The Zenith is a fantastic city that was created with great effort by the author Lewis Sinclair - located somewhere in the Midwest (central and northern) states of the United States. Thanks to this city and its amazing inhabitant, George F. Babbitt, the author won the Nobel Prize in Literature and humanity got the most heartwarming portrait of a Republican middle-class man written so far. This book was written in the 1920s but could very well describe a current voter of Donald Trump.

I racked my brain to find the difference between George and the typical bourgeois characters so often described in my favorite French social novels of the 19th century (Balzac, Zola, Maupassant, etc.). Until I reached a point in Sinclair's story where he makes a brief reference to an elderly veteran of the American Civil War. And then I realized: The American Civil War took place from 1861 - 1865 and from then until 1920, 59 years had passed.

In about half a century, in the United States, from horses and carriages, Scarlet O'Hara's dresses, jackets and washing in the tub, the average American found himself with houses with central heating and electricity, private cars and means of mass transportation, airplanes, cinemas, stores that sold everything and an insatiable appetite for even more progress. In the European novels of the interwar period (e.g. Rose Macaulay), progress is primarily ideological and spiritual. In the United States, it is above all materialistic. With their teeth clenched in the mire, the Americans are ready to conquer the world and leave the old continent to eat their dust. And of course, history has justified them.

Moreover, Babbitt and his clique have the typical characteristics of a capitalist who loves the whole world, as long as the world does not interfere with their profits:

"However, Babbitt was virtuous. He advocated for prohibition, although he did not apply it himself, he exposed the legislation on the speed limit while driving and although he did not follow it himself, he paid his debts, he donated to the church, to the Red Cross, to the Y.M.C.A (Young Men's Christian Association), he followed the traditions of his clique and he only took with their blessings, never resorting to great deceptions."

That is, Babbitt is the classic bourgeois, who is in the middle to upper strata of society and enjoys general respect, is a champion of an ethics that serves him and ensures him a large bank account, has no substantial education but has made a superficial pass-through of knowledge at some university, so as not to seem completely ignorant.

However, Babbitt, this typical example of a gentleman, a capitalist of the prohibition era, is not portrayed as repulsive. You don't hate him. Somewhere - somehow you might want to throw a brick at him, but only up to that point. He is married to a decent, thin housewife, he has three children, he loves to give speeches and have an opinion on everything, he maintains a childish egotism and conviction, he is a hypocrite, but he is not violent and deep down he feels that something is missing. He feels that old age is approaching. Somewhere inside him he feels the futility of his existence. And it is precisely this futility that at some point clashes with his vanity.

All these Sinclair describes with generous doses of humor, through Spartan episodes, without theorizing himself, letting his heroes, through their own blabbering and their own actions, gain flesh and bones. Since Sinclair has been translated very little or not at all in Greece, I read the book in its original. It is truly the deepest American work I have seen, a language without the finesse of the English pronunciation, but particularly choppy that rains down almost like a hail of gunfire. It is indeed very difficult to translate this way of speaking into Greek and a part of the beauty of the text, unfortunately, is condemned to be lost in translation.

Values and ideas such as socialism, workers' rights, political and social equality, are things that can make a consistent Republican foam at the mouth. At some point, the author, to emphasize and sketch their ideological framework, has one of them make a racist speech of hatred, which is shocking. And it is not so much the abhorrence that these racist views cause, but the fact that many Republicans still express them even today. Since the way he speaks about African Americans is so pitiful that it can be disturbing, I will not convey it here, I will only mention a small excerpt that refers to immigrants (which is also bad, but ultimately, just to give an idea):

"And one more thing we have to do, said the man with the velvet cap (whom they called Kopinsky) is that we have to keep these stinking foreigners out of our country. Thank God we are now putting a limit on immigration. These Spaniards and those Slavs have to understand that in this country the whites are in charge and that they are undesirable. When we assimilate the foreigners we already have here gathered together, and we teach them the principles of Americanism, so that they can become men, then maybe we will let a few more come."

And by revealing the name of the speaker (Kopinsky), the author expresses his deep irony towards a descendant of immigrants - who in essence comes from the same land as his contemporary hunkies - whom he hates so much, even though they have common roots. "O say can you seeeeee" etc.

I loved the author. I want to read other works of his and in fact there is one that caught my attention, "It Can't Happen Here" written in 1935 about the American version of totalitarianism. After all, American literature is wonderful, I can't understand why I haven't dealt more with it until now. A mistake that I hope to correct in the next year with many enjoyable readings.

