Main Street (Bantam Classic)

by Sinclair Lewis

book data

1,640 ratings, 3.58 average rating, 171 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		18%
4		37%
3		30%
2		10%
1		3%

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published

March 1st 1996 by Bantam Classics (first published 1920)

details

Paperback, 544 pages

isbn

0553214519 (isbn13: 9780553214512)

description

The first of Sinclair Lewis' great successes, Main Street shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire of narrow-m…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2,550)

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Dec 31, 2008

Marian rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in January, 2009

A satire isn't necessarily funny or lighthearted. Critical--yes. Pessimistic--yes. Main Street is just that book. The characters are ridiculed by the author and don't seem to improve their vices, or change their points of view from beginning to end. But sometimes who doesn't enjoy some sarcasm? I did.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

20 comments

Mar 04, 2008

Cindy rated it:

(review of isbn 0451526821)

Read in January, 1993

recommended to Cindy by: Sister
recommends it for: Those stuggling with life in a small town

I had just moved to a small town in Minnesota - with the same aspirations as this classic charater of many years before me, yet my thoughts and run ins were very much the same 50 years later. It was a reminder that one fits or one doesn't fit but to spend your life trying to change the engrained to your likely only means you will spend your life in turmoil, in hopes others after you, long after you will find the place more to your liking. Shortly afterwards - I moved.

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Jan 21, 2009

Briynne rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in February, 2009

This book was intensely personal to me – so much so that I found myself closing the book so I could just stare at the wall and think at points. The plot concerns the struggles of a woman, Carol, against the strange omniscience and rigidity of a small Midwestern town. She is a city-girl who marries a country doctor and optimistically sets out for a new life on the prairie, circa World War I. Upon settling in, she realizes that her ideas for “improving” the town through the introduction o...more This book was intensely personal to me – so much so that I found myself closing the book so I could just stare at the wall and think at points. The plot concerns the struggles of a woman, Carol, against the strange omniscience and rigidity of a small Midwestern town. She is a city-girl who marries a country doctor and optimistically sets out for a new life on the prairie, circa World War I. Upon settling in, she realizes that her ideas for “improving” the town through the introduction of high culture, town planning, and the generally sophisticated example of her own conduct are completely without any hope of succeeding. She is shocked to find that the citizens of Gopher Prairie are not only resistant to her improving influence, they are actually quite happy to wallow in their rusticity. And so begins her decline.

Her ideas and ambitions seem silly and condescending in a 21st century view, but there is so much of Carol that reminds me of myself as a teenager it almost makes me uncomfortable. I spent a large part of my adolescence planning my escape from my own Gopher Prairie; Europe and the East Coast were my Promised Lands like they were Carol’s, and I felt that somehow I had been born in the Midwest by some cruel accident of fate.

But Carol and I diverge at one important point; I have the isolated fields and towns of the Midwest in my blood, and Carol did not. And because of this, I spent equal parts of the book sympathizing with her and feeling indignant that she could never find the good in anything around her. I naturally find my own feelings on the desperation of living in such a place excusable, but it doesn’t seem fair to here them from an outsider.

I condemned Carol all the way through the second half of the novel, including her moping, rather pathetic attempt at a love affair, and dull try at a life of emancipation in DC. Surely at some point she would grow up and realize that a person can have ideals, practice them, and still not make herself and everyone around her miserable. And she does come around at the end, but not in a very satisfying way; I felt that her return at the end of the book was more an act of settling than of finding peace with the place.

It was only after I had finished and had time to properly digest the story that I began to feel rather sorry for being so harsh. I’ve come to appreciate my hometown through the benefit of time and distance, and look forward to moving back someday. But poor Carol had none of my coping mechanisms; no Goodreads, BBC World News, Football365, Masterpiece Classics on PBS, interlibrary loan, free nights & weekends cell phone plans, a profession, email, Barnes&Noble.com, quick travel, or - most importantly - an income and checking account. In Carol’s time and place I might have gone crazy as well. The Midwest now has the appeal of geographic isolation without the horror of isolation from thought and influence from the outside world.

I’m giving this book five stars because it made me think.
(less)

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Oct 28, 2008

Gigi rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in December, 2008

This book left me with mixed feelings. I did not enjoy the main character very much and so it took time to read the book and I was never excited to pick it up again. However, the insights given in the book I enjoyed. When one moves to a new place where is the balance between accepting those around you and keeping your individuality. In this case it is about a college educated woman moving to a small rural community in the early 1900's.

