Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth (Library of America)

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As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to draw upon for Arrowsmith.Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher. Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life.

Book Description

Written at the height of his powers in the 1920s, the three novels in this volume continue the vigorous unmasking of American middle-class life begun by Sinclair Lewis in Main Street and Babbitt. In Arrowsmith (1925) Lewis portrays the medical career of Martin Arrowsmith, a physician who finds his commitment to the ideals of his profession tested by the cynicism and opportunism he encounters in private practice, public health work, and scientific research. The novel reaches its climax as its hero faces his greatest challenges amid a deadly outbreak of plague on a Caribbean island.

Elmer Gantry (1927) aroused intense controversy with its brutal depiction of a hypocritical preacher in relentless pursuit of worldly pleasure and power. Through his satiric exposé of American religion, Lewis captured the growing cultural and political tension in the 1920s between the forces of secularism and fundamentalism.

Dodsworth (1929) follows Sam Dodsworth, a wealthy, retired Midwestern automobile manufacturer, as he travels through Europe with his increasingly restless wife, Fran. The novel intimately explores the unraveling of their marriage, while pitting the proud heritage of European culture against the rude vigor of American commercialism.

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This concise supplement to Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith helps students understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.

Customer Reviews:

An endless zigzag.......2007-03-22

Sinclair Lewis defines Martin Arrowsmith as `a young man who was in no degree a hero, who regarded himself as a seeker of truth, yet who stumbled and slid back all his life and bogged in every obvious morass.' He is `a snuffing beagle', who in his lifespan covered in this book never was in control of his destiny.

This book touches all kind of important themes:
- Commercialism and the religion of a scientist: `Knowledge is the greatest thing in the medical world, but it's no good whatever if you can't sell it.'
- Commercialism and profession: `Explain to a patient, also his stricken and anxious family, the hard work and thought you are giving to his case, and so make him feel that the good you have done to him, is even greater than the fee you plan to charge.'
- Public v. private health system: `to get rid of avoidable diseases and produce a healthy population is killing commercialization, making money. Therefore doctors must become public health officers.'
- Psycho-analysts as guess-scientists.
- General human problems: `the cruelty of nature kicking human beings by every gay device of moonlight and white limbs into heaving babies.
- Influence of the Church on the irrationality of the masses. Its battle against free-thinking.
- Personal problems: alcoholism, marriage.
None of these themes is properly developed.

The scientific basis of this book is very poor: fighting the plague with bacteriophages.
Into the bargain, there is virtually no plot: the human relations with friends, colleagues, professors or women are more or less accidental. Also, after a far too long itinerary, the story ends abruptly.

This book is a big disappointment and can only be recommended to Sinclair Lewis fans.

At last: Sinclair Lewis writes a hero.......2007-01-18

Sinclair Lewis is the bookend to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both were born in Minnesota. Fitzgerald went to Princeton, Lewis to Yale. Both wrote their best books in the 1920s. Both drank, had women trouble, and turned bitter.

But Fitzgerald is everyone's favorite author --- even the high school kids who are clueless about metaphors swoon over "The Great Gatsby." You need an appreciation of satire to love Lewis; nobody does, and he goes unread.

It's understandable. What would you rather read --- a romantic tale about a poor boy's rise and violent death on the glittering shores of Long Island (Gatsby) or a withering take on narrow-minded life in the midwest (Main Street)? Who's more interesting --- a criminal who went to Oxford (Jay Gatsby) or a blowhard whose ambition is total conformity to soul-deadening values (George Babbitt)?

And yet. If you ask who describes America better, the more necessary writer is Sinclair Lewis. Main Street and Babbitt made his name, and most readers stop there. They shouldn't --- my wife, who once attended a one-room schoolhouse in Minnesota --- recently read "Main Street," and found it a very close description of life in our chic Manhattan neighborhood. Dodsworth --- later made into a toweringly great movie --- is as fine a love story as Fitzgerald ever dreamed up, and a lot more realistic one, at that. It Can't Happen Here is a powerful political drama with a subject that's not as far-fetched as you might think: how fascism comes to America.