(Book 722 From 1001 Books) - Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951)

In the fall of 1920, Sinclair Lewis embarked on writing a novel set in a city that was expanding rapidly yet still retained the essence and mindset of a small town. For the focal point of his scathing satire of American business, he crafted the character of George F. Babbitt, a bustling, shallow, and shortsighted individual who embodied the mediocrity of the middle class. This novel solidified Lewis's reputation as a significant social commentator.

Babbitt revels in his ordinary success and the popularity it has bestowed upon him. He imposes high moral standards on those around him while engaging in flirtations with women. He desires to have wealthy friends while shunning those less fortunate. However, Babbitt's sense of secure complacency is shattered when his best friend is imprisoned. He then struggles to find meaning in his empty life. He rebels, but discovers that his former routine is not so easily cast aside.

The titles published in Iran include: "Babbitt" and "Babbit". The author is Sinclair Lewis. Translated by Manouchehr Badi'i and others, it has been published by various publishers in different years. The book, first published in 1922, critiques the culture and behavior of American society through the story of George Babbitt. Babbitt, who lives in a small town called Zenith, appears to have a perfect life with a successful career, a loving and kind wife, three children, and a modern and comfortable house. But he feels dissatisfaction and loneliness, and questions the consumerism, materialism, and conformism of the middle class. This feeling leads him to the world of politics and a seemingly attractive but perhaps illusory "bohemian" lifestyle. However, the protagonist soon realizes that his attempts to change the status quo and break the rules may come at a much higher cost than he initially thought.

The date of dissemination is 14/11/1399 Hijri Shamsi and 03/10/1400 Hijri Shamsi. By A. Sharbiani.

**"The Story of a Domestic Revolutionary and the Long Road to Becoming Nobody"**

The story unfolds like a circular path. Just as I took a circular route to my first yoga class without realizing it, Georgie Babbitt embarks on a "long and tortuous road." He walks, looks around, turns, gets lost, rebels, distances himself, but then recognizes the landscape, calms down, and parks - perhaps permanently? - his car.

Sinclair Lewis, through the description of Babbitt's seemingly ordinary life, fiercely criticizes the American bourgeoisie of the 1920s. This is a society based on well-being and appearance, where conformity and external morality are the watchwords for perfect integration and assimilation. The Babbitt we meet at the beginning of the novel is the most successful example: a plump forty-six-year-old, a real estate broker, an exemplary husband, and a father of three children, perfectly integrated into the community of Zenith, a model city symbolizing the United States of that era. He drives his car, when few in the city have one, with the sole purpose of being well seen and closing lucrative deals. In the end, like many, like most of the members of the exclusive Booster Club he belongs to, he only cares about his own garden and saving face.

However, at a certain point, something cracks, and our Babbitt begins to flounder, gasping like a red fish pulled out of the water. Lewis touches all the chords, changing Babbitt's and the reader's emotions as the story progresses. At first, the narrative is brisk - I felt like reading it with the same tone as the newsreel historians of the Luce Institute - satirical, humorous, and even slightly irritating. But as we continue reading, doubts start to creep in that the story cannot continue in the same vein. Indeed, small flashes of understanding gradually replace it, and small gestures bring Babbitt closer to us, making him more similar and pushing us to root for him.

He is so human that we feel a great tenderness towards his attempts to rebel and change his life. He is so human that perhaps in his failures and conformism, each of us can easily find something of ourselves and the dreams we have had to, wanted to, or believed we had to give up. Perhaps, precisely for this reason, at the end, associating disappointment and compassion with a circumstantial smile, and passing the baton ideally to the new generation, is the most natural conclusion.

It was a great discovery by Lewis, and it was also a great discovery to know that it was the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature! In short, I already knew I knew so little, but sometimes I'm really exhausted. Fortunately, there's Contemporary American Literature!

I have been completely indulging in my exploration of Lewis's fiction. It has been a truly fascinating journey. However, now that I have arrived at Babbitt, I finally understand why it is regarded as his masterpiece.

The story is tightly plotted, with every event and detail fitting seamlessly together. It is incisively character-driven, delving deep into the minds and hearts of the characters. The protagonist, in particular, is a complex and multi-faceted figure. He is both revolting in his shallowness and conformity, yet utterly compelling in his struggles and desires.

The novel takes us on an all-too-realistic journey through the quiet desperation of middle class life. It exposes the emptiness and dissatisfaction that often lies beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary lives. Lewis's writing is sharp and perceptive, capturing the essence of the human condition with great skill and artistry. Overall, Babbitt is a remarkable work of fiction that truly deserves its status as a masterpiece.