At the same time there are many issues that wome...more

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Jun 30, 2008

Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: 1001, big-10-country, suburban-angst, womenareamystery

Read in July, 2008

This is the second Sinclair Lewis piece for me, and just like “Babbitt,” the theme is again civic pride. The city here is not the bustling on-the-move Zenith, though, it is the small town Gopher Prairie, Minnesota with its small town charms. Of course, the flip side of that small town charm is the small town sensibilities of its residents.

The story follows Carol Milford, a fetching young woman who dreams big and marries Dr. Will Kennicott. Dr. Kennicott brings Carol to Gophe...more

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Apr 09, 2008

Kirsti rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2008

I know many people complain that not much happens in this book, and I am not the most patient reader, but I zipped right through it. I loved the commentary on tiny, unimportant events and the way the novel shifted from the main character's point of view.

I felt sympathetic to Carol, even though she is a cold person. Not a bad person, not a mean person, but not someone who can truly connect to others. Even her son falls short because she believes he thinks like his father.

...more

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Nov 10, 2007

Cynthia rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

This is the story of a woman who leaves her life in the city to move to her husband's hometown, a small hamlet where everyone knows each other, where the walk from her house to the grocery store to the post office takes about 10 minutes, and where she feels she is losing herself and drowning in the demands of others that she conform. She tries to bring her big-town ideas to these small-town folk and is deemed a freak. Misery ensues until she finally breaks free and returns to the independence of...more

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Feb 10, 2009

Kathryn rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: historic-fiction, minnesota-author

Read in January, 2009

I was struck by how insightful and relevant this book was, though it was written almost a century ago. Small town dynamics, progress so difficult to negotiate when people are convinced that change is the enemy-and sometimes it is...it really echoed a lot of recent discussion, resistance that we've had in Grand Marais-how do we save the charming and important aspects of our small-town and still create a viable, functioning, forward-moving and of this world community that can provide for its perm...more

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Aug 26, 2008

John rated it:

(review of isbn 1404315845)

It's extremely unusual for me to not be able to get through something, but I found these characters SO IRRITATING! My stepfather was in love with the kind of small towns depicted in this book, and I can understand the charm, but something about this book just rubbed me the wrong way. At the time it was revolutionary, an expose of the way small towns operated to counteract the romantic idea that they were somehow pure and untouched by the meanness of the world, but Lewis writes from an attitude o...more

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Mar 11, 2008

Shelley rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in March, 2008

Carol (a happy, cultured feminist from St. Paul) marries and moves to "Gopher Prairie", Minnesota, in hopes of creating an artsy, sophisticated, cultured small town. However, she soon learns that making any changes is next to impossible. This book describes how many small towns in the midwest run on set gender roles, gossip and holier-than-thou attitudes. Carol discovers that one needs to live where they are happy because life is too short to live in a place you detest. It took me...more

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Mar 09, 2009

Evan rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: currently-reading-slowly, modern-library-top-100-list, to-read

Read in March, 2009

Ah, now, this is lovely writing. This is Lewis' famous criticism of bland Americana and the misguided dreams of a young girl to "improve" her hometown, evidently in vain. We'll see. Lewis' has a poetic sense of the distant and immediate past, and the present (as of the 1920s) of the Midwest and environs around Chicago. This is a longish book, but I'm committed for the long haul I think. I've wanted to read this for years. Provisional four-star rating just for the writing, right off the...more

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Feb 02, 2009

James rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: american-lit, fiction, lincolnpark, lplib-classics

Read in July, 2007

I am once again rereading this classic of 1920's American life in the Midwest written by Sinclair Lewis. Having grown up in the Midwest (in the 1950's) I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about this subject. While I recognize certain aspects of my home town in Lewis's fictional Gopher Prairie I miss other things. The good things. The better side of life. Oh, it is there in Main Street, but Lewis too often uses his acerbic wit and sly satirical style to skewer the foibles of the little peopl...more

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Nov 28, 2009

Lindsay rated it:

(review of isbn 0451518314)

bookshelves: americana, classics, cultural-criticism, dead-white-men, fiction, great-american-novel, read-for-fun, read-postcollege

Owns a copy — Read in November, 2009

recommends it for: fish out of water

This is definitely my favorite book by Sinclair Lewis so far. (The others I've read are Arrowsmith and Babbitt). While the social commentary is as sharp as it is in his other works, the characters in this one are much better realized and more subtly drawn. It's also a much more emotionally complicated novel --- we're not just supposed to laugh at Carrie, as we are meant to laugh at Babbitt, or to root for her, as we are meant to do for Arrowsmith; here, we're meant to do both of those things. Ca...more

