The Folly of Man - - And Woman

I've been carrying around Elmer Gantry on my iPod for some time.  It is so difficult to decide what to read next.  This was a hum-dinger, you betcha.  As I mentioned before, Sinclair Lewis is a great writer. I guess I'm not alone in thinking that.  And here we have the most self-delusional man in the history of literature. Maybe not, but he is certainly in the top ten. Elmer can't quite reconcile his desire to get into every woman's pants, to foist his belief in whatever he is believing at the moment on others, and to acquire as much power and money as possible. This is another of those books that must be listened to for complete enjoyment. The reader does various voices really well. What he does best is to tell about what predicament Gantry has gotten himself into now and then convey Elmer's unperplexed response to stepping out of the fire.  

Elmer and his wife go to Europe at one point and this section was almost as much fun as Twain's Innocents Abroad. Oh, we are/were such ugly Americans. Please say "were." I know that none of my friends would be so oblivious to the sorry image they are showing to foreigners (if they behave like Elmer Gantry.) But then, there is Sarah Palin. (Sorry, I just can't get that woman out of my mind; especially since she made such a fool of herself on the tape about how the media gave Obama the election.) Lewis thought very little of organized religion and, probably, small town America as well. In fact, he is said to have dedicated this book to H.L. Mencken.  H.L. was a champion athiest. That's why he found the Scope's Monkey Trial such fertile ground for scorn.

I've decided to take 3 weeks off to drive to California to visit friends and get my car registered. Peggy's Folly. But I almost cried at the Virginia DMV when they told me I had to get a Virginia driver's license to register my car here. What?!! When you've been a Californian for 61 years, that is just too big a hurdle to get over. It's so much better to drive for 5 days to get the car registered in it's rightful home. Right? If you disagree, you don't need to tell me. My brother already has. The lemonade in all this is that I will get to visit with my friends on the correct coast. That is very powerful lemonade.