**My Harsh Review of a Novel**

I managed to persevere until the end, but for a while, I thought I wouldn't make it. This quote accurately reflects my state with this novel. It's one of the reasons I finished it, to add it and say that I endured to the end despite being skeptical that I would last.

This review is very personal, not objective or realistic, and it expresses my extremely negative personal opinion and feelings towards the novel.

The novel is about Babet and his life. It's about a person who sees his life as ordinary and routine, and three-quarters of the novel is spent with him being bored, not because his life is dull, but because of his own style and the dull details. In the last part of the novel, he decides to rebel. But what is this rebellion relatively? He has sexual affairs and cheats on his wife, and that's how he achieves satisfaction for himself. He doesn't end bravely and gets angry with his wife, blaming her for everything, for the dullness of his life and the people in his life, who are actually his friends and the people he interacts with.

To complete the change, he drinks a lot of alcohol and smokes a lot, and he associates with immoral people. That's how he breaks the boredom, for example. I feel sorry for Babet. I don't act like that.

I've read many novels about very ordinary characters' lives, and maybe their lives are dull and there's nothing special, but they are presented in a style that attracts me, in a way that makes me merge with the character or be interested in it. But here, there's nothing at all, no style, no details, just a lot of random and meaningless details that have no purpose and no effect except to test my patience. I can't get close to the character, nor do I feel empathy or interest in it in any possible way.

If it weren't for the fact that the novel was with me in paper form and I couldn't throw away a paper novel without reading it, I definitely wouldn't have finished it. Usually, if a novel is dull, I rush to finish it quickly. With this novel, I felt like I was crawling to finish it, like a person with a burning fever on his back, hands, feet, brain, and every part of his body. I could have easily finished 20 pages in a long time and skipped paragraphs without reading them, and in other times, I felt short of breath. I was literally torturing myself. I think this is the worst form of torture. It was really hard for me to force myself to read it.

This is one of the paper novels that I want to burn or give as a gift to someone who hates me, for example, or force someone to read it. I don't understand how this author won the Nobel Prize. I don't like novels that win awards in general. But here's a prize from me too: the prize for the dullest novel I've read in 2023 and maybe in my entire life. Mr. Sinclair Lewis, I don't want to see your name again in front of me, even by chance.

August 30, 2023

As this 1920 novel begins, George Babbitt is a prosperous and respected realtor. He is an enthusiastic member of the Athletic Club, the Boosters Club, and the Elks. He owns a fine house and car, has a compliant wife, and three children. He believes he should be happy. However, he smokes an excessive number of cigars, snaps at his wife and children, and has daydreams about his stenographer and dreams at night of a "fairy girl." George is experiencing what, 100 years later, we refer to as a midlife crisis. Then, his only close friend, Paul Riesling, rebels against the constraints of his life with catastrophic consequences. When Babbitt stages his own rebellion, he discovers both the price of non-conformity and the value of community.

There is much to dislike about George Babbitt. His business ethics are not always what they should be. He is a pompous know-it-all, a social climber, short-tempered with his meek wife, and desperately seeking approval and respect. Nevertheless, I felt a certain tenderness for him. There is a decent man hidden within the bloviating booster as he stumbles towards an internal life and a sense of who he is beyond being a realtor and clubman. He shows admirable loyalty to Paul, even in Paul's darkest hour. He comes to realize that he does love his wife. And, in the end, he desires his son Ted to have a more authentic life than he has had.

This book also evoked a sense of nostalgia in me for the U.S. of 100 years ago. Yes, the businessmen of that era were phony hustlers like George and his friends, but they produced things: tools, roofing material, cardboard boxes. Today, if you want any of those items, they are likely made in China. Babbitt and his fellow businessmen were bloviating boosters because they were proud of their businesses and their booming towns. They joined civic groups because they sincerely wanted to improve their towns. In my opinion, we could benefit from bringing back some of that spirit.

However, there is one thing I am not nostalgic for: the lives of upper-middle-class women in the 1920s. George's wife, Myra, is meek because she feels useless. She has servants and "modern conveniences" to do most of her work for her. She is not allowed to have a career or even her own opinions. Her only roles are mothering their children, which she does with little acknowledgement from George, and being an ornament and social asset to him. There is very little intimacy between Myra and George. She sleeps in their bedroom, while he sleeps on the sleeping porch. When they have a failed dinner party, George hears her crying in the next room but remains on the sleeping porch instead of sharing their disappointment.

