of the performance than my personally not liking the sound of Colacci's voice is that it was often difficult to tell the characters apart. During conversations, I really could not follow who was speaking, unless there was some sort of note as to who said what. One conversation between Paul Riesling and Babbitt, for example, left me unsure as to whose wife was being annoying and who was praising whom. Surprisingly, though, this gruff-voiced man did a really good job with the female voices, although, again, they all sounded pretty similar. Of course, the women never really have a conversation, so that didn't matter much.

Pretty much the only interesting thing in this novel is the setting (1920s), but I would recommend getting that from An American Tragedy instead, which has some really strange parallels. Babbitt is repetitive (he constantly mentions his desire to quit smoking and then forgets and then announces he'll do it this time and then...) and obnoxious (Babbitt spends the first half of the novel being sanctimonious about things and behavior, then goes and does all those things and is sanctimonious about those that judge him for it). If that's your thing, then go for it.

This is the story of a man who does everything he thinks he is supposed to to be successful and yet comes to a point of believing he is an empty soul. Where to go from there? You have to read the book! I will say that the plot drags a bit in the middle, but otherwise moves right along. Much of the story made me think of the "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" concept. A timeless theme!

This book took me a lot longer to read than I felt it should have. I just couldn't get into it. Gosh, the lack of plot and constant use of jargon wore me out. That said, it seemed like an interesting snapshot of life in early 1920's America and this book definitely made me think a lot. When this book was published in 1922, apparently the idea that we've become a society of boring, hypocritical conformists was new and shocking. Nowadays we're more aware of this tendency in ourselves, so it's not a shock, but I still found it to be rather depressing. A lot of George F. Babbitt's problems still exist today--how can I avoid allowing my family to fall into the pitfalls that the Babbitts fell into? Can I raise kids in a typical suburban home without becoming the old frumpish, boring, and needy Myra Babbitt? Is it possible to have a long marriage without it leading to violence or extramarital affairs? Can we disagree with our neighbors and coworkers and still be successful?

As I was reading this book I kept thinking, I know this man! Actually, I've met a couple that would come very close to this guy. The way Lewis presented him was very clever. It was hard to like Babbitt very much, but I couldn't hate him either. Just when he got truly unlikeable, he would do something goofy and utterly human or have a moment of relative clarity. His self righteousness as well as his doubts are shown with equal distinction. The satire is fabulous and I laughed out loud many times. Read this book.

An excellent portrayal of a middle-class business man in the vernacular of the times being portrayed. Once I got into it, I found it hard to put down. It's broken into small segments making it hard to get confused as to what's going on. Babbitt is a vehicle for exposing some of the major flaws of the business/social climber.

It took me a while to get into this book. Babbitt is supposed to be a satirical, ironic look at American life in the 1920's - after World War I and before the Great Depression, a period of increasing prosperity for America. Sinclair Lewis struck me as almost intentionally forcing himself to write in the idiom of his period, rather than with a neutral, literary language, and I did not find the style comfortable. That's my problem, not Lewis'.The story is of a middle-aged, fairly successful, real estate dealer who aspires to become more than just "fairly" successful at the same time he seems to be going through a mid-life crisis: he feels lost in himself, and wants to experience a more "liberal" lifestyle. He discovers, however, that the pursuit of success and a liberal lifestyle may not be compatible.Ultimately, it is a story of learning about oneself, the choices one has to make to achieve one's dreams, and the recognition that life is a series of compromises between idealism and pragmatism.What amazes me is the extent to which the situations in which Babbitt finds himself actually apply almost precisely to today's America: the attitudes, the aspirations, the contradictions and inconsistencies - the dichotomy between "liberalism" and "conservatism." Putting aside the dialectic differences, this book could have been written in the past 15 years with no loss of relevance. The pure genius of the book is that it applies to life in any era.An exceptional book. I may not read Lewis again, but I am glad that the one book of his that I have read is so timeless.

Change the technology and take away prohibition and this story could've been written last week. Hard to believe it was written in 1922. I thought this went so far but wasn't willing to go too far, but then again it was written in the twenties. Lot of proto-types for Babbitt on TV.

I read this book long before I lived in Minnesota, or visited Duluth ("Zenith" in the book). I was glad to see this book on the 1000 Novels list, along with Main Street, which I was never able to finish (maybe someday!) I think the difference is in the point of view -- in Babbitt, you see things from Babbitt's point of view and even though he's being judged by the author, there is a certain charm to him. In Main Street, Carol just seems like a whiner to me. But maybe I should give her another chance.

