Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright David Mamet spent his childhood cutting class and reading at the local library. His first pick was Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, which he pulled off the shelves at just 11 years old.
Decades later, David thinks the book is terrible, its author “a horrible writer,” and its heroine an insufferable busybody. In this episode, Shilo pushes back, defending the novel and its protagonist.
From there the conversation explodes into a larger discussion about taste, canon, authority, why David distrusts teachers, critics, and arts institutions that try to tell the public what’s good for them, and how he decides what’s worth reading—or throwing across the room.
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