And then there's Arrowsmith, which has an actual hero. Set in the midwest, it doesn't lack for satire; as Lewis depicts it, happiness in a small town seems to havbe the shelf life of about a year. And for a writer who won the Pulitzer Prize (and refused it), Lewis can write some dreadful dialogue. But the heroism thing --- that's compelling, and if you can move sprightly through the first half of the book, you'll find yourself getting excited and turning pages quickly for the right reason.

The hero is Martin Arrowsmith. We meet him in 1897, in the midwest town of Elk Mills ("a dowdy red-brick village, smelling of apples"), where he is the 14-year-old helper of the local doctor. Martin is prone to hero worship --- he sees magic in the old man's love of puttering in a lab. That ignites a dream in Martin, and so, seven years later, he's in medical school. There he falls under the spell of bacteriology professor Max Gottlieb: "tall, lean, aloof" --- and a Jew.

Gottlieb's love of science is pure; in an environment where many students and faculty think only of money, he alone seems to have ideals. Martin blossoms. But he's still a rube. He falls for a snooty graduate student in English and proposes marriage; later, he meets Leora, a nursing student, and proposes to her as well. His inept solution: to bring them together over lunch. Leora loves him more. They marry.

Leora's family is important --- in their tiny town of Wheatsylvania, North Dakota. But don't call them cultured: They lived in a house "that has a large phonograph but no books." Money talks, though. They bankroll Martin's first practice, and he settles into the life of a country doctor.

The novel is about the impossibility of "settling" --- as Martin climbs the medical ladder, he can't ignore research, his first love. He has a knack for it, and, to his delight, he's invited to join Gottlieb at a prestigious New York research institute. And now the novel kicks into high gear --- the plague has broken out in the Caribbean, and the vaccine that Arrowsmith has been working on might just be the cure.

Let me not spoil the thrill of these pages by revealing too much. Let's just say: success always comes at a price. And success doesn't always bring people what they most want. "Arrowsmith" is a book about the forces that fight to dominate us. As Lewis has it, that fight never ends.

"Arrowsmith" is smart about the world of research, and drug companies, and the modest ambitions of many men and women in white coats. It is also about the love of knowledge and the desire to heal; it gets the blood pumping. My brother --- one of our best AIDS researchers --- tells me that "Arrowsmith" is the book that made him decide to study medicine. Long before page 450, I could see why.

Not Bad but Not Great Either.......2006-10-16

The book traces the life of Martin Arrowsmith from his college days as a medical student through various careers ending with Martin in his mid-40's. The main themes of the book seem to be about the pursuit of money vs. the pursuit of science and about the character flaws of many research scientists and medical practitioners.

What's good about the book is that the plot is pretty interesting. I kept wanting to know what would happen next and how it would all turn out. Unfortunately, the ending wasn't so great. I end up agreeing with another reviewer that after the part on St. Hubert's island (about 3/4 of the way through) the rest is pretty dull--at least in comparison.

The main problem with the book is that the characters are one-dimensional, especially the female supporting characters. The main character, Martin, is too cold, heartless, and selfish to really get behind even though I don't think Lewis intended it. He marries two women during the course of the book. The first one, Leora, is a boring little dishrag. As for the second wife, I didn't see the point of introducing her so late in the book since she didn't really seem to motivate any purpose or action, other than Martin's continued heartlessness in leaving her and their son. However, since she was pretty much just a rich society type with no real personality or apparent goodness, I didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for her and the kid was like a non-entity so I didn't get too worked up about him either. I could go on, but that's the main problem with the book --- no characters that I could care about.

Recommended.......2006-07-21

I read below that several reviewers didn't appreciate this story even though it won a Pulitzer Prize. It may be true that some parts of the story are alittle drawn out. The "cure" for that is to perhaps "skip ahead" when the book is slow. But, the "good parts" are very "good" in that the themes are important subjects such as the evils of "materialism", the evils of "making money" at all costs, specifically the "bad" practice of doctors who are "in it just for the money", the importance of science and doing science to obtain "truth"----not for fame or monetary gain. See, these and other topics in the book are IMPORTANT TOPICS for our society and our culture. Thus, the book is deserving of it's Pulitzer Prize even though it may be a longish book. There is wit and humor in this book which make it easier to read and enjoy than if these qualities didn't exist. But, if you don't expect the book to be totally fascinating on every page, I think you'll enjoy the book and you'll eventually see the relevance and importance of this classic book. Just skip a few pages now and then and you'll be fine. I "read" this book as a book on tape. Email:boland7214@aol.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL.......2006-07-19

