The Trail of the Hawk A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life

by Sinclair Lewis

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Genres: Fiction, Classics, Novels

420 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

Novelist Harry Sinclair Lewis satirized middle-class America in his 22 works, including Babbitt (1922) and Elmer Gantry (1927) and first received a Nobel Prize for literature in 1930.

Middle-class values and materialism attach unthinking George F. Babbitt, the narrow-minded, self-satisfied main character person in the novel of Sinclair Lewis.

People awarded "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."

He knowingly, insightfully, and critically viewed capitalism and materialism between the wars. People respect his strong characterizations of modern women.

Henry Louis Mencken wrote, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade...it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclai...

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life is a 1915 novel by Sinclair Lewis with a very long name. Sinclair Lewis is one of my favorite authors usually, I loved Babbitt, it makes me want to go read it again just saying that, Dodsworth, Ann Vickers, Main Street, Elmer Gantry, I loved them all. I don't think I was as thrilled with It Can't Happen Here or Free Air, but you can't win them all. Anyway, as I said I love Sinclair Lewis books, usually. You caught that usually didn't you? I read not too long ago that Main Street was Sinclair's most famous novel, that surprised me, I would have thought it was Babbitt, I remember much more of Babbitt than I do of Main Street, which has nothing to do with the book I just read at all. Unfortunately, I just found out more stuff about Main Street so you will have to hold on for a few more minutes until I get to the Hawk book. According to Wikipedia:

Main Street initially was awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, but was rejected by the Board of Trustees, who overturned the jury's decision. The prize instead went to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence. In 1926, Lewis refused the Pulitzer when he was awarded it for Arrowsmith.

In 1930, Lewis was the first American ever awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. While a Nobel Prize is awarded to the author, not the work, and itself does not cite a particular work for which he was chosen, Main Street was Lewis' best-known work and enormously popular at the time. In the Nobel committee's presentation speech, both Main Street and Arrowsmith were cited. The prize was awarded "... for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters."

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Main Street #68 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

First, it doesn't seem fair to me that the Board of Trustees can just look at the jury decision and say, no we don't like that one we're picking another, although I did like The Age of Innocence. I wonder how Edith Wharton felt about getting the award that way. And more importantly, when he was awarded the prize in 1926 for Arrowsmith why in the world did he turn it down? I wonder if he was still mad over the Main Street thing. It's now on the 100 best English novels list and I still like Babbitt better. And now I'm back to The Trail of the Hawk.

When I finished the book my first thought was "I can't believe this is how the book is going to end, am I missing something?" my second thought was "Thank the Lord that one is finished." After thinking about it for awhile, the being thankful the book is finished is winning over the wanting a better ending. My main problem with the book is easy to see, you can see it in the title The Trail of the Hawk, which is what we do the entire book. First Hawk is a young boy, than an older boy, than a boy in college, than an adult, and no matter what age he was I didn't like him. I don't know why I didn't like him, I just didn't and we followed him around the entire book. We never got a break to see what happens to Gertie Cowles - his childhood girlfriend -after she is all grown up and ready to move on with her life, or what about poor Bennie Rusk - his childhood best friend? Carl goes off to college and we never see poor Bennie again, or Eddie Klemm, or his college roommate Plain Smith. Then there's Professor Frazer, he's a socialist supposedly, and he's not supposed to be a socialist which ends up with him leaving the college, where he goes I have no idea. Carl can't stay at college anyway, he's too restless and goes off to travel the country, work where he can find work and eat where he can find food. We're told this:

The following are the several jobs for which Carl first applied in Chicago, all the while frightened by the roar and creeping shadows of the city:

Tutoring the children of a millionaire brewer; keeping time on the Italian and Polack washers of a window-cleaning company; reporting on an Evanston newspaper; driving a taxicab, a motortruck; keeping books for a suburban real-estate firm.

It goes on, but that's the general idea. When he gets bored he moves on. At one point he has a steady job working from eight in the morning until six or seven in the evening, he manages to stick to the job for two months, then starts calling the packing room a prison. He was very good at his job though, and the foreman had promised to make Carl his assistant, but the night when he is due to be promoted he glanced out the window and walked out the door. He only has $10.42, so that same day he starts looking for a new job. Why in the world didn't he stay in the one he had??? Then he is a chauffeur and loved his job. He was happy, he was seeing the world, he gloried in every new road, and driving along the Lake Shore. Then one day those favorite roads began to be familiar to him, so he hated his job and that night left his job and the city and jumped on a freight train and:

As he swung with the cars, on curves, he saw the treacherous wheels grinding beneath him. But to the chuck-a-chuck, chuck-a-chuck, chuck-a-chuck of the trucks he hummed, "Never turn back, never tur' back, never tur' back."

I'm not going to make you travel all over the place with Carl the way I did, mainly because I don't want to do it again. I'm not taking you to Mexico with him, or watch him become an airplane pilot, which he was quite good at. But in those days it seems the only thing they did with these planes was fly in air shows, which it seems must have been extremely dangerous since after awhile the only pilot who hasn't been killed during one of these shows is Carl and he gets hurt or bored or both, I can't remember, and moves on to designing cars. He also manages to get fall in love and get married, and live at one place, but we're not going over that, just remember with Carl it's never too long until he's bored. Happy reading.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read by Sinclair Lewis. He had such a distinctive writing style that make his books very identifiable. This story follows Carl Ericson, a bit of a miscontent, who is expelled from college and becomes somewhat of a vagabond going from job to job until he comes across the idea of becoming an aviator. This was in the early days of aviation when the "flying machines"were still experimental. He pursued this vocation for several years gaining the nickname Hawk Ericson until he saw most of those in aviation slowly dying off in air crashes. He then went on to develop the idea for a "Touricar", a car that could be used for camping with fold down seats for sleeping, a kind of forerunner for the camper. During much of this time during the later parts of the book he was in an on again off again love story that became the focus of the story.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love me some Sinclair Lewis ... he has become my favorite author.

