This Election, Mom Knows Best

 Bret Stephens. This Election, Mom Knows Best. New York Times.  Nov. 3, 2020. p.A31.

The culture that's been cheapened is the one she encountered in midcentury America.  She learned English by reading Archie and Jughead comics, then Nancy Drew mysteries at a New York public library.  In high school, Theodore Dreiser ("barely literate, but a great writer") awakened her to the power of socially engaged literature, as did John Steinbeck.  Her movie crushes were Gary Cooper in "High Noon" and Robert Taylor in "Quo Vadis."

COMMENT

She is the author's grandmother Xenia who immigrated from Russia in 1950 at age 10.  Children's literature at the  library became a way for her to adapt to her new home. Comics and Nancy Drew were a gateway for high school literature.