My copy of Main Street is thoroughly dog eared from reading and rereading.
The story of urbane Carol Kennicott’s grudging adjustment to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota after she marries the town’s doctor (and the town’s grudging adjustment to her) is pitch-perfect social satire, both cruel and kind. The side-by-side descriptions of Carol’s assessment of her new home and that of her soon-to-be maid, farm girl Bea Sorenson, is a delicious lesson in perspective.
Main Street was my textbook and cautionary tale when I moved from New York City to Dallas, Texas. Of course, Dallas is no Gopher Prairie, but it’s all a matter of perspective.
