Larry Bassett's Reviews > Elmer Gantry

At the age of 74 I think that Elmer Gantry is a name that I have probably known for much of my life. It was always associated with a hard drinking lecherous preacher. But I have never read the book until I just now completed listening to it in the audible version. The book was first published in 1927 and the times have considerably changed although I have lived in the town with Jerry Falwell JR, the 21st-century Elmer Gantry. Actually the book disappointed me as the Elmer of Sinclair Lewis is not the barnstorming carousing Elmer of my imagination! I thought he was actually quite sedate although that might have been partially due to the limitations to which Lewis was willing to go in his authorial descriptions. And at the end Elmer is able to escape from the trap that is set for him.

In 1927 this book might have deserved more than two stars but I think that in the year 2021, It has seriously lost its punch and any message that it might have once contained. I am glad to be able to check this book off of my reading bucket list but I think others might be able to save their time and effort. The embarrassing stories of the wayward evangelical ministers have been well told in the mid and late 20th century. And in much more detail.

The name Elmer Gantry has a certain currency with a certain age but it has not lived on. My 28-year-old daughter who does not live with her head in the sand by any means had never heard of the name! This simply reinforces my belief that this book may have played a role in 1927 but no longer has much wallop.