The story of Carol Kennicott, wife of a country doctor in a small town in Minnesota. Set around 1910-1920, Carol deals with the boredom, malicious gossip, and narrow-mindedness of the small town. Lewis later won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Carol is an exasperating character, at least by my more modern, middle-class values. Flighty, idealistic, and self-centered, I just wanted to slap her and tell her to "snap out of it". I feel that you must have beauty within yourself in order to appreciate and find beauty in others and in nature. If you are bored with your life, look first at yourself for the solution to the problem, instead of demanding to be entertained and pleased by others.
Lewis did an excellent job of capturing the small-town culture though. I grew up in a small town of about 5000 people, larger than the Gopher Prairie of the novel, but small enough that everyone knew everyone else's business. So many people spent so much time worrying about appearances. Lewis populates his town with a wide array of characters that exemplify all the problems of the small town, as well as the more noble characters, like the country doctor that Carol is married to.
Eventually Carol comes to terms with her problem, which is really a problem with her own personality more than anything else. I found her difficult to like, but the novel is exceptionally well written and worth the effort to read.
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