For some reason, I have been reading novels about people who are not exactly the salt of the earth. In this case, Mr. Babbitt is a "typical" middle-classed businessman. In spite of having the required accoutrements of the age – a wife, a good job, children, etc. – his is a loveless life and he is very unhappy. This novel follows him as he explores this unhappiness, to the point where he becomes a bit of a...radical. However, life has different plans for him and, when it all comes to a close, Babbitt realizes he cannot change. Really, Babbitt is not a particularly likable individual. As I say, I seem to be reading about these types a lot lately. (What, exactly, is the cosmos trying to tell me?) And it is very interesting to watch how well authors handle the task. I have seen it mishandled to the point that I rooted against both the protagonist and author, and I have seen it handled so well that, in spite of hoping for ill things to happen to the protagonist, I continued to read about their progress with interest.In this case, it was very interesting. As Lewis describes Babbitt's life, he is quickly someone with whom I cannot sympathize nor hope good things for. Yet, the early section describing Babbitt's life is fascinating and, in spite of the relative boredom of that life, hard to put down. The ensuring action continues that trend. At certain points you root for Babbitt; at others you grieve for him; and in others you feel it is no less than he deserves.I think what makes this work (and what makes any of them work) is that relatability of the character. No, I'm not as bad as Babbitt. But I can definitely see the humanity in him. And, because of that, I appreciate the telling of his tale.(And, after looking more closely, the other situation where I felt the dislikable character was handled so expertly happened to also be by Sinclair Lewis. I guess this guy knows what he is doing.)

Despite the fact that this book was written way back when, I found a lot of relevance to our current world between these covers and I liked it! George F. Babbitt is a real estate agent in Zenith, a Midwestern city of of "towers of steel and cement and limestone" where the population has grown to "practically 362,000." While anyone visiting its business center would be hard pressed to distinguish it from other major cities, George finds every inch of it "individual and stirring." He is married, has two children, and is above all wrapped up in his community standing. He belongs to a number of civic organizations, most prominently, the Zenith Boosters’ Club, where his like-minded, middle-class associates bow to the gods of business, money and progress and work to keep out any elements that they believe might possibly upset their collective and lucrative apple carts. George lives in a modern house with the latest technologies, belongs to a church, plays golf, and his opinions are shaped by the institutions and people with whom he associates and his political party. Underneath his public persona, however, he's starting to think that perhaps there's something missing, that he's not "entirely satisfied." George has an ongoing and secret dream fantasy of a "fairy child" who will help him to escape to places “more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea,” but the dreams are short lived; when daybreak comes it's back to more practical things. One of his old college buds and best friend, Paul Riesling, dreamed of becoming a concert violinist, but he too has jettisoned his dreams and has become a member of Zenith's middle-class business community. Unlike Babbitt, however, he is not afraid to confide his personal dissatisfaction: he's bored, his wife Zilla is a constant nag who makes him unhappy enough to have affairs, and he has come to the realization that in the business world, "all we do is cut each other's throats and make the public pay for it." Paul is the only one of Babbitt's associates that recognizes the need for responsibility -- something that Babbitt and his other cronies don't get. When Paul's problems with Zilla come to a head and he literally can no longer take it, he snaps -- and his actions and their consequences send Babbitt into introspective mode where he comes to realize that his way of life has been "incredibly mechanical:" "Mechanical business -- a brisk selling of badly built houses. Mechanical religion -- a dry, hard church, shut off from the real life of the streets, inhumanly respectable as a top-hat. Mechanical golf and dinner-parties and bridge and conversation. Save with Paul Riesling, mechanical friendships -- back-slapping and jocular, never daring to essay the test of quietness." prodding George into full-on rebellion.I won't say any more -- the novel is an excellent piece of satire on conformity and middle-class culture, business or otherwise. It is set in a time when unions, Socialism and any other form of organization among workers constituted a perceived threat to the American way of life; a time when the "American way of settling labor-troubles was for workmen to trust and love their employers." As Lewis remarks on a Zenith organization called the Good Citizens' League, the members of this group believed that "the working-classes must be kept in their place ... that American Democracy did not imply any equality of wealth, but did demand a wholesome sameness of thought, dress, painting, morals and vocabulary." hmmm.... let's think about that for a moment, shall we? Democracy?There is also a very purposeful delineation of class in this novel, and Lewis has a way of juxtaposing one against the other in some rather well-crafted scenes. Obviously there's much more to it, and there are some hefty critiques and reviews to be found where perhaps more can be gleaned. It is rather difficult to read, I suspect, under the best of conditions, so if you are contemplating it as a reading choice, my advice is not to give up. The book is constructed as a series of vignettes that eventually all come together in an ending which was not so predictable yet powerfully sad, at least for me. Recommended -- but take your time with it.

