It is the place I am calmest and most myself. But the Midwest: It is quietly lovely, not preening with the need to have its attributes remarked on. The West Coast, I think, has a similar self-regard.and a beauty that I can't help seeing as show-offy. I suspect this wariness is tied to the high cost of real estate, the fear that there might not be enough space or money and what there is of both must be clung to and defended.
On the East Coast, especially, these places seem to me aggressively quaint, unbecomingly smug, and even xenophobic, downright paranoid in their wariness of those who might somehow infringe upon the local charm. The seasons are extreme, but they pass and return, pass and return, and the world seems far steadier than it does from the vantage point of a coastal city.Ĭertainly picturesque towns can be found in New England or California or the Pacific Northwest, but I can't shake the sense that they're too picturesque. Curtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, and Eligible, and the story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It. Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. There is room to breathe, there is a realness of place. Prep A Novel By: Curtis Sittenfeld Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins 4.1 (120 ratings) Try for 0.00 Pick 1 title (2 titles for Prime members) from our collection of bestsellers and new releases. The lushness of the grass and trees in August, the roll of the hills (far less of the Midwest is flat than outsiders seem to imagine), the rich smell of soil, the evening sunlight over a field of wheat, or the crickets chirping at dusk on a residential street: All of it, it has always made me feel at peace. “To think of the Midwest as a whole as anything other than beautiful is to ignore the extraordinary power of the land.
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