ARROWSMITH

This 1924 classic traces the less than satisfying career of a doctor from his college training through his small-town practice, participation in a city health agency, and work in a West Indian clinic, where he hopes to engage in pure science and escape the money-grubbing that has so frustrated him earlier. Following in the footsteps of his more enduring MAIN STREET and BABBIT, Sinclair Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize for the medical novel, but refused it, out of pique, some critics suggest, because he felt he should have won it for the earlier books. ARROWSMITH still makes good listening today, in large measure because of the competence of reader John McDonough. Though he could use a little more drama and more consistent differentiation among the many characters, his style eventually becomes interesting, even compelling, as the novel itself. T. H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]