George F. Babbitt is a successful realtor in the fictional Midwest town of Zenith in the 1920s. Though he has all a middle class man could desire he is vaguely dissatisfied. He is pompous, arrogant and obtuse and I think this quote nicely captures his essence, “These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.”About two-thirds of the way through the novel an event shakes Babbitt to the core. He reexamines his beliefs and values, dabbling in some immoral and liberal (by 1920s standards) behavior, before his proclivity for self-preservation gets the better of him. Another slow starter of a book and though it never really gets exciting, the inaction and subtle tension is very readable and compelling. As a satire, I didn’t find it overly preachy and details of this suburban life really were amusing. Somehow this self-involved, unlikeable Babbitt grew on me; I was rooting for him and hoping he would wake up from his suburban coma to DO SOMETHING. Alas, I got what I wished for and was disappointed. But really there wasn’t any other way it could’ve been for a specimen like Ol’ Babbitt.

After the enormous success of his novel Main Street, Lewis turned to another icon of American life, this time the archetypal middle-clas businessman, immortalized in the figure of George F. Babbitt. Babbitt is a real estate salesman who lives and works in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith. His story is that of suburban life in a city which is filled with "neither citadels nopr churches, but frankly the beautifully office-buildings." Lewis' novel satirically but lovingly details Babbit's routines and rituals as he goes to and from work, socializes, plays golf, goes to the club, and becomes involved in local politics. In the mids of his contented and prosperous life, however, an event occurs that turns Babbit's world upside down and forces him to examine his comfortable existanse. Babbit's resulting lurch from one uncertainty to another allows the reader to see beyond the shining office towers of Zenith to a grittier, more sobering but ultimately more human kind of Amarican life. Lewis' triumph here lies in taking a character that no one could possibly like-the self-important conformist, and aggressively bigoted American businessman-and evoking not only barbed humor but vivid human feeling. Babbitt works as a political critique, piercing the smug veil worn by interwar American capitalism, but trancends mere amusing satire. Life in Zenith has a surprising depth; as such, it reminds us of the redemptive power of looking past ideology to the human relations beneath.

I did like the writing, however the story just made me sad. There was no time that I could cheer for Babbit.... not when he is in his plastic life at the top of the social hierarchy, and not when he is rebelling with parties and women. It's most crushing when he decides to go back to where he was in the beginning.

I read this in Grade 10 and hated it with a purple passion. I read it again years later. I still hated it. Perhaps I am not enlightened enough. In any case, I can appreciate the message and all that, but the administration of said message is painful. When the box of books from back home arrives here, I will add the review that I wrote when I was 14. My opinion hasn't changed much.

1922. Really liked it. Sinclair Lewis writes so beautifully that he can make even a middle class businessman's life lyrical. The novel deals with traditional conservative ideals like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and unquestioning patriotism and loyalty. Babbitt briefly entertains a liberal thought. He sympathizes with the labor movement for about thirty seconds, cheats on his wife and drinks too much for a few months, and loses all his friends and most of his social standing. Then his wife gets appendicitis and he rushes to her side to be the perfect husband once again, and he conforms to the standards he was living by before, with just a bit of niggling doubt left in his mind. He places his hope of ever breaking out of society's mold in his son and hopes he does a better job of it.For someone who basically upholds views I disagree with for most of the book, Babbitt is wonderfully human and loveable. He struggles with real-life questions which I think nearly every one can relate to. His life gets too routine and he experiments, but returns to the safe, straight and narrow path before long. And the dialogue is tip-top!

This book is everything I dislike about literary fiction, and yet it's so darn well written I'm giving it four stars, even though I never would have finished the thing if it wasn't for research purposes. Lewis can WRITE. There's a reason he's remembered as one of the great writers of the 20th century.Here's the thing about Babbit. He's a horrible person, but he's like people all of us know. The book really centers around a catastrophic mid-life crisis. Babbit is sanctimonious, loud-mouthed, a sexual harrasser, desperate to climb the social ladder. He's largely spineless--he follows whatever crowd holds sway over him. Most of all, we are never intended to like him, but we relate to him in small ways all the same. It was only by the power of Lewis's writing that I stuck with the book, because this really hit on so many tropes that I loathe, especially when it comes to spousal abuse (though Babbit's sin in this regard is mostly in supporting his best friend's abuse/near-murder of his wife) and Babbit's extramarital affair. I mean, I HATED this guy, but I kept reading, and on the last page I genuinely pitied him. This book is an exercise is incredible character development.One of the reasons I braved this book was due to the social impact it had in the 1920s. In several books from that period, I have come across mentions of people being considered "like Babbit." The book was a bestseller, and since we all know people like Babbit, it's no wonder the name entered popular culture.

