Jane Smiley on Sinclair Lewis

In The Guardian, Jane Smiley considers Sinclair Lewis' Main Street.

Lewis was a satirist, but his plots were realistic rather than fabulist, so an element of exuberance is missing in the novel and the tone sometimes seems unclear...Lewis was satiric without being overtly funny or comic, which means the signals the reader is supposed to pick up are easily missed.

Her claims of an impending Lewis revival are probably wishful thinking, though such a development would put me, for once in my life, at the forefront of a trend. Twenty years in front, to be exact--I was a huge Lewis fan back in college, though I must admit to not reading any of his stuff in at least ten years. Main Street and Babbitt are sorely in need of re-reading on my part.

(Via Campaign for the American Reader.)