Elmer Gantry

1927, 1967 Signet edition
Sinclair Lewis
Elmer Gantry
Original price 95 cents, bought used for unknown
Paperback in terrible condition
B-

In this novel, Lewis presents one of the most unappealing protagonists in American fiction, so it's not exactly an enjoyable book.  I would argue the fact that Gantry is so horrible, without any redeeming feature, makes the novel also less well-written.  And it's not as if any of the other characters, except perhaps Frank Shallard, are drawn with any complexity.  It's mostly Lewis telling us of the havoc that Gantry wreaks across several denominations.  New Thought also comes in for satire, and even paganism isn't spared.  At least Voltaire allowed a moment of hope, a message to "cultivate our garden."  This is Lewis's bleakest book yet.

Babbitt again makes a guest shot, briefly, and his minister, Reverend John Jennison Drew, understandably gets more to do here than in the earlier novel.  There's also a sympathetic Christian character who mocks Main Street.  There's another non-Hispanic Juanita, after Mrs. Haydock in Main Street, this time the blonde that Gantry's involved with early on.

It feels strange to keep calling him Gantry, because more than with Babbitt and Arrowsmith, or with Dodsworth coming up, Lewis calls the main character by the first name.  Usually, this would suggest an intimacy and/or fondness, but clearly Lewis would not want to identify too closely with Elmer.  I do notice though that Carol, Martin, and Elmer all have black hair.  Lewis's own hair was red, but perhaps that seemed less heroic.