Lewis, in Arrowsmith, drew on his family's medical connections (his father, grandfather, older brother and an uncle were all physicians); his boyhood home in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, also served as his father's office, so he must have seen plenty of medicine in action. As others have described, we see the career of a man from boyhood to his early forties, as he transforms from general practitioner to research bacteriologist. Observations:
1). the character types described in medical school (students and faculty), small city medical practice and research facility
are uncannily true to form (my experience as physician), more so than can be attributed solely to hearing about it from one's relatives or informants (in Lewis's case, Dr. Morris Fishbein and
bacteriologist/science writer Paul de Kruif) - a mark of Lewis's
genius as an author.
2). Sinclair Lewis, as usual, has a tin ear for colloquial dialogue.
3). Arrowsmith is doomed, in each of his employments, by his perfectionism - others, who know better how to compromise, urge him to stay on and even how to do it, but his usual response is
"I'm licked!" and on to the next. His one true interest - bacteriological research - endures and grows and eventually pushes any humanity out of his life. Even his penultimate experience in combatting plague on a West Indian island is regretted, not for the death of his loyal wife, but because he compromised the scientific method in how he administered the bacteriophage therapy. In the end, his second wife and son are turned away for a monastic-like life in the wilds.
4). If this is an heroic character - and Lewis is on record as saying he thought so - then it says something about the author. There seems to be a lot of Sinclair Lewis in Martin Arrowsmith - both keen, but heartless, observers - and indeed, there are several parallels between the two - the weakness Arrowsmith has for the bottle at various stages, his scorn for religion and its practitioners, and his womanizing, for example. (Lewis was an alcoholic and was twice divorced). Lewis elsewhere has been described as a proto-feminist, but any sympathy he has for the female gender is a little like Marx's sympathy for the working class - more in theory than in practice (which may be said about feminism in general). The truly pathetic character in this novel is Dr. Arrowsmith's first wife, who sacrifices her own life and sticks to him in spite of his selfishness - and who winds up buried in a backyard on some fetid Caribbean island. Lewis and his hero both seem to try to develop some sympathy for her, without much success.
5). Lewis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, but refused it. Evidence is that at least part of the basis for this was that he was miffed over the failure of Main Street and Babbitt to win it.

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A Timeless Classic... Can I get a hyprocritical AMEN!
Banned in Boston --
a profile of the USA, not the clergy
Elmer Gantry is alive and at very good health today
A fun, funny book

Elmer Gantry (Signet Classics)
Sinclair Lewis , and Mark Schorer
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451522516

Customer Reviews:

A Timeless Classic... Can I get a hyprocritical AMEN! .......2007-08-07

Excellent read, extremely interesting and intelligent prose. Lewis has a field day exposing the sinful, sanctimonious world of evangelism in early twentieth century Mid-America. And does he ever expose it! You will be hard pressed to find a more disreputable jackass in all of literature than Sinclair's main protagonist the Reverend Elmer Gantry. Long before the days of Jim & Tammy Baker & the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart there was this very funny story about this soulless, vapid, amoral, self-absorbed, overbearing, mama's boy who uses religion as his road to success. He's not smart enough, and far too lazy to make it in the real world, so Elmer decides to become a con man, errrrr Methodist preacher (although, it could have been one of several Christian sects) who's definition of success is about two things - money and power.

