Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951)

Loppujen lopuksi oikein hyvä kirja, vaikka jossain puolivälin kohdalla tuntuikin turhanpäiväiseltä ja ettei tämä oikein etene. Keski-ikäisen miehen turhautumissa on jotain ajatonta ja klassista, ja mielestäni romaani oli kirjoitettu hyvin älykkäästi ja todentuntuisesti. Tähän mennessä yksi miellyttävimmistä Nobel-lukukokemuksista. Vanha suomennos oli hauska, kun siellä oli runsaasti sellaisia siihen aikaan uusia termejä, jotka oli suomennettu esim. "Suur-Britannia", "lunchille", "sandwicheja" yms.… (altro)

Americans Behaving Badly (but not too badly) in Florence (Italy)

Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He was the first author from the Americas to receive the Nobel prize for literature. He died in 1951 and World So Wide his last novel was published posthumously later that year. I have not previously read anything by Lewis and probably reading a final novel in a successful career is not likely to find him at his best, however I enjoyed this read well enough.

Hayden Chart a 35 year old architect from Colorado drives his car off the road late at night after a party. He survives the wreck but his wife Caprice is killed. Whilst recovering in hospital he reflects on his life which has become a mad scramble to make money and being child free he decides to head out to Europe on a years sabbatical. His interest in architecture and Italian art leads him to Florence where he finds a room in a pension run by an American woman. He meets professor Olivia Lomond an American making her living as a researcher in renaissance history, she seems obsessed by her work and Hayden at first struggles to make contact with her, but slowly they fall in Love. When another American Lorenzo Lusgard bursts into the ex-pats community with his quarter-back (American football) good looks and brash charm, Olivia is swept off her feet. Roxanna another American from Colorado and old friend of Hayden arrives on the scene after having been fired from her job as a journalist in Paris. She soon joins the ex-pat community that now appears to circle around the dynamic Lorenzo Lusgard who is putting together a teaching programme to popularise the Italian Renaissance for the folks back home.

The fussing and fighting between the four protagonists seems to take place in a vacuum with Florence providing a beautiful backdrop. Sinclair Lewis had a reputation for light satire on his fellow American's fight to gain success in a capitalist society and this is evident in this depiction of Americans in Europe. His central character Hayden Chart is a steady going kind man who is at times overwhelmed by his compatriots. Some strong female characters holding their own in a professional capacity adds to the idea of a novel ahead of its time, but this is not the case: my impression from this book is that he is still writing from a between the wars perspective, which is a period when he had his greatest success as a novelist. There is a little too much potted history but Lewis comes into his own when describing a few days out in Venice which he captures brilliantly 3.5 stars.… (altro)

It's curious that Sinclair Lewis chose to illustrate his satire on small town life through the eyes of a female character, Carol Kennicott, nee Milford. It is really his description of his own small Minnesota town that he is writing about.

Carol is a young woman raised in St. Paul by an intellectual father, who graduates from college knowing she wants to make a difference, though not how to do that. After working for a few years as a librarian, she meets Will Kennicott, a doctor from the small town of Gopher Prairie, marries and goes to live there. From the start, she hates the ugly prairie town, but is determined to change it, and the people in it.

One of my criticisms is that the book goes on and on and on describing the small town pettiness of the neighbors, the ugliness of the buildings. I think I got the idea about 50 pages in. Another problem is that Carol is a rather two-dimensional character; I don't think Sinclair understands this woman. He describes her husband, the hard working, plain speaking rural doctor with more feeling, more understanding. And then there is the writing, which is fine prose, but reads more like a magazine article than a story. And there isn't much of a story here. Very little happens.

I found I did understand what Lewis was trying to say about small town life; it was my own experience growing up in a small town 40 years later. I guess it was different and new when it was published, the fact that he was criticizing small-town America. But I don't think that much has really changed.… (altro)