Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (1927 (4th Ed.): Harcourt, Brace and Co. ISBN: Unknown)
Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk. He leaned against the bar of the Old Home Sample Room, the most gilded and urbane saloon in Cato, Missouri, and requested the bartender to join him in “The Good Old Summer Time…”
So begins the story of evangelical preacher, once Baptist, eventually Methodist, Dr. Elmer Gantry, a novel written by Minnesota literary giant, Sinclair Lewis. Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize (for Arrowsmith, which he refused) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (for Babbitt), Lewis’ credentials as a writer cannot be quarreled with, at least, not by this puny talent.
After the brilliant expose’ of Gantry’s sinful nature in the opening lines of the book, one has the sense that the preacher’s story is going to be one of great prose and pacing, the masterpiece of a master. Sad to say, Elmer Gantry doesn’t quite make it to the literary mountain top.
The why is quite simple: Lewis ends up doing what Gantry does: He preaches. The first third of the novel, Gantry’s schooling in college and a Baptist Seminary, fairly flies along, revealing all of Elmer’s flaws and foibles. We see Elmer as a selfish, boozing, womanizing, no account lout (to use a term of the day) struggling to reconcile his desire to chase skirts with his desire to serve God. But the fatal flaw is that Gantry’s faith is so thin, so airy, that it comes off as pretext; a device which, in the long run of the story’s arc, cannot be sustained over time. Simply put, Lewis never really gives us any reason to hope; Gantry is so foul, so irredeemable, that by the second half of the book, we are tired of Gantry, tired of his excuses, and simply want him to go away. This thinness of character, combined with the author’s need to preach against organized religion of all stripes, both through narrative and through the various characters, takes the early steam of Lewis’ creative engine and dissipates it into the atmosphere, rendering the last third of the book as powerless as a locomotive without coal.
Through the climactic scene on the board walk, where Elmer’s hope of a life-long relationship dies with his beloved fellow evangelist, Sharon, this is one magnificent piece of writing. But Lewis falls prey over time, I’m afraid, to the rumors of his genius, which makes the latter portion of the read not nearly as engaging or forceful. 3 stars out of 5.
