I kept having this distinct feeling, as if I were a disapproving old lady while reading this book. I thought to myself, "This young man writes extremely well, yet I simply don't like his tone." He comes across as smug, unutterably smug. Moreover, it seems as if he doesn't hold any affection or concern for any of his characters, which renders the entire reading experience rather cold. I guess that, ninety years after its publication, the theme of "small towns being narrow-minded and hypocritical" has been explored to the point of exhaustion. However, Lewis should indeed be given credit for pioneering this particular genre. But overall, I have to admit that I didn't have a favorable opinion of this work.

I initially thought this book was written in a rather flimsy manner and didn't truly qualify as Literature. However, upon further reflection, I realize that Sinclair Lewis has crafted a rather decent account. It's about a woman who was previously accustomed to city life but now has to come to terms with growing old in a small town.

Lewis transports us back to an America that hadn't yet become the world's greatest superpower. This was before Freud's theories of sexuality gained popularity, before the Pill was invented, and before the world of motion pictures and television began to dominate the consciousness of Americans.

If you read between the lines, you can discern how and why Americans became so one-dimensional in the 1950s. You can also see how the salesman in the grey flannel suit came to symbolize the corporate crowning of 20th-century business culture.

Lewis endeavors to make Main Street a multi-vocal novel that resonates from various perspectives. But I feel he lacks the artistic prowess to paint with a broad brush as John Dos Passos exemplified. Still, the latter part of the novel, where Carol Kennicott spends time in Washington, D.C. among Vassar graduates, is better than the homey realism of Thornton Wilder's novels.

If we are to read Main Street today, we must reflect on the peculiar American position of being caught between the European historical past and the revolutionary culture of the left stirred up by the Russian revolution. It must be read with this perspective in mind because, when several generations of high-schoolers learned history lessons from reading Shakespeare's plays, the seeds of a political hunger were sown in the American spirit. These seeds are continuously being nurtured and will bloom in the generations of the 21st century.

"Main Street" by Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis was published in the "Selected Novels" series by Narodna Kultura Publishing House in 1962. The novel itself was written over 100 years ago and published in 1920. According to Wikipedia, it was a bestseller.
The main heroine, Carol, is educated, the daughter of a judge, but her parents pass away during her childhood. After working as a librarian in Saint Louis for 3 years, she marries a doctor and they live in the developing town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, in the Midwest, with a population of three thousand. Carol is ambitious to improve society and beautify Main Street, but will she be able to cope with the local customs?
The author evokes sympathy for the heroine. Besides her words and thoughts, he rarely detaches us from the third person. He introduces us to many other heroes from the local business, intelligentsia, liberal professions, and farmers (usually Scandinavian immigrants). I cannot forgive the author for the only people he buries in the first 500 pages being the main hero, the doctor, and then proceeding to occupy us more with the merchants Hydeck, Dyer, Clark, etc., who seem identical, and if he were to exchange their names, it would not make an impression on me. They are the doctor's social circle according to their social status and are given to their occupations. Their wives, in turn, have to socialize with each other in the small, still puritanical town. Carol thinks about many things and does not refrain from getting into arguments. She discovers that Dr. Will loves 5 things (one of which is her). The reality is boring. Where will this lead?
Nevertheless, events do occur, nothing stands still. There are also surprises.
Feminism is one of Mr. Lewis's themes and is also found in another of his books. At that time, there was a real need for it - for example, married women were not allowed to work and did not have many other rights. The church and public opinion were a force from which even the innocent could be persecuted.
"Of course, religion has a beneficial influence. It must exist to keep the lower classes in order. In fact, this is the only thing that these friends like and that makes them respect property rights."
It doesn't matter who said it. Surely the men in this town think the same way.
The translation of the book is old, but not just that. So everything is in order. Our language has not changed much. Mostly, some foreign words have come in, and others are only now trying. I can read some of Sinclair Lewis's other books published before 1950 in the old orthography.
3.4* Due to insufficient dramatization or excessive circumstantiality - with this volume, I prefer other plot lines to be developed besides the Kennicott family.

