On Real America: Go On, Move Here Then
But, Abe - Carol doesn't at all move to the small town because she wants to be a crusading city idealist? She leaves her job as a librarian in Minneapolis because the man she marries (later in life, in complete terror of becoming an old maid) insists that they move to the small town where he grew up. The first passage you quote above is her - admittedly naïvely, but to my mind, also very poignantly - attempting to spark a little cultural life in the small town, where she is not allowed to work and has no children - basically, has nothing else to do. As you note: she fails, spectacularly.
(Growing up in Indiana, I read Main Street as a feminist cautionary tale. It left quite an impression.)
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On Mark Linkous, 1962—2010
Personally, I find Walker Percy very persuasive on this subject.
"The difference between a non-suicide and an ex-suicide leaving the house for work, at eight o'clock on an ordinary morning:
The non-suicide is a little traveling suck of care, sucking care with him from the past and being sucked toward care in the future. His breath is high in his chest.
The ex-suicide opens his front door, sits down on the steps, and laughs. Since he has the option of being dead, he has nothing to lose by being alive. It is good to be alive. He goes to work because he doesn't have to."
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On Mark Linkous, 1962—2010
Such sad news.
I played Gold Day for months after my dad died.
May all your days be gold, my child.
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On Dave Eggers, Wyndham Lewis and Hate
Only 50 Caitlin Flanagan haters! More than Joan Didion, but less than Elizabeth Wurtzel?
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On WaPo News and Mag Divisions Report Massive Losses; Revenue Plummets
How do Sally Quinn's cousins feel about this?
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On Sally Quinn, Disinvited
Thank you for this explication! The logical inconsistencies in her story had been hurting my brain all day.
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On That Janet Maslin Doesn't Like Joshua Ferris' New Book Doesn't Mean Anything
We loved Then We Came To the End.
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On Real America: Go On, Move Here Then
But she didn't move there for that reason at all? She was following her husband?
I guess I just read her as incredibly constrained by social and economic circumstances, and her attempts to be a progressive influence as futile, lonely reactions to those circumstances, rather than the proactive crusader for change that you describe.