I truly enjoyed this book. Many aspects of middle-class life in the United States have changed since 1920, but many others have not. The pursuit of status never changes. The male midlife crisis also doesn't change much. I found this story highly relatable and entertaining.

Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saints Mistress https://camcatbooks.com/Books/T/The-S...

Sinclair Lewis, an American novelist born in 1885 and died in Rome in 1951, is famous for his works that criticize the social life in America. In 1930, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was the first time the award was given to a non-European writer. The Swedish Academy justified its choice of Sinclair Lewis because of "his powerful and graphic description, and his ability to create a new type of characters with all their vividness and lightness of shadow." Sinclair Lewis was known for his amazing ability to create unforgettable characters such as "Martin Arrowsmith", the character of "Elmer Gantry", the character of "Carol Milford", and finally, the most famous of his characters, "George Babbitt". This character has a strange composition in part. It is said that during the Nobel Prize ceremony, he could not be found until he received the award from the king's hand. After a long search, he was found sleeping in the bathtub in a state of drunkenness!

Babbitt's novel is among the top 100 novels in history and was published simultaneously with James Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses" in 1922, which made him the focus of readers' attention around the world. George Babbitt, a real estate agent with a prosperous business, is a socially successful man. He has everything any person could wish for: good health, a family, a comfortable job in a city experiencing prosperous economic growth. Until that day when he suffered from anxiety due to his dissatisfaction with himself because of the orderly and limited life he was living. So he began to re-examine his way of life, which would expose him to many difficulties.

A very boring and tiresome story...Perhaps my opinion will change in the distant future. I first need a spiritual boost...I'm not one of those who enjoy the passionate description of rooms and houses...I'm looking for the hidden meanings...Is there a reason for this noble's exaggerated description in Zenith! It follows repeatedly and finally, the first love in the novel on page 240 out of 356 pages. Thanks to Paul, I was really bored...What do you want, Babette, to rebel! Please rebel...This novel never ends continuously! Page 300 and finally, I finished it before meeting with a group of friends and it was a great jihad...The name Babette has become known to a part of the middle-class bourgeoisie who work without any scruples...A novel without a love story, a great and heavy burden for all the characters. I didn't like any of them and there is no important female character as it reflects the state of the era...It's not important and my criticism is important and it leads the man to kill her...Characters that don't satisfy their existence with true meanings...(Don't look for themselves as they are dead and cold characters and perhaps this coldness is what is meant by trying to rebel. They are Paul and Cabot in prison and Babette and he has a return to the present and Ted who will be the character liberated from everything later and will follow his passion)....I feel a great sense of waste and that's what really happened. The truth...Even the role of the church is nullified...The Zenithian characters were superior against the concept of socialism and liberal liberation if they didn't fall into the great role assigned to the role of the bourgeoisie and the glorification of the self and the submissive appearances...Babette's exit and her expulsion when she rebels from the social circles and her new acceptance when she recovers with the return to the bourgeoisie...Happy to get rid of her burden...I would have been happy to see her if she completed her rebellion but he was a son of his society and would have lost everything he built and his life and his family if he left Serbia...But his consolation is that he would find an extension in his rebellious son and its end also goes with new rebellious possibilities...I only liked Paul's feeling, a feeling of sincere weakness from the depths...And it was a turning point in his life...Goodbye Babette Sinclair....

Hello Babit,

It has been almost twenty hours since I last heard your voice. Yes, I have been hearing your voice. I didn't feel that what I read was a fictional story written by a poet. I felt it was your memoirs, my dear George. I got used to you, George. Babit, tell me, my dear, how can I continue without you? I learned to love Tinka, the lovely little one you didn't talk much about, but you transferred her love from your heart to mine. I loved your words, your revelations when you were silent, your laughter and your screams when you were determined to be silent. I put myself at your mercy and let you do what you allowed yourself to do and trusted me and stood by you when you rebelled. But soon you disappeared when you changed your decision. I swear that your problems, Babit, have become my problems. I was very angry with them, and you know who I mean, and I was also angry with you sometimes. In fact, I even stopped reading so that you might feel my anger at you.

George, I'm proud of you even if... even if you didn't do what you wanted to do, at least you let Tyd do what he wanted and didn't stand in their way. I'm proud because you supported him.