This book seemed to drag on and on for me.

As a result, I ultimately lost both my interest in and patience with Carol.

I had the sense that I should sympathize with her, but in reality, I just couldn't bring myself to do so.

However, Lloyd James was extremely good with the narration.

His excellent narration did play a significant role in helping me persevere through the book.

Despite my initial lack of connection with Carol and my waning interest, Lloyd James' engaging narration managed to keep me going.

It was his skillful delivery that made it possible for me to continue reading and see the story through to the end.

Even though the book had its flaws for me, Lloyd James' narration was a redeeming quality that I couldn't overlook.

I can't properly rate this book as I didn't enjoy it (or haven't finished it yet), but I do appreciate the satire and how its "commentary" on small-minded people still holds true today.

To me, Lewis didn't strive to create deep, interesting characters. Instead, he constructed representations of everything that stinks in society. This book seems to say, "You think you can change the way people think? Well, follow me to Main Street, and we'll see about that." He approached both the protagonists and antagonists with the same sarcastic stance, even though we know his world view was similar to Carol's.

I understand why this book has a place in literature as a classic. However, my reading time is so precious, and I渴望 to enjoy the book. This one just bogged me down too much. It's definitely a must-read for "American Literature 101" in your first year of college, but not for a working mom who wants to curl up with a good book after the kids are in bed. I guess I got sucked into what Lewis warned us about. I'm 40, and I get it. I went to my rallies at UMASS. I wore my heart on my sleeve and screamed at the injustice of it all. Now I'm just too damn tired to give a sh*%. Life has that effect on you.

Painfully true in all its dreary details!

The Gopher Prairies of the world are suffocating, even in their fictional form. It is a place where dreams wither and hopes fade. Carol, the protagonist, seems to have not the slightest chance of breaking free from its clutches. She should have stayed away when she had her chance. But alas, the devil came in the shape of security and routine. It lured her in, making her believe that this was the life she was supposed to lead. But deep down, she knew it was not. The monotony and the lack of excitement were slowly killing her spirit. She longed for something more, something that would make her feel alive. But in this small town, opportunities were few and far between. She was trapped, and she knew it.

I loathed Main Street.

Its spot-on depiction of the crushing banality of everyday reality and the claustrophobic existence of small-town life truly summarized my lifelong struggle with disenchantment and anhedonia.

Gopher Prairie bore a fair resemblance to McDonald County, Missouri, where I spent my Junior High years. When I was ten, my father escaped the California suburbs by dragging his family into the Ozark woods (our own Mosquito Coast). We built a cabin from a picture in a catalog and attempted to live the dream of rural life. But what I mostly remember is the dreariness of rural society - the boredom, bullying, and small-mindedness of my red brick schoolhouse and the truck drivers, cattle farmers, and occasional skinheads who sent their kids there.

Moving back to California was like breaking out of jail. As a sophomore in high school, I shut myself in the library and devoured books to avoid the drama on the quad. I daydreamed about the Utopian existence I would enjoy in college, roaming picturesque grounds amid neo-gothic architecture, discussing arcane subjects with people who didn't stuff others into lockers. I planned to graduate, move out into the world, and build an ideal community.

When I ran across Main Street, it resurrected my redneck past like a forgotten nightmare. It injected a dose of realism into my childhood daydreams and became a theme for me in college. Later, the struggle of existing as a young, newly-married graduate in the 2008 job market made my daydreams seem like a luxury. So, did Main Street win after all?

