Arrowsmith [Mass Market Paperback]

Lewis's biographical novel portrays Arrowsmith, accompanied by his sympathetic wife, Leora, in a roundabout career from medical student to small-town doctor to public health administrator to bacteriology researcher. From boyhood to middle age, Arrowsmith walks a lonesome road, placing verifiable scientific knowledge and sincere craftsmanship above money, publicity, political power and social status (this is Lewis's affront to American "commercialism"). Ultimately, Arrowsmith is heroic in his remarkable perseverance and quest for truth, although some might label him a cold-hearted escapist for deserting his wealthy second wife, young child and promising New York City career in favor of a rustic laboratory and rugged backwoods existence on a fellow rebel researcher's Vermont farm.

Modern readers will find Arrowsmith's devotion to his early 20th century "science as truth" dogma somewhat tiring, narrow and dated. Yet, in a broader sense, what is most important is that Arrowsmith consistently remains true to his core personal belief (which in his case just so happens to be scientific truth). His unwavering self-honesty is what makes Arrowsmith an eternally heroic figure.

However powerful its message, the novel unfortunately reads like a patchwork of stages in our hero's career, somewhat artificially connected with the support of unconvincing reappearances of Arrowsmith's medical school classmates later in their careers (e.g., the sudden reappearance of the crazed, doctor-turned-missionary Reverend Ira Hinkley on Arrowsmith's trip to fight the plague in the West Indies, where incidentally Leora tragically dies). I conjecture that in reaching beyond the familiarity of his family's medical practice and venturing into the more rarified realm of scientific research, Lewis has stretched--as a chronicler commonly does but, I would say, a novelist should not--too far outside his own life experiences. The result is that this classic novel falls short of becoming a more emotionally engaging literary work with a truly believable flow of realistic life events.

The protagonist in this novel is a bit different from Lewis' other lead characters. Whereas Babbitt was always a sell out and phony, and while Carol Kennicott succumbs to a parochial mindset at the end of Main Street (whether or not she admits it), Martin's retirement to a cabin with friend Terry Wicket is an indicator of something rare and refreshing in a Lewis novel: A leading light who doesn't sacrifice integrity for reknown. There are any number of interesting minor characters to keep it interesting. Leora Tozer, Martin's first wife, is a poignant dim wit, and the story of Max Gottlieb's (Martin's college idol) hard-luck-to-sell-out story is a perfect and diverting trial for Martin, a man dedicated to pure research without sponsorship from some results-and-profit obsessed pharmaceutical company.

This book is amazing, as are all Lewis novels I've encountered, in its intelligent depiction of unintelligent or, in some cases, misguided characters. It is something of a departure to find Lewis treating a character as an honorable, not a money-grubbing, human. This deserved its Pulitzer. And, considering Lewis' opprobrium for the greedy American mentality, it's not hard to see him refusing said prize.