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Main Street

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Main Street

By: Sinclair Lewis
Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
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"This is America ... its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere ..." With the first line of his novel, Sinclair Lewis captures an America on the brink of change. Main Street vividly draws the lines of tension between tradition and progress in ways that make them timeless, yet still new. Carol Milford, educated, sophisticated, and energetic, has ambitious plans for her life. Her studies have prepared her to join an enlightened, progressive society. But after she becomes Carol Kennicott, the wife of a small town physician, she quickly learns that she is to be nothing more than a gracious wife. Frustrated and torn between the challenge of social change and the comfort of personal security, she begins to understand the cost of conformity-and rebellion. Sinclair Lewis' perceptive tale has been a milestone in American literature since it was published in 1920. Conveying all the hope and optimism of a generation who sought to use their education and prosperity to make a more perfect country, his heroine still stands for the youthful exuberance of our nation.(P)1996 Recorded Books Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Fiction
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Magnificent story and very sound narration - really brings story and character alive. Thoroughly recommended listen!!

Is THE American novel ?

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Yes, small town US had and has issues, but some more nuance and empathy would increase the experience of listening

Bitter Sarcastic Long

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Written in the 3rd person and almost entirely concerned with our ‘heroines’ perspective (despite the good hearted tempering from her husbands voice along the way), on small town mores in middle America one hundred years ago; at about 2/3 of the way through, a sudden flurry of other characters are given voice, and in this way we seem to cut to the chase as it were.
Here the novel takes on the character of an essay, a polemic, a meditation and at some point even a rant.
There is an attempt at balance and some genuine reflection on the better aspects of small town life and the values, aspirations and actions of its denizens. Nonetheless, in the context of the novel we have already been thoroughly softened up for the authors view of that life as stifling, hypocritical, unimaginative and ultimately empty.
Though well written, and no doubt with as much relevance today as at the time of publication, its calls for those missing attributes to be identified as valuable and even necessary for many a human soul’s survival seem almost quaint in light of politics in present day America. Though the line between the two is clear.
It is at that 2/3 point when it reads most like an essay that the book is at its most effective. Released from the strictures of narrative, plot and character, the author makes a strong case for his own argument and associated challenges to the country. I understand the book to be considered a classic of American satire, but I fear its claws may be too clipped and its passion too polite for it to make any marks on today’s readership.
I listened to an audiobook read by Barbara Caruso, who was absolutely brilliant. I was particularly taken with the voice she gave to ‘the husband’, whose natural equanimity and gentlemanly manner came across so well, even as the author pours some acorn on many of the characters surface values.
I enjoy a cultural exploration of tribal specifics, and this is a fine example, but unlike Austen and Wharton et al, it is beginning to creak like an old lady.

Creaky satire on small town USA

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