Perhaps Lewis’s best novels have stood the test of time because the America he described so well has not changed so much. The years following the destruction of the World Trade Center unleashed a surge of patriotism worn on the sleeve that is evident in the good citizens of Zenith and Gopher Prairie. The recent real estate boom, which would have made Babbitt proud, and rich, was fueled by a Zenithian optimism. If one believes that the building of mini-mansions on too-small lots is something new, one need look no further than Dodsworth for evidence to the contrary. Still, much has changed. The Internet and air travel have reduced the isolation and insularity of small towns. A Sinclair Lewis coming of age now could take a long-distance learning course at Yale from the sanctity of his bedroom. Even the newspaper—stolid news source, editorial opinionmaker and trumpet of trade—is being battered from all sides. In the last three decades, the American consumer has become more sophisticated, less in thrall to Europe, a buyer of cheap goods and luxury items from the world over. He may have more ways to stay informed but he reads fewer books. According to a recent IPSOS/Gallup poll, one in four Americans has not read a single book in the previous year.
Sauk Centre has not added so many people since Lewis’s time. The population now is 4,111—a gain of just of 1,300 inhabitants. Sinclair Lewis would find a choice of at least 10 churches to attend, including a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He would still find the Parker House Hotel on Main Street, where he briefly worked as a desk clerk and which he immortalized as the Minniemashie House in Main Street. Sauk Centre is luckier than many small towns in that its Main Street is a tourist draw. It is a much-bemoaned fact that Main Streets are being gutted, their shops and theaters boarded up and closed. It is hard for new businesses to thrive in small towns. Up until recently, it has been cheap and easy to clamber into the Sport Utility Vehicle, pickup truck or passenger car and take the highway to the nearby shopping center with ample parking, big box stores, and a dismaying lack of anything local except for the employees. There is still no Starbucks within 20 miles of Sauk Centre but the town does have a Wal Mart.
