Main Street

Main Street
By Sinclair Lewis
Signet Classic, 1998

Originally published in 1920, this satirical novel depicts life in a small rural town during the 1910s. Carol Milford is a liberal woman from St. Paul, Minnesota. She marries Will Kennicott, who takes her to his home in Gopher Prairie. The story is about Carol's perception of the town's lack of culture and her unsuccessful attempts to bring more culture and civilization to this prairie town. My favorite line comes from early in the novel when Carol is still single and working as a Librarian in St. Paul: "She [Carol] almost gave up library work to become one of the young women who dance in cheese-cloth in the moonlight."

SML