George Babbitt is a middle-aged real-estate broker living in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith in the 1920s. He has done everything “right” in life and lives with his kids and wife in a nice little town. He’s well respected in the community and is successful in business. He loves to think about his superiority over others and “subtly” brag about his material possessions. When a crisis with his best friend sends him spiraling into a midlife crisis we learn just how unhappy Babbitt truly is. He’s built a perfect world, based on what he’s been told means success, yet he feels empty. “Every Saturday afternoon he hustled out to his country club and hustled through nine holes of golf, as a rest after the week’s hustle.” Babbitt reminded me quite a bit of The Corrections, except I hated that book and I didn’t hate this one. It has a similar concept, looking at the average American family and the dysfunction within it, but this one was published about 80 years earlier. I think Babbitt touched on issues that were completely new and hadn’t been discussed yet, like ambition and success vs. family values, the “American Dream” of bigger cars and bigger paychecks vs. happiness. Even though I liked this book, I struggled to feel attached to it because I disliked the characters so much. There’s not a likeable one in the bunch. Babbitt is a self-important fool, his kids are spoiled brats, and even his wife is a bit of a simpleton. I was impressed with what Lewis said about American society in the early 20th century, before everyone else was saying it, but I didn’t love the book itself. This was my first experience with Sinclair Lewis (who I have always confused with Upton Sinclair) and I’m looking forward to seeing if some of his other famous books, like Main Street, have the same tone.  

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis is a satirical novel about American culture and society that explores the dullness of middle class American life as well as the social pressures there are toward conformity. Written and set in the early 1920’s, many of Lewis’ observations are still valid today. The novel is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith where George F Babbitt, a 46 year old prosperous real estate broker is on the verge of a mid-life crisis. Babbitt ‘s family consists of his devoted wife, Myra, and his three children, Verona, Ted and Tinka. The social status of the Babbitt family is important to George and they constantly are on the lookout to improve their status in the community. Yet, there is a bit of a rebel inside George and when his best friend ends up going to prison and his wife goes away to nurse her sister, George mounts his own small rebellion, but eventually realizes that it is too late for him to change and retreats back into the security of conformity. He does however, encourage his son, to explore his possibilities and not just settle into life.I thought Babbitt was a very interesting read. Instead of the glamour and glitz of the 1920’s, this book gives us a glimpse of middle class American life in ways that are both insightful and humorous. The middle class became a recognizable force during this decade and this book helps us to understand it’s place and importance in society. My opinion of George Babbitt went through a number of changes during the course of the story for which I credit the author for developing such a well rounded character. And although the slang and much of the dialogue was dated to it’s time, in many ways this was a timeless story.

Just couldn't get into this and didn't feel inclined to try particularly hard to endure. Language distant from me and dull story.

This book created one of the author's most enduring characters, who's name has become synonymous with a certain type of small town businessman. The story is slow moving, and written in Lewis's typical rather turgid prose, but there are some very good moments.

Very sardonic, satirical, and amusing

It has been more than forty years since I read this book, so it is probably a good time to return; but I'm not sure what to expect from rereading this classic from the pen of Sinclair Lewis. More recently I've read Main Street which I enjoyed. However, Babbitt, while demonstrating the signature Sinclair Lewis satirical style, lingers in my memory as a different sort of book. Carol Kennicot, was endearing in her earnest innocence, while Babbitt has the reputation of a brash booster who gives urban business a bad name. There must be more to the novel than this simple-sounding approach to character. Yet, the character lives through this image. The opening of the novel suggests that Babbitt is living in a world of "grotesqueries" that make up the city of Zenith. This portends what is to come and is in itself a sign of the thought the author has put into his work. The towers of skyscrapers are contrasted with the lowness of tenements. All culminating in the comment that this is "a city built - it seemed - for giants." Enter the lilliputian booster in the person of George F. Babbitt. This reader is confident the style will carry him over and beyond the drudgery of the naturalistic philosophy that underlies this "classic" of the nineteen-twenties.

I see a lot of myself in Babbitt. He's a man trapped within himself and his limitations; he wants to be free, but he's not sure exactly what he wants to be free from, or how to go about his release from the pressures of society and relationships. His rebellion is fascinating though short-lived.The novel itself is more of an account of America in the early 1920s - the rampant growth of the economy, the nascent anti-communism leanings that would reach their zenith with McCarthy, the standardisation and normalisation of everything and everybody, and the rise of 'science' - though this being America and business, a very unscientific science.

