Arrowsmith

By: Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy

Arrowsmith is the story of a brilliant man named Martin Arrowsmith, who has a passion for science and medicine, but with a weakness for women, money, and glory.

As a child, Martin would spend his free time reading through the medical books in the local doctor’s practice. This interest leads him to medical school, and eventually Martin starts his own private practice in medicine, while getting married to Leora Tozer.

Eventually, Martin transitions to becoming a public health official, and from there, he comes across the challenges of greed and corruption within the scientific and medical community as he is faced with making a choice between helping to save lives or helping the scientific community.

©2021 Goffin Media (P)2021 Goffin Media

Still relevant

This is an excellent study of people in science, management, and public policy.
You will recognize the follies of each character that you can see in real people.
The poor decisions of the politicians and business leaders at the beginning of the epidemic towards the end of the book will feel very familiar.

Gottlieb the scientist who is so constricted by the need for perfection that he takes years to publish a paper will be familiar to engineers. (I’m an engineer.)
Arrowsmith’s obsessive need to work at all hours everyday is sadly familiar.

I do have a quibble about the narrator. He has a British accent. Most of the characters are from the American Midwest and the fact that they don’t sound anything like Midwesterners was very distracting for the first third of the book. I am a Midwesterner, and it took me a long time to get over it.