One thing that I find truly remarkable about this novel was how Sinclair was able to keep us interested and more importantly keep us from throwing the book in the trash or fireplace. When you finish this book, you will know what I mean. For upon reflection, Elmer Gantry is one despicable excuse for a human being. The man has no soul. He manipulates the masses and those around him without ever a tinge of guilt. He treats his family (except of course for his mama) like a pile of horse manure. And he's the most hypocritical cad you'll ever find in fiction. I could go on and on, but I don't want to divulge too much. Yet, despite how loathsome Elmer is, he does have a certain charm about him (don't they all?). It is that charm that keeps us from truly hating him enough to not care anymore. It is that charm that kept me reading on instead of tossing it in the Good Will box. I don't know about the rest of you, but if I can't stand the main character, no matter how interesting the story is or how well written, I usually can't finish the book. Am I the only one like this? Anyway, that's the beauty of Lewis' creation; the character of Reverend Gantry with all of it's vulgarities still had that undefined 'positive' something that keeps us reading on.

It's a great, great story. I had one hec of a time putting it down. I also recommend reading the book's very interesting 'Afterword' written by Mark Schorer. After reading it, I came away with even greater respect for Sinclair Lewis as a writer. The work and research this man did for a story is quite remakable on top of highly commendable. No wonder this classic (along with several others of his) is such an enjoyable read and definitely not dated at all like many classics unfortunately are. For me one of the keys to being dubbed a classic is being timeless. This book truly is. For there are certainly plenty of real life Elmer Gantry's running around all over the place in this world right now.
If you enjoy it half as much as I did, you'll love it.

Banned in Boston --.......2006-08-31

-- and Lewis's life threatened in other parts of the country. What better recommendation can there be for a work of fiction?

This paints a vicious picture of a man with no skills (beyond a flair for showmanship), no scruples, and no taste for "honest work." In the buckle of the Bible Belt, he goes to a Baptist college, and there finds his true place in life: preacher. It gives the perfect shield of respectability to his unrespectable womanizing and drinking habit, while arming him with a sword of faith against which no mere fact could defend. Somehow, his indiscretions always catch up to him. Somehow, he always manages a crowd-pleasing display of repentance and a revival-tent plea for forgivenness, which the faithful grant at the tops of their lungs.

Lewis acknowledges that most people in the religion business are honest enough and sincere enough, but also notes that Elmer is hardly unique. As with his other books, Lewis is frightening in the precision with which he draws this truly rapacious character and his depradations on society in the name of morality and faith. It's frightening because of his prescience in describing modern witch-hunts and fundamentalist Christian attack squads, just as much as as for the disdain with which this first of televangelists fleeces his flock.

Gantry's rapacious nature comes through most clearly in his commodity use of women, and especially behindthe closed doors of his married life. Cleo is devoted, wholly loyal, loving, naive, and less than the dirt beneath his feet. I came to dread the passages in which she appears - not for Cleo herself, but for Gantry's treatment of her. Their wedding night is a travesty, in which her gentle and trusting nature encounters his brutality at its animal worst. It turns my stomach to imagine how her children must have been gotten on her. The story needs that poor woman, however, to show just what Gantry would have do to everyone else if his self-serving social restraint were ever to fail.

No wonder Lewis was threatened with hanging. He hit a nerve. Like today, the people he exposed could only retaliate by trying to shout him down with sin and satan, and by physical violence.

//wiredweird

a profile of the USA, not the clergy.......2006-07-02

I never expected to be moved so much by this book, to feel so strongly about it. Published in 1927, I expected something dated, both in prose and story -- it wasn't at all. This novel isn't just as it's usually described: adventures of a golden-tongued evangelist who lives a live of hypocrisy and self-indulgence. This also isn't a novel whose primary purpose is to attack the clergy. This is a profile of the USA, of the American psyche, a profile that still works today. I finished the book and sat staring out the window for 10 minutes. I didn't know whether to laugh or weep.

What's so disheartening about this book, for me, is, as noted in the afterword by Mark Schorer, "The forces of social good and enlightenment as presented in "Elmer Gantry" are not strong enough to offer any real resistance to the forces of social evil and banality." This is a book where all the good guys go down.

