This novel was published in 1942 and won the Pulitzer for Novels in 1943. It is the story of one man's experience with Nazism in Germany in the early 1930s.
Lanny Budd is a fortunate man. He has married a beautiful and very wealthy young woman. Her wealth is secure enough to withstand even the effects of the stock market crash of 1929 and the resulting depression that blighted most of the 1930s. He has a brand new baby daughter and he is friends with the best of society, both in Europe and America. He need never work for a living, if he so chooses. Along with his wife, Irma, he travels around Europe, staying at this fancy hotel or in this stately mansion, playing music, attending plays, buying & selling the occasional art work, and fooling around with socialism. For Lanny Budd, living in affluence, is an ardent socialist. This bothers his wife, naturally, as the socialists would prefer that wealth be taken from people like Irma and redistributed to the working class.
Lanny and Irma, after the birth of their first child, are invited to travel on the yacht of the wealthy German Jew, Johannes Robin. Lanny's sister is married to Johannes' son, Hansi. Hansi and Bess are both strident communists, as is Hansi's brother Freddi, much to their parents' distress.
Lanny, through his political contacts, is aware that things are not good in Germany. He understands just how vile the Nazis are and tries to tell people to no avail. No one is willing to believe that the Nazis could possibly be that horrible. Lanny warns the Robin family to get out of Germany, but Johannes is sure that he can handle the situation there because he has so many German friends.
Things go from bad to worse in Germany and people are disappearing. Even Johannes finally begins to see that maybe it would be better to get away. He arranges a trip on his yacht, only to be arrested just as the Robin family is leaving. Freddi and his wife and son and Johannes's wife are not arrested and they all split up and go into hiding. The other son, Hansi, and his wife, are luckily not in Germany at this time.
Lanny Budd and his wife and other family members & friends were supposed to join the yacht. They are waiting for it to show up but it never does. So Lanny and Irma travel to Germany to find out what has happened. Lanny manages to get in touch with the Robins and hears about the arrest. He finally gets to see Johannes where he is being held, accused of trying to smuggle money out of Germany. Johannes swears he had all the proper papers and permits. The Germans offer a deal...if Johannes signs over all his property and funds to them he will be allowed to leave if he will promise to keep silent about it. Johannes willingly signs everything over and Lanny arranges to transport him and the rest of the Robins out of Germany. But Freddi has disappeared.
Lanny and Irma get Johannes and the others out of Germany and Lanny decides he has to go back and try to find Freddi. Irma is to stay behind because it is getting too dangerous to be in Germany. Lanny is pretty sure the Germans are holding Freddi as a way to guarantee that Johannes stay silent about how he was tortured, beaten and his fortune extorted from him.
During their travels in Germany, Lanny and Irma rubbed elbows with some of the worse criminals of the Nazi terror, including that scum of the earth, Hitler. They had to make nice and be all friendly and cozy with some of the worse villains the world has ever seen. Meanwhile, Irma started to buy into their Nazi propaganda and started to wonder if maybe the Jews, and the Reds and the Socialists are enemies of the Fatherland and deserved the punishment being meted out to them. This was distressing to Lanny as he started to realize that he can no longer trust Irma as much as he would like.
So Lanny heads back alone into the hell that Germany has become, much against Irma's wishes as she is frightened for his safety. He discovers that Freddi is being held in Dachau, one of the notorious concentration camps.
This novel has a very strong socialist slant. I found it pretty dull until the part where Lanny and Irma go to Germany looking for the Robin family. Sinclair's portraits of Goebbels, Goring and Hitler are an interesting part of the story. Reading this story is like watching a train speeding towards an unavoidable collision. You can see it coming and there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop it. You feel like screaming at the Robins, "Get out! Get out while you can! Now!" But of course they don't. You feel like screaming at the German people, "Don't believe Hitler's lies! Don't give him the power! He's a monster!" But of course they do.
Review by Joshua Riley on The Pulitizer Blog: https://thepulitzerblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/upton-sinclair-dragons-teeth/.
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