(Mods, if there's a better home for this, please move it there! I wasn't sure where it belonged.)
Disclaimer: I mostly read science fiction or fantasy. But very occasionally, I decide that I should venture out and read something else, usually "a classic". Recently I decided that I should try Sinclair Lewis. I picked "Babbit", and gave it a go. I has questions now...
Babbit is written in a very quirky style. Example paragraphs below, which are just a few pages into the novel. And I'm asking myself: Self, can you really wade through an entire novel of this? And self answers: probably not.
Ohhhhhh-kay.
Was there a better choice I could've made to discover Sinclair Lewis than "Babbit"?
Is this just an affection for this one novel, or does he always write like this? I know Lewis was American-born, so I presume English was his primary language, but this novel reads like it was run through Google translate a few times -- English to Korean to Russian to English, maybe.
Was this intentional? I've never read anything else from an American author of this period who writes like this -- "for extra than" rather than "for more than" -- so what's the dealio?
Did Amazon sell me a bum Kindle copy? Is this a joke?
Am I just a dunce who needs to be spoon-fed nothing but literary baby-food??
Disclaimer: I mostly read science fiction or fantasy. But very occasionally, I decide that I should venture out and read something else, usually "a classic". Recently I decided that I should try Sinclair Lewis. I picked "Babbit", and gave it a go. I has questions now...
Babbit is written in a very quirky style. Example paragraphs below, which are just a few pages into the novel. And I'm asking myself: Self, can you really wade through an entire novel of this? And self answers: probably not.
Sinclair Lewis' "Babbit" said:There changed into nothing of the massive inside the aspect of the person who turned into starting to rouse at the napping-porch of a Dutch Colonial house in that residential district of Zenith called Floral Heights.
His call changed into George F. Babbit. He became forty-six years old now, in April, 1920, and he made nothing specially, neither butter nor footwear nor poetry, however he changed into nimble inside the calling of promoting houses for extra than people could have the funds for to pay.
Ohhhhhh-kay.
Was there a better choice I could've made to discover Sinclair Lewis than "Babbit"?
Is this just an affection for this one novel, or does he always write like this? I know Lewis was American-born, so I presume English was his primary language, but this novel reads like it was run through Google translate a few times -- English to Korean to Russian to English, maybe.
Was this intentional? I've never read anything else from an American author of this period who writes like this -- "for extra than" rather than "for more than" -- so what's the dealio?
Did Amazon sell me a bum Kindle copy? Is this a joke?
Am I just a dunce who needs to be spoon-fed nothing but literary baby-food??