I was only vaguely acquainted with Sinclair Lewis, and knew nothing about his works. That was until a couple of years ago when I read John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley: In Search of America". Steinbeck, who held Lewis in high regard, aimed to find his way from St Paul to Sauk Centre, Lewis' Minnesota hometown and the inspiration for the fictional Gopher Prairie in his novel. Steinbeck described his conversation with a waitress in a diner. She gave him directions, saying, "They got a sign up. I guess quite a few folks come to see it. It does the town some good." The diner's cook added that he didn't think "what's-his-name" was there anymore. Steinbeck recalled Sauk Centre's negative reaction to Lewis and "Main Street" when it was published in 1920, and commented, "Now he's good for the town. Brings in some tourists. He's a good writer now." Sauk Centre's embrace of Sinclair Lewis was similar to how the Salinas Valley accepted Steinbeck after its initial harsh reaction to "The Grapes of Wrath".

A reader's response to this novel, especially to its main character, depends largely on their experience and feelings towards small town life. If you grew up in or currently live in a small town and love it, you might dislike Carol Kennicott. In 1912, she marries a dull but competent doctor and moves to Gopher Prairie, where she wants to change the town and its people. If you can't imagine anything worse than living in a place where everyone knows and judges each other, you'll understand and sympathize with Carol, even if she sometimes frustrates and annoys you. Having lived most of my life in a big city, I'm in the latter group. Although I didn't always find Carol likeable, I responded to her sympathetically. If I were in her situation, I might have reacted the same way.
Lewis captured what he saw as the negatives of small town life and named it Main Street: narrow-mindedness, provincialism, bigotry, hypocrisy, self-satisfaction, and resistance to change. However, his portrayal of those embodying these characteristics isn't entirely negative, nor is his portrayal of Carol Kennicott overly positive. The plot may be meandering, the style uneven, and the satire and social commentary broad and unsubtle, but Lewis' depiction of his central characters has nuance. In my opinion, that's where much of the work's strength lies. This is one of those works that I'm glad I read, even if it didn't make me eager to read more of the author's works. It was a 3.5-star literary experience with a few 5-star moments.

Set in the second decade of the 20th century, this novel offers a profound reflection on small town life and delves into the restrictions that women encounter.

A young, college-educated woman, who has lived and worked in St. Paul, ties the knot with a small town doctor and relocates to a provincial town of just 3,000 people. Her initial perception is that the town is unattractive, the inhabitants dull, and the atmosphere suffocating. However, armed with her experience of city life, a college education, and a liberal upbringing, she resolves to reform and modernize this community.

The town views her endeavors as condescending, her attitude as haughty, and her vision as a threat to their way of life. Lewis skillfully portrays these people, from the gossiping card circle to the sanctimonious elderly neighbor, from the spinster school teacher to the critical gaze of the handyman who resides on the outskirts of the town.

I am particularly astonished by how sensitively Lewis captures the ambitions and frustrations, the longing to fit in and the desire to transform, the marital tension, and the power of social standing felt by the female protagonist. Even though this is predominantly Carol's story, with the town seen from her perspective, Lewis manages to reveal to the reader the humanity of these narrow-minded, parochial townspeople as well.

I was surprised by its relevance and its outstanding character development. Initially, I expected it to become mired in flowery descriptions, but the charming portrayal of turn-of-the-century Midwestern landscapes soon gave way to humorous, tender, ambitious, misunderstood, and complex lives.

Although I read only about one-half of Main Street nearly 40 years ago, when I was 18, I was enthralled enough with it to start a biography of Lewis shortly thereafter, which I also did not finish.

Why didn’t I finish the novel? I guess I can chalk it up to immaturity, an inability to comprehend the complex things going on in the book. I was 18, ok! There were enough complex thoughts in my own head much less trying to make heads or tails of the ones floating around in the mind of Carol Kennicott.

But I knew that Main Street, and Lewis, were things I eventually wanted to explore. There were too many familiarities to ignore it. I grew up in a small town surrounded by small towns, nowhere close to a major city. While the town I was raised in was only about 900 in population, significantly smaller than Gopher Prairie in Main Street, other towns in the area were very similar to Gopher Prairie. I could relate.

