Arrowsmith

ARROWSMITH
by Sinclair Lewis

 Award: Nobel Prize Winner 1926, Pulitzer Winner 1926

 Dates Read: April 23, 2007 & September 13, 2017

 Arrowsmith is Lewis' homage to science and the medical profession. Martin Arrowsmith, coming from a small town, finds his way to medical school, where is suspended for insulting his mentor, Max Gottlieb. In the process, he marries one woman and has an affair with another, inviting both to a lunch to leave them to decide his fate. He eventually marries his mistress, Leora, and takes up private practice in another small town. He moves from private practice to a public health official to a doctor in a private hospital to a prestigious research institute. Arrowsmith eventually discovers a phage that can kill bacteria.

 Lewis was granted the Pulitzer for this work, however, he declined the award because he felt it was not bestowed for merit "...but in obedience to whatever code of Good Form may chance to be popular at the moment." Some scholars believe he rejected it because of his displeasure at not receiving the prize for his other novel, Main Street.

 Arrowsmith is a very slow novel, with a plot that was mostly a critique of the medical profession in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby, published that same year would have been an excellent choice instead of this novel, in my very humble opinion.

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