Main Street

Sinclair Lewis was the first American novelist to win the Nobel Prize. MAIN STREET is his first important book, a closely observed, elegantly written satire of small-town life at the onset of the Jazz Age. At once an artifact and a modern classic, its characters' slang and civic amenities are exotic--their social and personal concerns wholly familiar. Brian Emerson has a pleasant voice; excellent diction; a bright amiable pace; and the stamina to sustain him through 18 hours of narrative. He delivers the text adequately but without distinction, subtext, or nuance. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine