In what is considered his early masterpiece, #mainstreet by #sinclairlewis was initially chosen to receive the #pulitzerprizefornovels in 1920. The novel jury’s decision was overturned by the #pulitzerprizeboard for vague reasons, suggesting it didn’t meet the standard of “wholesome American life” with the prize board who, instead, gave the prize to #edithwharton for #ageofinnocence . I read and enjoyed that work as well but understand that choice of this as being one of opting for glowing American pictorial rather than an illuminating one.
it does beg the question, is too much power given to literary prize boards to determine what is “good” and “representational” in a given year based upon vague standards that they alone determine? Ultimately, it is their prize and their money and they can give it to whomever they choose. But, as we have seen in recent years with awards and their accompanying broadcast or press dreadnought where so much controversy has accompanied their choices, does it not, in many ways, mirror the substance of the Main Street story?
The basic premise centers on a young women with a university education who hails from a moderate sized Midwestern town in the 1910’s falling in love with a doctor from a small prairie town seduced by the idea of helping modernize this backwater burg with architecture and culture. She soon discovers that, not only does the town reject her ambitions but mock her for her silly pretensions. it juxtaposes the experiences of a young immigrant woman from a town of a few dozen people finding herself in this town of thousands who is enchanted with the big city modernization she perceives that same town to possess. Of course, being immigrant and of more rural stripe gives those same town citizens who mock the main character for her perceived pretention to inflict their pretensions upon her.
American has long lionized the rustic goodness of the people of our small towns but Lewis, himself from a small prairie town, likewise sees the bitterness and nasty self possessed nature of these stalwarts of the heartland. For one who is repelled by the the persistent omnipresence of small town busybodyness, I have long chosen isolation over the risk of contracting the village virus.
Lewis was twice again selected for the #pulitzerprize and actually rejected it when awarded in 1926 but was also chosen and ultimately accepted the #nobelprizeforliterature in 1930. I appreciate him because he doesn’t pull his punches in his critique of Uber Americana. In this era of a nascent red scare, when America was pretty full of itself and frightened by anyone who challenged this national self possession of bootstrap capital, Lewis judiciously gored a few golden oxen.
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