American Notes: Suburbia Regnant

Suburbia has long had a special place in American social mythology. Its chroniclers in fiction are John Cheever and Peter De Vries, its poet laureate Phyllis McGinley. The $50,000 split level is its castle, the barbecue chef its master of the revels, the station wagon its chariot, the 8:03 or the clogged expressway its cup of doom. Few modern Americans feel much nostalgia for the farm or the small town, and most now find the once glittering big cities tarnished with decay. The pull of the suburb has been so strong that suburbanites are becoming the most numerous element...

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