Last Update 2/20/12 

Mantrap by Sinclair Lewis, 1926 

Although this is one of the author’s minor novels, I thought it was pretty good. The protagonist is a lawyer who succumbs to an urge to take a vacation with a casual acquaintance in the wilds of Canada, traveling by canoe. Not only is he unsuited for the journey, but he and his companion are a very poor match and fight constantly until our hero encounters a local storekeeper who befriends him and takes him to his home. There we find the inevitable pretty young wife and sparks fly, although Alverna is more of a flirt than an ardent lover and is more interested in getting away from the stifling lack of social activity at the tiny and remote settlement.  Then they get caught up in a dispute with the local Cree tribe, many of whom resent being cut off from their credit lines at the local trading post. 2/20/12

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, 1925 

This is the novel that won Lewis the Pulitzer Prize, even though he turned it down. It’s the story of Martin Arrowsmith, starting when he is a medical student and progressing through most of his career.  Unlike Babbitt, who makes a cameo appearance in this one, Arrowsmith is a flawed but basically admirable person who wants to make a difference, although his inclination is research rather than practical medicine. He has his flaws – a brief affair, a touch of conceit, and isn’t always as good to his wife as she deserves – but he still seems heroic compared to most of the other characters in the novel. As was common at the time it was written, the novel is perhaps overly long and provides more detail about his life – some of it repeating points already established – but it moves well for the most part and has some interesting things to say about public attitudes toward medicine. Paul DeKruif was his uncredited co-author. 2/12/12

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, 1922 

I read this so long ago that I had only the vaguest recollection. Re-reading it now, right after Main Street – which I had trouble plodding through at times – I’m impressed by how smoothly it flows even though there is little conventional plot. George Babbitt is a successful realtor who occasionally does some shady things, but always justifies them in his mind, treats his family well but without much emotional content, strives to get ahead in the community while being careful to conform. In his forties, he begins to feel a vague sense of unhappiness leading to flirtation with another woman, disillusionment with his friends, and a passing liberalization of his political views. The book is an indictment of middle class conformity and hypocrisy, racism, and the double standards of the business community toward outsiders. It is just as relevant now as it was nearly a century ago 2/1/12

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, 1920 

I went through  a brief period of reading Sinclair Lewis when I was in junior high school, but that was when I discovered SF and I drifted away after reading only a few of his novels. This was one of the ones I never read, his first really successful book. The story deals with a young city woman who marries a rural doctor and has difficulty adjusting to the limited potential of a very small town. My impression from reviews I’d read was that it was an indictment of narrowminded pettiness and to an extent that’s true, but Carrie is not without blame herself. She clearly feels superior to the local people, is impatient that they won’t change to suit her, and while her husband is no prize, he’s not entirely wrong in his complaints about her incivility. Lewis’ depiction of the petty, short sighted, anti-union, anti-immigrant attitudes that prevail reminded me vividly of some Tea Party pronouncements. Things haven’t changed much in 90 years in some places.  I think Lewis belabors his points a bit too much but it’s still a very effective novel. 1/23/12

Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1981 

The last novel of John Knowles is a return to the school where his first novel took place. It has some thematic similarities – the boys are uncertain what they will do in peacetime – but none of the other virtues. The protagonist is a teacher, former student, who has returned with physical and psychological scars from his time fighting in Europe. Almost immediately he gets caught up in the feud between two students, one of whom is a Nazi sympathizer, and things deteriorate from there.  The confrontation between the students struck me as completely artificial, and the confusion about what to do in peacetime nearly as hard to accept.  Outside of a few brief passages, this is just boring. 1/8/12

A Vein of Riches by John Knowles, Bantam, 1978

This is Knowles’ novel about the rich families that dominated West Virginia during the union organizing/busting years following World War I.  Much of the novel consists of summaries of the various activities – mostly illegal – practiced by both sides in what amounted to a minor civil war. The main characters include the pampered wife of one of the magnates who discovers religion and a social conscience, much to the dismay of her husband, and a willful son who wants to get out and see things for himself. The fictional parts of the story are disorganized and sometimes unfocused, and while parts of the novel make good reading, it really doesn’t hold together as a single work. Eventually the conflict is between father and son as the younger man falls in love with a young woman who turns out to be his father’s mistress.  There’s a lightness to the prose that makes this easy to read, but I doubt I’ll remember any specific scenes a month from now.

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