― Emilymv (Emilymv), Thursday, 21 October 2004 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 21 October 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)
Posted this on a "what are you reading?" thread but copying here in case anyone wants to discuss it:
I'd never read any Lewis before and was pleasantly surprised. Great page-turning thriller with a sharp, ironic tone and lots of ideas about the different factions of the 30s left, like the ongoing rows between the liberal, the socialist and the communist, who are all ostensibly on the same side. Striking how little populist rhetoric has changed since the 30s - the big difference being that the dictator (because of Huey Long) is a Democrat.
I'm surprised that (as far as I know) nobody's done a joint biography of the lions of the literary left 1900-40 - Lewis, Sinclair, Dreiser, Dos Passos, Steinbeck. So many points of overlap, so many fierce disagreements and splits.
― Get wolves (DL), Monday, 11 June 2012 13:38 (thirteen years ago)
The only Lewis I've read is Babbit but now I think I should read Dodsworth. Thoughts?
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 17:07 (thirteen years ago)
Just finished ICHH, and was also struck by the theme of the various leftish factions fighting each other as much as Corpoism. Was surprised to read in the afterword that there was an attempt to make a Hollywood movie version; was not surprised to read that Will Hays and his people were so leery that said production was dropped.
Is Babbitt worth reading? (There's a 1934 movie version; Guy Kibbee in the title role was sadly disappointing.)
― Diana Fire (j.lu), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 23:24 (nine years ago)
Yes.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 23:24 (nine years ago)
An excellent essay: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/10/08/the-romance-of-sinclair-lewis/
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 23:25 (nine years ago)
babbitt rules. the assertion upthread that he's a "pretty lousy prose writer" is pretty wrong
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 05:14 (nine years ago)
The original mini-series of V began as an adaptation of this book but the suits thought it would bore people so the Corpos became aliens.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 05:56 (nine years ago)
Yeah, Babbitt is great and pretty funny too
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 06:03 (nine years ago)
Took about 100 pages to get going--found the tone (gee-whiz irony) very repetitive before that--but Babbit got much better the rest of the way. I'm guessing the 1934 film is a disappointing gloss on the novel, but I'll keep an eye open for it. (There's rough-looking TCM upload on YouTube.)
― clemenza, Monday, 23 November 2020 01:40 (five years ago)
Guy Kibbee as Babbit ought to have been a slam-dunk, and it regrettably fails to be that.
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Monday, 23 November 2020 11:40 (five years ago)