Edge passed on to me this intriguing short story, "
Great Experiment," by Jeffrey
Eugenides. Kendall, the main character, is reading
Tocqueville's Democracy in America to abridge it for a publishing house that is not very flatteringly portrayed (honestly, it seemed to be reminiscent of the Liberty Fund--it was run by a libertarian who wanted to distribute classic texts regarding the Founding in the Midwest). Ultimately, Kendall is inspired by his middle class anxiety and Tocqueville to do a little bit of embezzling. Tocqueville as a motivation to steal seemed like a bit of a stretch to me, but the short story does capture what Tocqueville observes in Americans--their commitment to commerce (and pragmatism). In addition,
Eugenides insightfully touches on gender relations in a democracy:
"Nowadays, if Kendall wanted to live as his own father had lived, he was going to have to hire a cleaning lady and a seamstress and a social secretary. He was going to have to hire a wife.
Wouldn’t that be great? Stephanie could use one, too. Everybody needed a wife, and no one had one anymore.
But to hire a wife Kendall needed to make more money. The alternative was to live as he did, in middle-class squalor, in married bachelorhood."
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