Maybe you have to have been raised in the South or Midwest of the USA, and to have been brought up Baptist or Methodist, to really, truly get all the layers of this magnificent book, all the hidden humor, all the razor-sharp and, at times, incredibly subtle, criticism and commentary. If you've never been to a church supper where a person proudly claims to have traced their lineage all the way back to Adam and Eve, if you have never had your school board or local city council hear arguments about why certain books should be banned from school or local libraries, if a significant number of your family wouldn't boycott your wedding if you chose to serve alcohol, if you have never heard Catholics called "Papists" from a pulpit, if school friends haven't told you, in all sincerity, that they are going to pray for you because of your questions and intellect, if you haven't heard "Christians" rationalize about their actions that are in direct contrast to what the Bible says, if you haven't noticed the onslaught of efforts to get science out of our schools, I'm not sure you can really, truly "get" this book. Part of me is ashamed to have only finally read Sinclair Lewis when I'm already 40 -- and part of me wonders if I could ever have understood this book on the level I feel that I do had I not been this age.

Still a landmark in American literature, still a biting, chilling commentary on our country.

Elmer Gantry is alive and at very good health today.......2006-06-26

I read this book here in Brazil.This book is a fiction, but it has a portrait of evangelical movement in USA, about 80 years ago.
In fact, I must tell you that, this novel didn't became outdated because, preachers and protestantism itself are equal from the times, when this book was writen.Or they are even worse.Elmer Gantry can be Jim Bakker,Swaggart,Billy Graham or any other famous preacher who lived after, this book was writen.
If USA's protestantism is the same, in Brazil, protestantism is far worse.In fact, in 1920 decade, pentecostalism in Brazil was a small cult.In last decades, pentecostalism rised and is now the most followed religion in Brazil.In fact, every Sunday, three times more pentecostalists go to their churches, than catholics."Brazil, the biggest catholic country in the world" is a past, who won't return.The sins of any famous evangelical preacher, here in Brazil, are so terrible, that Elmer Gantry's sins aren't nothing compared.
One timeless lesson of this book is, when Elmer Gantry (hypocrite, womanizer, liar, crook, etc.) rises, while at the same time, not bad preachers, goes to nothing.From Luther, until today, if you aren't a bad guy, then you won't have sucess in protestantism.

A fun, funny book .......2006-06-03

This book is full of clear prose and is very diverting and meaningful even in its parts, such as towards the end, when Lewis seems to rush through the dialogue and description and the book loses some of the depth of its earlier parts.

The book, overall, is a brilliantly vivid portrayal of life in Midwestern fundamentalist circles in the early 20th century. Lewis really knew how to make his scenes come to life for the reader, he really knew how to tell a story. Lewis had a masterful ear for the nuances of the speech of preachers, businessmen and common ways of speech, and he put such speech in the characters of this book in an often very funny way.

The book starts with Elmer as a rowdy football star at the Baptist Terwillinger Colelge in 1902 who as a result of an incident while he is drunk, accidently publicly gives forth the impression to his classmates and teachers that he has been "saved." During a prayer meeting with a group of professors and clergy associated with the seminary, he goes for a walk in order to induce god to give him "the call" to be ordained for the ministry. During this walk he stops by a bar, gets lightly drunk which creates in him a feeling of great fondness towards the world, which he thinks is god's "call" to him. At the bar, his atheist friend Jim Lefferts gives him some peppermints to cover his breath while he goes back to give the good news of his "call" to his elders. His elders at the seminary require him to attend many meetings to give speeches on his becoming saved. Jim Lefferts gives him a poetic passage to use, with all sorts of metaphors about the supreme power of love, from a work of that advocate of biblical liberalism, Ingersoll. Elmer will use this passage as a standby for flowery sermons in the future, not of course telling his audience that he stole it from that enemy of fundamentalism, Ingersoll. This is all quite funny in its portrayal.

The story follows Elmer as he rises in the world, as his infantile egoism, and lust for power and publicity grow. He preaches all the fundamentalist doctrines with great violence that he thinks his audience, whether at his church in the tiny rural town of Banjo Crossing or his huge congregation in the mythical big city of Zenith, wants to hear.. Of course, when he achieves a pastorate at the Wellspring Methodist Church in Zenith, in the mid 20's, he acquires some wealthy parishoners, such as the criminal defense lawyer T.J. Rigg. Such wealthy in his congregation really don't believe in fundamentalism but belong to the church for public appearances. Elmer is of course very secular in his private relationship with these wealthy people (though he manages to avoid consuming alcohol when he associates with them). These people such as Rigg, who becomes Elmer's chief advisor, greatly admire Elmer because the latter does not bug them if they violate prohibition laws and consume alcohol or smoke or say "damm" or conduct activities outlawed on the Sabbath. They appreciate Elmer greatly when he gives sermons telling working people that strikes for better conditions and living wages are evil, and that they ought to think of "higher things" like religion instead.

