This has been one of the rare books that I have started with the intention of getting through in order to get rid of the physical book, but ended up being really wrapped up in, and wanting to keep. Babbitt is one of those rare books that truly requires further study and reflection. It’s a book that requires time and mulling. There is effectively no over-arching plot, yet Sinclair Lewis maintains audience attention in captivating self-reflection, parody, and social criticism.

This book came out in 1922, and there are quite a few outmoded and quite racist dialogues and comments in the novel - at least two anti-Semitic passages, and one anti-Black passage. I advise anyone reading that this may be triggering. Usually when I encounter this blatant, unapologetic hatred and derision in literature, I am so uncomfortable that I want to put down the book. This was not the case with Babbitt. Through using Babbitt as a sort of Everyman, middle-class-“good”-citizen-man archetype, Lewis is able to distance himself and his opinions from the novel itself - and present a time capsule image of the cis-white American capitalist man in 1920s prosperity. Presenting this image, ready for criticism, allows the reader to form their own opinions of Babbitt, and more importantly, judge this era and this group of people as they truly were. Rather than brushing over or ignoring the racism of the era, the book represents it - Lewis is not aimed at glorifying anything or belittling it either.

Indeed, Babbitt is not a sympathetic character, and that is the essential quality of the novel. We care not if he succeeds or fails in his endeavors, we are completely outside because Babbitt himself seems to lack an internal life. Although he suffers from shifting aims, and a life without true direction, he lacks the powerlessness that would make a reader empathize with him. Here is a man, fully capable, fully in power, who is not happy. And in this way, we can reflect more on American society, and the structure of the economy that molds and forms such a man, without getting too bogged down with his individuality (which he completely lacks). Babbitt is completely susceptible to the thoughts and actions of those around him, and his temporary allegiances — and in such, he is an amalgamation of all the ‘great’ men of Zenith - even as that definition changes for Babbitt.

So many topics are touched upon in this winding yet captivating novel - religion, citizenship, marriage, morality, friendship, business, law, family. It’d take me a year at least to pick it apart and put back together, but still I’d have no answers. And truly, I love a novel that doesn’t tell you how to think, or provide false hope for our never ending problems. I’d love to teach this book alongside Death of a Salesman, Ethan Frome, and other novels that touch upon labor. For truly, that is the toil of our lives, and it is ignored far too much in literature because it is truly problematic and distressing — yet we should talk about that which we spend the majority of our waking time doing. I mean how long does it take to fall in love - a topic of which there are millions of books on- versus how much time an individual spends working in their life. The mere fact that it is generally ignored, proves to me that there is ugliness abound in that direction.

I think I’ll keep my musty little 70 year old book, ugly as it is.

This has been one of the rare books that I have started with the intention of getting through in order to get rid of the physical book, but ended up being really wrapped up in, and wanting to keep. Babbitt is one of those rare books that truly requires further study and reflection. It’s a book that requires time and mulling. There is effectively no over-arching plot, yet Sinclair Lewis maintains audience attention in captivating self-reflection, parody, and social criticism.

This book came out in 1922, and there are quite a few outmoded and quite racist dialogues and comments in the novel - at least two anti-Semitic passages, and one anti-Black passage. I advise anyone reading that this may be triggering. Usually when I encounter this blatant, unapologetic hatred and derision in literature, I am so uncomfortable that I want to put down the book. This was not the case with Babbitt. Through using Babbitt as a sort of Everyman, middle-class-“good”-citizen-man archetype, Lewis is able to distance himself and his opinions from the novel itself - and present a time capsule image of the cis-white American capitalist man in 1920s prosperity. Presenting this image, ready for criticism, allows the reader to form their own opinions of Babbitt, and more importantly, judge this era and this group of people as they truly were. Rather than brushing over or ignoring the racism of the era, the book represents it - Lewis is not aimed at glorifying anything or belittling it either.

Indeed, Babbitt is not a sympathetic character, and that is the essential quality of the novel. We care not if he succeeds or fails in his endeavors, we are completely outside because Babbitt himself seems to lack an internal life. Although he suffers from shifting aims, and a life without true direction, he lacks the powerlessness that would make a reader empathize with him. Here is a man, fully capable, fully in power, who is not happy. And in this way, we can reflect more on American society, and the structure of the economy that molds and forms such a man, without getting too bogged down with his individuality (which he completely lacks). Babbitt is completely susceptible to the thoughts and actions of those around him, and his temporary allegiances — and in such, he is an amalgamation of all the ‘great’ men of Zenith - even as that definition changes for Babbitt.

So many topics are touched upon in this winding yet captivating novel - religion, citizenship, marriage, morality, friendship, business, law, family. It’d take me a year at least to pick it apart and put back together, but still I’d have no answers. And truly, I love a novel that doesn’t tell you how to think, or provide false hope for our never ending problems. I’d love to teach this book alongside Death of a Salesman, Ethan Frome, and other novels that touch upon labor. For truly, that is the toil of our lives, and it is ignored far too much in literature because it is truly problematic and distressing — yet we should talk about that which we spend the majority of our waking time doing. I mean how long does it take to fall in love - a topic of which there are millions of books on- versus how much time an individual spends working in their life. The mere fact that it is generally ignored, proves to me that there is ugliness abound in that direction.

I think I’ll keep my musty little 70 year old book, ugly as it is.

The novel begins with a depressing indictment of middle class life in 1920 - which is startlingly like middle class life in the 2020s. Then the plot kicks in, and our eponymous "hero" suffers. His life and times are well-observed and we'll-expressed. I'm not sure I'd recommend the book, but I'm glad I read it.

Amazing. If this is a book you've long heard about but never read, then read it.

This has long been on my list of books to read…I remember reading and loving Main Street as a graduate student. Sinclair Lewis is not was widely read as he was a generation ago… truly a shame when you consider his keen observations of human nature and his barbed wit that remains evergreen.
Lewis’s title character is the American Everyman: social climber yet longs to just be one of the boys, obsessed with money and status, attention and thrill seeking, and yet we sympathize with him because he is a mirror in which we see ourselves. Update some of Babbitt’s fashions and pastimes and this story is still as relevant to these ‘20s as is was to the ‘20s of the previous century. This book made me laugh and think. 5 stars.

My husband recommended this book to me after having to read it for a college class. Positives: It was funny in a satirical kind of way. I learned some about life in the 20's. Nice to be able to say I read another classic. Negatives: it was so so boring. Really, not much happens. When something DOES happen its at the VERY end and still not that exciting. I only finished it to make my husband feel better.

Sometimes over the top. Funny, sad, oddly comforting knowing that sometimes things just don't change all that much.

Convinced that socialists from greater Minnesota write some of the best and most scathing satires of capitalism and the white political moderate.

100 years old, yet shockingly relevant to our times. Solid satire about social and political conformity. I appreciated how it allowed for hope for the next generation.

I liked this book, but didn't love it.

Watching Babbit vacillate between different desires and motivations for 400 pages was interesting and amusing. Yep, it was sarcastic, like all the reviews said. The moments where Babbit self-reflects are funny, but also few and far between. He's definitely a bit of a bumbler, stumbling between whatever he finds popular at the moment. I was satisfied though, with his lack of real character development.