Book Review : Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

This is a wonderful book and to me it’s as relevant now as it was when it was written.

George Follansbee Babbitt is a real-estate man in the town of Zenith. He is married to Myra. They have three children, Verona a brown-haired girl of twenty two, Ted – real name Theodore Roosevelt Babbitt – a decorative boy of seventeen, and Tinka – real name Katherine Babbitt – aged ten.

Babbitt is a conformist. He is to the right of the political spectrum. He believes that workers should not be allowed to form unions but that employer associations are OK and that welfare is nothing but the entering wedge for socialism. The sooner that people get a job and produce, produce, produce the better it is for the country.

Babbitt has an inkling that his soul is empty and his house is not a home. He appreciates the success he has in his career and the admiration this draws from the members of the many business associations he belongs to, but there is something missing.

When his wife and younger daughter head to the east of the USA, Babbitt feels free, but free to do what? Well, he tries to become intimate with his secretary, his next door neightbour’s wife, and his manicurist in quick order, but is rejected though he does meet a widow, Tanis Judique.

After his wife returns, Babbitt has a considerable fling with Tanis and her bohemian friends, but this takes Babbitt too far out of his comfort zone and he realises he’s losing his wife and his association friends. Myra has acute appendicitis and he goes to see her in hospital everyday. They become reacquainted and Babbitt realises his ‘old’ life wasn’t so bad after all, although he now has a reference point whereas previously he didn’t have.