What a Great Doctor -- the Great Man Theory's Proof
Intellectually driven people are as F. Scott Fitzgerald would say: different. Eponymously named, this book follows the post-collegiate years of Arrowsmith to his early midlife, with great tales of unending frustration of not being the captain of his own ship.
Often we love to watch the weak excel and do extraordinary things - Forrest Gump being the most obvious. But, after such people achieve such great goals, we learn they are more than just "different" but really extraordinary.
Being a medical student, one would think Arrowsmith is extraordinary. But, we learn, his struggles in and out of school are quite reflective of an ordinary person with ordinary abilities. Being thrust out of towns in South Dakota and Iowa, he seems to be a wrong fit for even grossly normal society.
But, catlike coincidences abound and he ends up stopping the plague in the West Indies, and has experiments successfully deliver answers to medical mysteries which no man had previously resolved. His unending intellectual appetite never subsides, and from his perseverance he can assert acclaim and even fortune.
But, his quest is not for anything more than the hunger to kill for more intellectual achievement. Noble is the man who seeks to help other man. Not the man who seeks to pad his own pocket with pharmaceuticals or patents or other money-constituted ventures which many people did or would do in his position. Arrowsmith is a rare man in American capitalistic society.
Even after marrying a multi-millionaire (after being a widower to a plain Jane girl from the Dakotas), he wants to be left out of society's primrose elite and seeks retreat to forested Vermont, with outhouses and laboratories which cannot be interrupted. He is the personification of the great man theory: a philosophical theory that aims to explain history by the impact of `great men', or heroes: highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence and wisdom or Machiavellianism, used power in a way that had a decisive historical impact.
It has been many years since reading a Sinclair Lewis novel - in fact this is the first time I did so voluntarily. Babbitt and Main Street were required reading in junior or senior high. And, whenever you are required to read something, it seems to be less satisfying.
I was very impressed and pleasantly surprised that this author is as good as the teachers had apparently thought he was.
Strangely compelling
Lewis writes, in very basic prose, of a turn-of-the-century man and his love for science. We follow young Martin Arrowsmith through his schooling and then into the upper echelons of doctor's officies, hospitals and laboratories. He grapples with several women and gradually finds himself staring down the figurative barrel of an increasingly-ignorant and hypocritical society. Some things go well for Arrowsmith, some things don't, and it's all wrapped up with a climactic, surreal and satisfying conclusion. I'd say it's a Great American Novel if there ever was one, and certainly another testament to Lewis's mastery.
And oddly enough, I found Arrowsmith's story to be every bit as compelling as the finest of the thriller and mystery genres. A cursory glance will more than likely yield skepticism, but give it a few pages and you'll more than likely be hooked. Despite its subject matter, the novel rarely demands familiarity with the world of science and medicine. Lewis's writing is simple, easy to follow along with, and never dry or rambling. Those who are tired of being force-fed Fitzgerald and Steinbeck and Salinger, but still want to sample some of the early 20th Century's greatest literature, should invest some time in Lewis's work. He's a criminally overlooked novelist who deserves a hell of a lot more attention than he gets these days.
Dodsworth, an unexpected surprise
I liked this book. I found it readable and compelling. I am glad that I finally read this Sinclair Lewis book. I plan on reading Main Street next. Wonder why I never read any of his works before. He's worth a try, at least for Dodsworth. I am now reading Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. It is interesting - two Minnesotans observe interwar Europe with very different results.
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