First published 2014
Carol Milford grows up in Minneapolis with grand dreams of transforming small American towns. She studies village improvement in college and works as a librarian in Saint Paul, but finds the job unsatisfying. When she marries Will Kennicott, a country doctor, he persuades her to move to his hometown of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. Carol arrives expecting to remake this sleepy prairie settlement into something beautiful and progressive. Instead, she discovers a community mired in ugly buildings and narrow thinking. She joins women's clubs, distributes reform literature, and throws parties to shake up the locals. The town's leading citizens mock her efforts and resist every change. Carol finds friendship with various outsiders, but even they disappoint her. After local authorities shut down a political meeting, she abandons Will and moves to Washington D.C. to work for the government during wartime. Though she eventually returns to Gopher Prairie, Carol refuses to surrender her ideals or admit that small town life satisfies her completely.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, american, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, idealistic-reformer
Setting: Gopher Prairie, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Saint Paul, Washington D.C.
Period: 20th Century
484 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform