Main Street: Amazon.ca: Sinclair Lewis, Thomas Mallon: Books

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Novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1920. The story of Main Street is seen through the eyes of Carol Kennicott, a young woman married to a Midwestern doctor who settles in the Minnesota town of Gopher Prairie (modeled on Lewis' hometown of Sauk Center). The power of the book derives from Lewis' careful rendering of local speech, customs, and social amenities. The satire is double-edged--directed against both the townspeople and the superficial intellectualism of those who despise them. (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

"Main Street" tells the tale of a big-city girl who marries a physician and settles in a small town in the Midwest, only to fall victim to the narrow-mindedness and unimaginative natures of the town's residents. Introduction by Thomas Mallon.

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First Sentence
On a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas camped two generations ago, a girl stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern sky. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
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Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the awkward journey towards enlightenment...., Feb 14 2012

By

Ronald W. Maron "pilgrim" (Nova Scotia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Main Street (Mass Market Paperback)

All renowned authors have have placed their own special signature in the annals of literature. Sinclair Lewis did so by revealing to us the universality that life presents to all of us. In this classic, "Main Street", the heroine is faced with factors that we all face; broken dreams, unfulfilled hopes, undefined personhood and the occasional inability to separate fantasy from reality. We are all, at times, cast into an arena where our thoughts are viewed as alien and our deepest concerns as silly and inane. Each of us then have the simple choice that the author depicts; to give into the pressures that surround us and become another lemming headed towards the sea or to stand fast with our unproven desires and, by doing so, act on them in order to prove them right or wrong. If we choose the latter, at the end of this awkward journey we may have what our heroine achieved; a firmer understanding of who we are and how to live in a world that is quite unlike us.

The moral that the story portrays is not to having 'fought the good fight' but, rather, to have had the peace within ourselves that we have made the strongest attempts that we could, have defined what is and what is not important to us, and the eventual peace to be who you truly are regardless of the circumstances.

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3.0 out of 5 stars a strange book but a hooker, Jun 23 2004

By

Natalia (Janesville, WI (a truckstop city)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Main Street (Paperback)

Lol. A strange book but I wanted to read it because I live in a hellhole in the Midwest and having come from a more sophisticated town previously this place was kinda a shock. Wanted to see if there were some parallels, but times have changes a lot since then. The Scandinavians reminded me more of Poles then Americans. I guess American culture really has developed into its own flavor. I could relate with Carol but she was too intellectually snub for me at times. She pissed me off with her mouth full of words and her actionless feet. However I suppose a lot of youth can relate with that. We all have these ideals yet fail to live up to them. Perhaps she reached too high? But I had to finish the book because I wanted to know if she would stay in Gopher Prairie. The book is funny at times, yet I'm not up for much sarcasm. It gets on my nerves. I like the part about the public WC being such a jewel in GP, the pride of it. LOl, that was hilarious. I think the book would've been funner if I knew more about the times yet perhaps I was expecting something else. Actually you can be pretty nieve like me and still like it especially if you're a foreinger because many of the charcters reminded me of typical Polish ways, which are so funny at times.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Excellent and Well Told Story of Carol Kennicott, Jun 4 2004

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MZ (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Main Street (Paperback)

Carol is a girl with big dreams. When she marries Kennicott, she moves from the Twin Cities where she has supported herself, to rural life in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, where it is her dream to transform the sleepy town into something better.
The ups and downs of Carrie Kennicott's life were felt by each member of our Family Book Club. Just when it seems things can't get any worse for Carrie, they can -- but sometimes they get better.

This book has been subject to a lot of literary criticism. Surely, the story can be studied in many ways at many levels. However, one does not need to have a master's in English in order to get a lot of enjoyment out of Main Street.

Set in the 1920s, Carrie's story -- her feelings, the changes she tries to make to Gopher Prairie, and all of the people she meets there -- could easily be told today with only minor changes. And, although this book is overall rather depressing in nature, there were quite a few places that it had me laughing out loud.

Main Street really captures the aura of small town America, especially middle Minnesota. The real life Gopher Prairie is Sauk Centre, Minnesota. It's an interesting place to visit, as the main street there has now been renamed Sinclair Lewis Boulevard.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, Engaging, Funny and Poignant
... maybe just a bit too long. Almost as good as his "Babbitt," Lewis is spot on in his depiction of small-town, post-industrial life on the plains -- where the women... Read more

Published on Mar 12 2004 by Barry Fitzsimmons

4.0 out of 5 stars classic tale of an idealist in a small town
In this classic novel, newlywed Carol Kennicott moves from a city to the small town her doctor husband calls home and must struggle to survive a social and cultural environment... Read more

Published on Nov 13 2003 by erica