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second novel I've read the 1930 American winner of Nobel Prize of literature Sinclair Lewis. I definitely enjoyed reading this book much more than the novel "Our Mr. Wrenn". I've read an ebook version of this title. It is written in the beginning of the novel that the book is a critic of seriousness of life, which is true, but it is a lot more important.

More than half of the book is about Carl Ericson, first born American in Minnesota from a family of immigrant from Norway. While his parents had ventured out of Europe to USA to find a land in Minnesota where his father has a manual work, they wanted him just like the rest of local society to have a good education at local university followed by a good established job and settle for marriage. However, Carl Ericson had at an early age a taste of adventures in unknown territories, which he applied later during his education, his personal and professional life. Carl Ericson's way of life he chose along with the ups and down and risks is part of the American Entrepreneur spirit his parents and their generation had.

The second part of the novel is about Carl Ericson and his relationship with Ruth Wilson, which goes against the common conventions of the times. Furthermore, Carl's Ericson had difficulty to apply his strong belief of freedom and adventures to relationship with a woman and marriage.

There is so much to be said about the various themes mentioned in this book: freedom to think differently, to live differently. More importantly, these subjects are still of actuality today. This book is a must read novel. A great surprise and more interesting and important than the book "Our Mr. Wrenn".

[Geldar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all Sinclair Lewis novels I've read, this is a meandering, relatively plotless, exploration of a life done in that relatable, Nobel-worthy style. Most of it is set in the first 15 years of the 19th century, and among its other merits, it provides a unique glimpse into early American aviation*. It's split into three parts ("adventures"): Youth, Adventuring, and Love, and they are all engaging, insightful, and fun. It's no match for Babbitt or Elmer Gantry, but it's worth reading, particularly if you are a casual (or stark-raving mad) Sinclair Lewis fan, interested in early 20th century America, or are a free-thinking, diversion-loving, American male who fantasizes about being a hobo/becoming famous/falling in love with a random woman on the street.

*Hawk Ericson, is of course, obviously based on Charles Lindbergh**, another 2nd generation Swedish-American Minnesotan who had an early interest in mechanical engineering and went on to win fame after a prize-winning, historic flight.

**The fact that Charles Lindbergh was an unknown 13-year old at the time of the novel's publication is just more evidence that Sinclair Lewis was consistently ahead of his time.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely episodic, as any life might be (though this one more so that most), there were times when I thought this book a masterpiece, and others when I wondered if it was ever going anywhere. But Lewis has a way of drawing one in and, even in its most mundane sections, this book is always compelling.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was really good. It was not what I expected, but in a good way.

[Kathy Nealen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early novel by Lewis that tells the story of young man during the first thirty years of his life, including his limited time as an early aviator.

[Skip · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exploration of the early days of flying. What an eye opener. Again, Lewis's writing is as good as anyone who ever put pen to page.

[Constance M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful book, especially the narrative on LibroVox

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early outing from Sinclair Lewis, a Bildungsroman about one of those heroes of early 20th century celebrity, the aviator.

This is the story of Carl "Hawk" Ericson, from Minnesota by way of Norwegian stock, a 'divinely reckless seeker of the romance that must - or we die! - lie beyond the hills.' Romance and adventure hit the Hawk as a child; when he meets his new neighbour, the wholesome Gertie Cowles, they decide to run away to San Francisco (they get about two miles).

At sixteen he falls in love with her, dreams of owning a horseless carriage, of being and engineer, a lawyer, football player etc. After flunking college on a principled stand, he bums around various cities where the actual occupations he attains are chauffeur, porter, barman; a more romantic stint as a vaudeville actor doesn't work out. Then he finds his calling in aviation.

The first two thirds of the novel are tremendous fun, fit to bursting with that uniquely wide-eyed and optimistic brand of American literature which comes from being born and raised in a vast country full of possibilities.

Lewis is particularly good with his pithy descriptions of the supplementary cast; even characters with walk-on roles get a lively introduction, such as in this entrée of Hawk's mechanician Martin Dockerill:

'Martin Dockerill ate pun'kin pie with his fingers, played "Marching through Georgia" on the mouth-organ, admired burlesque-show women in sausage-shaped pink tights, and wore balbriggan socks that always reposed in wrinkles over the tops of his black shoes with frayed laces. But he probably could build a very decent motor in the dark, out of four tin cans and a crowbar.

In the third act Hawk gave up aviation for a desk job and met Ruth Winslow, a more sophisticated playmate than Gertie (who was treated rather badly all things told, not be Hawk but by Lewis). More than his career was brought to ground by these developments unfortunately.

It's also unfortunate that Lewis wrote this book just before the outbreak of WWI rather than just after. Hawk in the airforce would have led to a more heroic or tragic ending, either would have been an improvement on simply running out of fuel.

[Hal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked the book. Comments later.