In addition, while attending college in Mankato, Minnesota, the town in which Lewis chose as Carol’s home during her childhood years, a buddy lived in an apartment complex right next door to the house in which Lewis resided during the summer of 1919. I recently discovered during my complete reading of the book that Carol & Will Kennicott took a leisurely walk through Saint Paul, my current home, across the High Bridge, where my wife’s grandmother jumped to her death somewhere around 1920, and out to Fort Snelling, where my father was inducted into the Army during WW2. Yes, much familiarity.

It was all this that finally made me pick up Main Street again after having gone to college, gotten married, been in the work force for nearly 33 years, and now staring at retirement in the not-so-distant future. Maybe now I can handle Lewis’ themes? Yes. I have a better grip on what’s in my head, but to my discontent I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s going on in the heads of Carol and Will Kennicott. If I did, it would be a five star read instead of a four.

Carol is a big city liberal who marries Dr. Kennicott from Gopher Prairie. She tries to change the city and can’t. It’s painful and she resents her situation – being stuck in that small town with a bunch of simple minded conservatives. I don’t think the author was concerned much, though, with all this. His main thrust, I feel, was that he was making a statement for progressive minded progress. Carol wasn’t only the vehicle, she was a self-driving one that started abruptly, sputtered, drove in the wrong lane, stalled, got jumped, and crashed before somewhat coming back to life.

Unlike Stephen King’s Christine, though, I don’t think she ended up running over people in a murderous rage. At least by the end of the book she hadn’t, which puts her at about age 32. So maybe!

Main Street is not only about Carol and Will Kennicott, it’s a commentary on small town America and peoples’ choices. A hundred years later it smacks one hard in the face that as much as things have changed, more has stayed the same. While the world has been much smaller by commercial air travel, television, and the internet, human nature has remained unchanged. One may choose to stay, leave, or move to a small town (or anywhere for that matter) today for the same reasons as Carol and Will did in 1914. Many of the same things need to be considered. Where does one fit in? Big cities are still bastions of liberal thought while conservative views are more likely to be found in outlying areas.

Though many small towns have evolved beyond bowling allies (nothing wrong with bowling), many have not. In fact, there might be less going on in the way of the arts as Main Street theaters are rapidly disappearing.

What finally makes this book hit home for me is that I, like Will, still feel that the small town is where I belong. My wife and I are contemplating a future move from the big city back to, perhaps, the area where I grew up. Main Street provides no answers, but it certainly provoked in me some thought. Putting Lewis’s possible political and social progressivism agenda aside, I’m content with the book that it at least did that for me.

I truly wanted to have a liking for this book. However, the blatant condescension exhibited by the author made it extremely arduous to persevere through. Additionally, I found it a great struggle to establish any sort of connection with the whining and discontented protagonist. Moreover, the unlikable and small-minded gossips that Lewis populates the town with were also off-putting.

Undoubtedly, this book might hold a certain position within the annals of literature. But to be perfectly honest, it turns out to be a joyless and tiresome read. It lacks the engaging elements that would make it a truly enjoyable experience for the reader.

One cannot help but feel disappointed when faced with a work that fails to captivate and charm despite its supposed significance in the literary world.

In a small town, there is a stuck-up judgmental woman. She always looks down on others and makes harsh judgments about their lives and choices.

On the other hand, the small town is also characterized by stifling conformity and stupidity. People blindly follow the norms and traditions, afraid to break free and explore new ideas.

The woman's attitude only exacerbates the situation. Her constant criticism and superiority complex make it even harder for the townspeople to break free from the cycle of conformity.

However, there are also some who are starting to question the status quo. They see the limitations of the small town life and long for something more.

Will the woman ever realize the harm she is causing? And will the townspeople be able to overcome their conformity and stupidity and create a more vibrant and diverse community? Only time will tell.