In order to get extra publicity from the newspapers in Zenith, he gets himself sanctioned by the police, to lead raids, with reporters and photographers in tow, on "houses of sin." He achieves many arrests, including that of a German bar owner serving alcohol in violation of Prohibition laws and invades the home of one of two unmarried female members of his congregation and arrests one of them on the ground of love-making outside of marriage, when he, with police and reporters in tow, catches her as she is about to have sex with a man. Such laws against pre-marital sex were not uncommon in those days. Elmer himself during his pastorate at the Wellspring Church in Zenith, is carrying on two extra-marital affairs.

Lewis does not portray Elmer as a cartoonish character. Elmer is complex, a disgusting and cruel hypocrite to be sure, but also someone who, while quite without any decency or much intelligence, feels genuine awe at the mysteries of fundamentalist religion and believes its doctrines, however much he violates them. Elmer and for that matter the other fundamentalist clergy who make appearances in the book, are very human.

Contrasted with Elmer in this book, is the character of Frank Shallard, Elmer's seminary classmate. Despite his intense desire to keep such thoughts out of his mind, Frank cannot resist exercising his intellect and questioning the rational basis of the fundamentalist doctrines he preaches, even the question of the divinity of Jesus. With such doubts nagging him, he goes through a series of pastorates as a baptist minister. Frank is a very quiet, decent man. While the loud, aggressive Elmer is chiefly motivated by attracting publicity to himself and acquiring rich and powerful people into his congregation, Frank concentrates on providing genuine compassion and friendship towards individuals in his congregation who need it. However because he cannot resist using his powers of intellect to question religious and other status quo doctrines, Frank's life is eventually ruined while Elmer, a shyster (and a cruel husband) rises in the world in fame and glory.

Mark Schorer, Lewis's first biographer, notes in the afterward to this book, that the last part of the book seems to have been rushed through, and notes that while Lewis was finishing this book, he was relapsing into severe alcoholism and his marriage to his nasty first wife Gracie was failing. In addition, I think there is a slight problem with the character of Sharon Falconer, the female evangelist that Elmer goes to work for after a period where he works as a salesman for a farm machinery company. She is obviously complex, but the depth of her character isn't related as well as it should be. It seems that he and Sharon become lovers though Lewis does not explicity say this. He was writing in the 1920's when an author, of course, could not be too frank in describing "immoral" matters.

This is not the greatest novel ever written, and I like "Babbitt" even better, but I'm still very fond of it.

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Elmer Gantry
Sinclair Lewis
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CKJ0J

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Elmer Gantry

Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Co, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: B000BIZL28

Product Description

Sinner! Elmer Gantry want you! To save your soul! To see the light! He wants you to know all about heaven. But not about his whiskey and his women!

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Ruthie Black
Always one step ahead
Read Ruthie Black
Tales from the rural south
Ruthie Black

Ruthie Black
Peter Brown
Manufacturer: Argonne House Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GABOC2

Customer Reviews:

Ruthie Black.......2007-10-01

If this is Mr. Brown's 1st novel, we are in for a treat when he writes his second. The dialog was very believable and the descriptions made me want to dive into the book and speak with these characters. Let's hope for a book about Buddy Black.

Always one step ahead.......2007-02-01

Ruthie Black is "Moll Flanders" in the Flannery O'Connor south.

Peter Brown is a talented young author. He provides Ruthie with nice summary quips that reveal a moral compass and grounding. Life has been hard on Ruthie and she's determined to find a vehicle of her own salvation.

This novel is very funny and it moves quickly. I'd love to see Ruthie make it to the "big screen." She's a real character.

