It Can't Happen Here

Now that I’ve become more aware of Sinclair Lewis thanks to It Can’t Happen Here, I’ve seen references to him everywhere. And will keep my eyes and ears open for staged productions of his works—Main Street is one I’ve been wanting to see on stage for a long time now.
Back to It Can’t Happen Here. If you have had a chance to read part, most, or all of it, how believable do you think the characters are? Do they seem like real people, who act in ways real people might? Or is each character starkly sketched, the author intending them to be the embodiment of a specific point of view? We can spot “good” and “evil” characters pretty easily in this work, but which of the characters are more conflicted and morally ambiguous?

Does this book still have something important to say today, or is it just a product of its times? I would love to hear your opinion about this book, so please feel free to chime in if you are so inclined!

And, stay tuned for the next Reader’s Den selection!

I hope you’ve been able to get yourself a copy of It Can’t Happen Here. Or perhaps you’ve been reading it online, or listening to the e-audio version.

How do you like it so far? Or does "like" not apply here? Do you think Lewis meant for us to take the book as: a straight novel? a satire? a cautionary tale? a parable? something else?

The fictional characters in this work quote from, hearken back to, and mingle freely with an army of real historical personages—historians, politicians, journalists, writers, activists, psychologists, etc., etc. What’s the effect of this mingling of fact and fantasy on the reader?

And how about Lewis’ names? What associations do the following bring to your mind: Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip; Mrs. Adelaide Tarr Gimmitch; Doremus Jessup; Hector Macgoblin; Lorinda Pike; Buck Titus?

Summertime--the time of year when I get the yen to dip into some of the literature I've heard about over the years but had not gotten around to reading. Sinclair Lewis's works fall into that category and he's the writer I chose. Did I select Main Street, Babbitt, or Arrowsmith? No, It Can't Happen Here caught my fancy. And once I started it I was hooked.

It Can't Happen Here was written by Sinclair Lewis in 1935, five years after he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee selected him for "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." And note what Lewis himself says in his acceptance speech: "in America most of us--not readers alone, but even writers--are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues." This was another America. . .but his outrageous (yet somehow familiar) characters and scenarios can still make a reader squirm. There have been stage and screen versions of the work, and various editions over the decades. Though he's less read today, several terms and expressions from Lewis's works have entered the vernacular including Babbitt, Main Street, and "It can't happen here!" Many have described Lewis as satirist, a master of irony, and a superb mimic. I agree.

The plot: Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip runs for U.S. president as a Populist, and wins on the weight of his promise to restore prosperity and greatness to the country. His true colors are soon revealed as he turns the U.S. into a totalitarian state complete with concentration camps for his (many) enemies. Our hero, journalist Doremus Jessup, writes editorials against the state's abuse of power and suffers mightily for it. So, can it happen here? Read the book and tell us what you think.

It's widely available at NYPL, and you can also borrow it in e-audiobook format, to listen to on your computer or transfer to a portable device. Another e-book option: it's on Project Gutenberg Australia.

Tune in next week to get the discussion going--I look forward to talking to you about this book.