There was something irreverent about the work of Sinclair Lewis and pride in the author himself. The 1926 Pulitzer Prize rejection He made clear that kind of rebellion towards all public recognition from the same high places that he cared to ridicule in many of his novels.
The Nobel Prize was another story. As far as I know, except in the case of Jean Paul Sartre, no other author has denied such recognition, the most prestigious in the world. Back in 1930, when the Academy called him to inform him of his choice, Sinclair Lewis would spend those days biting his nails until finally accepting it.
It's called being consistent. And precisely a prestigious writer, with the foreseeable label of a moral bulwark, is forced to make drastic decisions. Even more so if his work is sometimes aimed at shaking the foundations of the status quo in power circles.
As motivation for budding writers, it should be noted that this Nobel laureate began by writing real shit. Not everyone is born learned. The trade can be polished over time, like everything else.
3 Recommended Novels by Sinclair Lewis
Doctor Arrowsmith
A novel that hides the author's father figure and that serves as an excuse to reveal the worldview of a child raised among vademecums. But the story of the protagonist, Martin Arrowsmith, is not exempt from a certain disenchantment, due to the social structure of the moment in his country and the vision of the middle class as a breeding ground for unhappiness and frustration.
Summary: As the son and grandson of doctors, Sinclair Lewis he had a great deal of knowledge about the world of medicine. The book traces the life of Martin Arrowsmith, a fairly common guy who came into contact with medicine at age fourteen as a physician's assistant in his hometown. Lewis brilliantly chronicles the world of research, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the modest ambitions of many highly-minded men and women.
He masterfully describes many aspects of the world of medicine, from training to ethical considerations, and shows us, with a satirical tone, the envy, pressure and neglect that are sometimes associated with that world.
This novel, considered as the antecedent of the numerous soap operas that have medicine and doctors as their central theme, has had numerous radio adaptations (one of them with Orson Welles as the protagonist) and cinematographic, among which the one made by John Ford stands out. in 1931.
Women's jails
In those 30s, Lewis found in the protagonism of a woman an exceptional way to declare his disagreement as his essence. The author makes the struggle of an imprisoned woman his own, confronting the reader with injustices and everyday antiheroes, which abound and emerge everywhere.
Summary: Prisons for women is the story of the life of a modern woman; blatant narration, since Lewis detests all falsehoods. Clear, sober and elegant, the life of this character touches all the extremes of initiation and experiences multiple human frailties.
Ann Vickers rises in her category of "social worker" and knows the life of the prisons, the hell of the inmates, the arrogance and hypocrisy of the bosses, the cynicism of some and the conventional wailing of others. In that tumult, in that complicated murmur of life, there is something in the soul of Ann Vickers that sinks her into her environment but that also superimposes her and elevates her to the category of an archetype that forges itself.
The prodigal parents
The bourgeoisie is structured, in the view of Lewis Sinclair on the basis of the family as the nucleus for all frustrations and resentment. In this breeding ground, the author found daily stories that ended up blurring the apparent happiness of the family, the sustained need of the family ...
Summary: Fred hates his children and, by extension, the life he has lived. Because it really has been that, everything has touched him, it has happened without counting on him at any time. Realizing it past fifty can be dangerous.
Luckily Fred still loves Hazel, his wife. Getting away, letting go of their children becomes the motive of this novel. The surprises that this decision brings are tragicomic ...