Babit, I'm not sure what I'm saying, but I think you're like me... you're like me in a strange way, and I think that if I meet you one day, you'll understand me as no one has understood me before. Babit, I suffer from exactly the same thing you suffer from. I suffer from inner conflict and from my desires that I don't act on. Anyone who reads this will think I'm crazy, but in fact I wrote it for you, my friend, and that's also crazy, but not for them. I know that if this writing hurts you, you're not the sensitive man, not the brilliant one, not even the romantic one, but you're like me, so without feeling, I'm attached to you.

My greetings, Khaloud.

Oh my God, what I wrote here, I think... no, I'm sure I'm crazy. I have to write something that people can understand, not this rambling.

When I was reading this novel, I wondered what made me read such a boring thing. I almost stopped reading if it weren't for the way of narration that I couldn't ignore. The description is brilliant, forgiving in a strange way, and at the same time intelligent. I listened with the characters, laughed sometimes, and cried sometimes. I thought for a while that I was walking in the middle of Zinith.

I finished it because I felt a kind of responsibility towards it, "The Noble Friends Club." This is my first collective reading. I committed to reading it so that I wouldn't feel that I was betraying them in some way.

When I read a little, I found that the hero of the novel is very much like me.

But still, until half of the novel, I didn't feel anything that attracted me to it at all! I just wanted to finish it.

But just yesterday, when I was reading the last thing Sinclair Lewis wrote, I felt that the novel died inside me. I almost cried if I didn't control myself. I wished it hadn't ended, so how will I end my day without hearing from that one called Babit, who is leading!

The Success of Failure

Babbitt is arguably the first comic novel that delves into the mid-life crisis. It showcases Lewis in his most Dickensian style, crafting prototypical American characters who have become ingrained in cultural mythology.

The central issue is as follows: How can an imperfect male, fully aware of his own flaws, navigate an equally flawed society without sacrificing either his personal integrity or his ability to engage with that society? Lewis' answer is rather bleak: Essentially, he can't. Everything becomes an irrational compromise.

This conclusion is not unique to Lewis. Plato's Socrates reached a similar verdict in the Republic. It is also the inevitability presented by Camus in his letters. However, it was the third-century Christian theologian Tertullian who provided the most precise formulation: Credo quia absurdum est, which means "I believe in it because it is absurd."

Babbitt's middle-class American life is indeed an absurdity. The fact that he manages to come to terms with this absurdity is both his and our only glimmer of hope. This novel is highly recommended as literary therapy during the era of Donald Trump... or as a means to understand the wellspring of inspiration for Philip Roth.

I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

It took me a considerable amount of time to pen down a review for this particular work.

While I couldn't extract as much value from it as numerous other readers seem to have, I must admit that it is a rather interesting satirical novel.

The author has managed to create a world that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

However, to be completely honest, it's not really my cup of tea.

Nevertheless, I do have a good understanding of why so many people have a liking for it.

Perhaps it's the unique blend of humor and social commentary that appeals to them.

Or maybe it's the way the author has crafted the characters and the plot.

Whatever the reason may be, it's clear that this novel has struck a chord with a large number of readers.

And while it may not be for everyone, it's still worth giving it a try to see if it speaks to you.

I was truly excited when I saw that this could fit into this season's sub-challenge. There were several other books on my list that were much longer than what I was initially willing to take on. So, I was quite glad to make this substitution. However, it seems that I would have been far happier with one of the longer ones. Apparently, because I pretty much detested this particular book. There is no real plot to speak of, and the characterization is extremely limited. I had a neutral reaction to the writing style, neither positive nor negative. But what Lewis had to say in this work was decidedly negative. The long descriptions served no purpose other than to trivialize a certain lifestyle.

I don't necessarily have an issue with a lot of description, and I don't usually even "get" satire. In this case, though, it was just far too mean-spirited to be palatable. After some four paragraphs describing Babbitt's living room, he then offers us some words on Babbitt taking a bath. "He was lulled to dreaming by the caressing warmth. The light fell on the inner surface of the tub in a pattern of delicate wrinkled lines which slipped with a green sparkle over the curving porcelain as the clear water trembled. Babbitt lazily watched it; noted that along the silhouette of his legs against the radiance on the bottom of the tub, the shadows of the air-bubbles clinging to the hairs were reproduced as strange jungle mosses."

I really should have set this book aside after just 100 pages. Somehow, though, I found a stubborn streak within me and managed to finish it. I don't think that's something to be proud of. I rarely give a 1-star rating to a book that I've actually been able to complete, but I'll make an exception for this one.

It's a real pity that this book didn't live up to my expectations. I had such high hopes when I started it, but it just didn't deliver. Maybe it's a matter of personal taste, but for me, it was a real disappointment.