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Apr 09, 2009

Angspendlove rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Although the main character of this book, Carol, is not a very likable lady I really found myself identifying with her. She moves with her new husband to his small, beloved hometown of Gopher Prairie, a dreary Midwestern small town that has the classic stale, diluted, culturally bereft brand of Americana. Having just moved back to the small town where I grew up, I'm struggling with some of the same issues, even though it was written a century ago.
Carol couples a condescending attitude wit...more Although the main character of this book, Carol, is not a very likable lady I really found myself identifying with her. She moves with her new husband to his small, beloved hometown of Gopher Prairie, a dreary Midwestern small town that has the classic stale, diluted, culturally bereft brand of Americana. Having just moved back to the small town where I grew up, I'm struggling with some of the same issues, even though it was written a century ago.
Carol couples a condescending attitude with a lot of passion to spruce up the small town that is her new home. I SOOOO get this. "This is an ugly-ass town! Let's fix it up!" and "These are some stupid-ass people! Let's get them reading some books!" or "This is some nasty-ass food! Let's introduce them to arugula!"
But these small town folk are not interested in sprucing up. They immediately hate her (but pretend not to) simply because she didn't fall instantly and madly in love with their precious little town. They refuse to believe any criticism or implication that there might be anything at all in the town that could possibly use improving, especially if it is pointed out by an 'outsider'. However, if an 'outsider' says the town is nice or quaint or lovely it is taken as gospel and repeated endlessly for years as irrefutable evidence that it's the nicest place on earth to live. Carol is a bit of a martyr for her 'cause' and enjoys how unique her fashion-forward views make her in this town of backward dullards.
Sinclair Lewis is critical of both the small town folk and their closed minds and the big-city girl with her arrogant attitude.
Carol eventually can't take it anymore and bails on her husband for a few years to live in the city before returning to the small town, now a little disenchanted also with the city.
For me, the take-home message of the book was this: Big cities are just as homogeneous and generic as small towns. Blindfolded and dropped into any American city, it's doubtful you would find much to distinguish it from any other city. You take the good with the bad and live your best life and remember the Serenity Prayer. (less)

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Jan 04, 2008

Anna rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in January, 2008

Kept feeling like a disappoving old lady reading this book: "This young man writes very well, but I don't like his tone." Smug. Unutterably smug, and he doesn't seem to like or care about any of his characters, which makes the whole exercise rather cold. I suppose, ninety years later, the "small towns are narrow-minded and hypocritical" theme has been done to death, and Lewis deserves credit for pioneering the genre, but on the whole I didn't like it.

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Sep 06, 2009

Mead2008 rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in September, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I barely liked the protagonist, Carol, enough to keep reading the book. I felt I should be on her side--am on her side--but saw her as an unproductive complaining ungrateful elitist dilettante. I liked the last few chapters though, where she came to her senses, kept up her struggle, but let go her struggle with herself. She became resigned to the fact that her life would always be struggle and was OK with that and who she was and her place in her little world. Love and understanding assumed ...more

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Feb 20, 2009

Zak rated it:

(review of isbn 1419310798)

Read in March, 2009

Chapter 13
“Guy! Can’t we do something with the town? Really?”

“No, we can’t!” He disposed of it like a judge ruling out an improper objection; returned to matters less uncomfortably energetic: “Curious. Most troubles are unnecessary. We have Nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just for pleasure—wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-disputes. Here in Gopher Prairie we’ve cleared the fields, an...more

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Feb 12, 2009

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

Read in April, 2009

Hmmm...I was rather excited about reading this book, but found it a real downer! I ended up not liking Carol at all, though I carried a hope to the very end that she'd make me like her. It didn't happen. One of the reviews at the end of the book used the word "joyless". I agree. It was about as joyful as writing on a cardboard box with a dull pencil. Even so, I'm glad I read it.

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4 comments

Jul 17, 2007

Joey rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

I liked the fact that the book addressed the certain truth about small towns: that everything is not necessarily idyllic in a small town just because it is small and seemingly "quaint". I didn't love any of the characters, Carol included, but I did like how Lewis satirized both the members of the town, as well as Carol and her designs on changing the town for "the better".

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Jul 25, 2009

Brett rated it:

(review of isbn 0375753141)

bookshelves: classy-fiction

Read in August, 2009

As someone with a deep familiarity with small town rural life in the upper plains, this book should certainly have been appealing to me. The points that Lewis returns to over and over again--that these towns are full of narrow-minded, self-important fools--are undeniably true. Maybe it's because I grew up in such a town though, instead of being a transplant like the book's protagonist Carol, that I also feel a certain grudging respect and even love for these places.

Lewis' knives are...more

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