Babbitt is a characterization of a capitalist drawn by a socialist. The author calls Babbitt a conservative, but gives him the feelings and vices of an elitist liberal. Since all good humor must have it’s base in truth, this book is totally humorless and extremely boring. I believe most of the passages were stolen from advertisements.

Unsettling satire of the foundational values of the American busines-oriented and puritanistic society, probably still current.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Babbitt would have been much more interesting if I had read it in 1922 when it was first published.Sinclair is commenting on conformity and the deadening comfort of modern American life in Babbitt. While many of his points may still valid, they're not as true today. Additionally, the image of the suburban father and his household are dated, which makes it hard to relate to. Perhaps the most valuable thing a modern reader can take away from Babbitt is that true rebellion is only possible if you really commit, and that's not an easy thing to do. Sinclair points out just why it's so easy to sit back and conform.

The protagonist, Mr. Babbitt is a middle-aged, middle-class real-estate broker, who votes Republican, goes to church, and is the member of the right club; but, he is not very zealous about any of these aspects of his life. He is even open to alternatives in morality and politics, and he explores some of them. Babbitt is not a caricature we would reject as ridiculous. He is a realistic portrayal of a man who has chosen values which are about average for his background.Sinclair Lewis does not sympathize with Babbit's values. There are parts of the book that are satirical in highlighting Babbitt's hypocrisy. Nevertheless, Lewis appears sympathetic to Babbit the man; the man who is not quite happy with his choices, and is trying to be open to alternatives.Lewis's book is naturalism at its best. The actors introspect, and make choices, and direct their lives... and yet, the summarizing message is that this is extremely difficult, and perhaps essentially futile. We do not see someone being absolutely carried along with the trend; but, we surely do not see any heroic battles either. The actors are not born with some inherent flaw that they cannot will away; yet, we find them constrained by their own values and choices, unable to radically change the choices they have made.While I cannot recommend this as inspiring fiction, I think it is definitely worth reading a few such books. I think this type of naturalism has didactic (and "cautionary tale") value. While the naturalism will leave the reader uninspired, the plot carries one along as if one were watching a real reality show.Personally, I will probably read more Sinclair Lewis, but primarily as part of my interest in that period of American history from the 1880s to WW-II.

I'm still a bit torn on this book.The writing was good. The main character, Babbitt, had considerable depth and we really got into his head. The environment/setting/etc was well presented and really gave me a good feel for 1920s middle America. The ending wrapped up the various elements into a nice little package while still giving you something to think about.And yet, I left this novel feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled. There are a few ways to take this novel. From a high level, it's a great sociological exploration into the American upper-middle-class family of the 1920s. It does a great job of showing work life and family life...of exploring the various issues a worker and a family may face...from labor unions to college to prohibition to the overly peppy youth.From a plot standpoint, it's more difficult to evaluate. We follow this man Babbitt through his business days and his time with family and friends. We really get into his head and get a feel for the large variety of things that leave him discontented. And yet through many of the chapters, there doesn't seem to be much "plot" at all other than just randomly following this guy around.There are, backing out to the overall novel, elements of a story arc that takes Babbitt's discontent and allows it to rise and fall and thus driving him to some action. But the elements of action felt sparse within the context of the novel. When the story arc finally reached its first climax, we got a few chapters of self destructive behavior and it looked as though our hero was in for a fall that would spur him either to disaster or into some radical action. Unfortunately, neither came to pass and the climax petered out.I think part of the problem too for me is that I read this in a moment when I was already personally discontented with some elements in my life (work, school...) and so I found myself relating too closely to the overly depressive side of Babbitt. So as he spiraled downward, I felt my own mind reeling, though grateful that I could personally avoid his type of behavior. And yet, once the conclusion of his actions wrapped up, it felt very anti-climactic for me and I felt like nothing was truly resolved the way it could be resolved in real life. Thus, it was as though I got wrapped up in the emotions of a self-destructive mid-life crisis without feeling any resolution to pull me out of the disparaging pit the novel dug. Fortunately, things aren't that bleak for me and I'll quickly dig myself out.If you're interested in the 1920s...or middle america...or the emotions and turmoil of a midlife crisis...then by all means, give this book a read. There are moments of humor and, if pieced together, can make an engaging narrative. Otherwise, the novel itself is rather boring and I personally feel that it can largely be passed by.***2.5 stars out of 5