Read Ruthie Black.......2006-09-14

Ruthie Black is one of those memorable characters. She's got guts and gusto plus she's got sex and love on her mind -- of course, that's a woman you're going to notice! Peter Brown is a storyteller who knows how to make his story people vivid and his storyline compelling. There were passages in Ruthie Black where I read a sentence and thought, "This line is absolutely perfect! It captures the situation, the scene, the moment, so well you can practically see it, feel it, taste it." Get ready for a great read because Ruthie Black is one of those memorable books.

Tales from the rural south.......2006-09-11

Peter Brown is a wonderful, witty writer. His book shows us the gritty side of life in a small southern town, where Ruthie Black struggles to find security for herself and her small son after her husband disappears and is presumed dead. Brown handles her tale of attaching herself to an Elmer Gantry-type preacher with humor and sympathy as we follow to its inevitable conclusion

Ruthie Black.......2006-08-07

I loved this book! I loved the setup, where Ruthie thinks her husband was killed in the burned out car, but her son, Freddy, is convinced his dad's still alive. This uncertainty dogs Ruthie as she tries to find a new man who will love her and get her out of the grips of this punishing and stifling little town.

I stayed up all night, flipping pages, reading this funny and edgy book. Ruthie admirably holds her own with the male characters who are drawn to her. I continually thought of Eudora Welty's strong female protagonists as I read Ruthie Black.

Peter Brown offers us a quirky new voice with this exciting new book, and I will look forward to more of his Southern tales.

Barb Coleman

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Elmer Gantry

Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H0SUQE

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ELMER GANTRY

Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GQJ54U

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Elmer Gantry (First Edition)
Sinclair Lewis
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K5UV18

Product Description

First Edition. First State, with the "G" on the spine resembling a "C". Dark blue cloth cover with orange lettering. Roughcut pages.

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Arrowsmith Elmer Gantry Dodsworth
Sinclair Lewis
Manufacturer: LIBRARY OF AMERICA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U2EGVM

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ELMER GANTRY
Sinclair Lewis
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Practicing Attorneys, Institutional and Corporate Counsel, Chief Financial Officers, Business Executives, and a host of others will immeasurably add to their comprehension of bankruptcy law in general, and Chapter 11 in particular, by reading and keeping readily available this handy, concise, eminently practical reference book. Drawing on the authors extensive experience and expertise in bankruptcy and corporate reorganization, the Fundamentals of Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization provides the legal fundamentals that underlie our bankruptcy system and focuses on corporate reorganization by offering the reader a practical guide through the complex labyrinth of Chapter 11. Messrs. Crames and Edelman, who have spent their entire careers immersed in the field and have represented clients with problems covering the spectrum of bankruptcy issues, provide the kind of practice points, observations and insights that make this work uniquely valuable. They have been on the cutting edge as bankruptcy law has evolved and reorganization cases have become more complex and sophisticated.

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Fundamentals of Bankruptcy Law

Manufacturer: American Law Institute-American Bar Associati
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Fundamentals of bankruptcy law

Manufacturer: American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee on Continuing Professional Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 083180744X

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Fundamentals of bankruptcy law

Manufacturer: American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee on Continuing Professional Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0831805048

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Fundamentals of bankruptcy law

Manufacturer: American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee of Continuing Professional Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0831805099

Bankruptcy Law and Procedure: A Fundamental Guide for Law Office Professionals

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Bankruptcy Law and Procedure: A Fundamental Guide for Law Office Professionals
Steven N. Berger
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Bankruptcy Law and Procedure: A Fundamental Guide for Law Office Professionals, 1992 Supplement (Paralegal Practice Library)

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Bankruptcy Law and Procedure: A Fundamental Guide for Law Office Professionals, 1992 Supplement (Paralegal Practice Library)
Steven N. Berger , J. Daria Westland , and Thomas J. Salerno
Manufacturer: Wiley Law Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471580724

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Bankruptcy Law Fundamentals
Richard I. Aaron
Manufacturer: Clark Boardman Callaghan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0876324324

Fundamentals of bankruptcy & collection law

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Fundamentals of bankruptcy & collection law
Kathleen Fisher
Manufacturer: [National Center for Paralegal Training]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006RRFS2

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Fundamentals of bankruptcy law
Douglass G Boshkoff
Manufacturer: s.n.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00071GNK8

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