I finished Babbitt two States ago and have found it difficult to review. It is set in 1920 and is obviously a satire about aspiring middle class men with commonplace pretensions. Babbitt is a realtor in Zenith, a midsized town in the mid-West. His house looks like everyone else's in his neighborhood; he attends the same clubs as his peers; he espouses political views only after reading about them on the editorial page.
Sinclair Lewis over-draws Babbitt and his family and friends to ridicule the pettiness of their lives. Even when Babbitt has his mid-life crisis, commits adultery with a radical widow and imbibes of bootleg booze, it is all seen as a farce. Babbitt's return to the fold of conservatism and boosterism at the book's end is equally derided.
When I started the book, the word "jaunty" kept popping up in my mind. So did the style remind me of Thurber, Woodhouse, or even Kingsley Ames ... not Swift or Pope. Yes, Babbitt's foibles are human but his predicament is too time-dependent to come across as universal.
Lewis is sharp in his ear for dialogue. He replicates banality perfectly. There is only so much of this that is tolerable. After a while, it is like Ed TV or too much My Space. Sorry, Slackers. You can't even get an idea that this is Minnesota, or make-believe Minnesota.
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