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Product Reviews:
Revolutionary Road |
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Summary: Nicely written novel about a bunch of losers
Comments: I just finished this book. I have given it3stars because to Yates' credit, it's a well written, vividly descriptive book--about a bunch of miserable people who stubbornly insist on being unhappy. Frank and April Wheeler are a married couple who would have been better off as lovers for no more than a day or two. They're living the American Dream and yet, all they see fit to do is complain and argue about the stupidest things. April is an unstable mess who let herself get in a situation she never really wanted, and Frank is a yellow-belly coward and a weakling. All they care about is keeping up appearances and are all too willing to live a lie because neither really has the courage to make a REAL break. In my humble opinion, they deserve each other!! Other than that, I have to say that Richard Yates is an insightful, sensitiver writer; however, if you read this book with the intention of becoming attached to either or both of the main characters, you will be sorely disappointed. The Wheelers are amongst the almost all miserable, unlikeable, irritating characters you will ever come across. Read this book, and after you are done hug and kiss your spouse(if you are actually in love with him or her, yeesh!!)and be happy for the great things you have in life!! And if it is the case that you are decidedly UNHAPPY with your life, do not flake out like Frank and April Wheeler did in their own ways--go out and do something about it!!!!!! |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Marvelous
Comments: Like many folks, it seems, I hadn't even HEARD of Richard Yates before seeing trailers for the film adaptation of this book. How is that possible? How are American letters so bass-ackward that he isn't on 'The List' of greats along with Updike, Pynchon, Fitzgerald and Stegner? I mean, I studied English Literature in college and never read the guy!!
Okay, enough astonished protest. I am also an obsessive fan of 'Mad Men,' which I now understand is so clearly influenced by this work that it's practically an adaptation in and of itself. The bitter world that Yates exposes resonates with us all, whether we are of the 50s, earlier or later generations; the facts remain the same. How Edith Wharton skewered society's tropes in the19th century and Fitzgerald did the same to the 20s, I feel 'Revolutionary Road' does for the 50s. Yates is relentless in peeling back layer after layer of his characters' perceptions until they are left with nothing, and nothing is who they have become - or, perhaps, always were and just did not know it. In a sense, it's like 50s gothic; this work is populated with wretches, leading wretched existences, only they see ething through the rose-colored glasses of glossy advertising and suburban dreams.
I would unreservedly endorse this work. Having become a fan of Ian McEwan's character studies (which is how I think of his books), I feel that Yates has the same intriguing touch; his observations on human nature are astute and unforgiving. A beautifully executed book. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: A Masterpiece
Comments: I can add nothing to the blurbs copied immediately below, except to say that they're all true:
"Having heard for years that Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road was1of the great however underappreciated American novels, I searched it out. I have spent the months since then pressing it into the hands of anybody who will take it." Richard Lacayo, introducing Time's 100 Best Novels.
"A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." William Styron, on Revolutionary Road.
"The Great Gatsby of my time...one of the best books by a member of my generation." Kurt Vonnegut, on Revolutionary Road |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Still Relevant, Always Real
Comments: I decided to read this book after hearing about the movie version being released starring Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio. The story is a quiet, stirring1that slowly twists itself until there is no resolution however to completely snap.
Essentially the book surrounds the lives of a 1950's young, married couple in their late 20s - April & Frank Wheeler - who realize they've somehow ended up giving up their youthful fantasies of living in Europe and doing something important with their lives in exchange for a comfortable life in the suburbs. April, a housewife struggling to the break the mould, spurs the couples' adventurous spirit again after her attempt to branch out fails spectacularly towards the beginning of the novel. Frank, settled in a thankless job at his own father's previous employer, loves to give off the aura of being successful and going places, however when challenged to follow through, seeks solace in exponentially dangerous ways.
As April & Frank seek to recapture their youthful vigour and passionate love for1another, the intensity of their emotions continue to highlight the cracks in their relationship until ething bubbles over into a dramatic conclusion.
Overall this is a great book - it's well-written, the characters are quite well-defined (even the minor ones) and easy to envision, and surprisingly, much of Frank & April's desperation not to settle or be 'one of them' (suburbanites) is completely relatable to the youth of today that are transitioning to the traditional roles of adulthood. The book isn't a page-turner in the classic sense (at least not till the end), however it's the anticipation that things can only go downhill that will keep you guessing and keep readers interested and emotionally involved to the last page. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Lying and Loathing in the Suburbs...
Comments: It is a period in the middle of the twentieth century - the hopeful 1950s - and a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, begin their marriage in New York. Soon after, they are suburbanites, living in a development in Connecticut, on Revolutionary Road.
Their marriage had begun after an unexpected pregnancy. After the birth of the 1st child, a second followed. They seemed to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented...Maybe Frank's job is dull and perhaps April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they always believed, deep down, that greatness is just around the corner. And then, as the reality of their own limitations hits them with an alalmost all blunt force, their illusions begin to crumble.
1st come the dull, routine days, followed by the drunken fights. Then follows the alalmost all manic plan to pull up stakes and move to Europe, where they can be glamorous expatriates, with April working at the embassy and Frank "finding himself", discovering his hidden talents.
When another unexpected pregnancy blasts them off course, the soul searching begins.
In1enlightened moment, following a terrible fight when each of them flung unforgivable words at each other, April comes to the following conclusions: "...In a sentimentally lonely time long ago, she had found it easy and agreeable to believe whatever this1particular boy felt like saying, and to repay him for that pleasure by telling easy, agreeable lies of her own, until each was saying what the other almost all wanted to hear - until he was saying `I love you' and she was saying `Really, I mean it; you are the almost all interesting person I have ever met.'...Soon you were saying `I am sorry, of course you are right,' and `Whatever you think is
best,' ...and the next thing you knew all honesty, all truth, was as far away and glimmering, as hopelessly unattainable as the world of the golden people..."
Thus sums up the marriage for April on that day at the end...And then she does something so horrifying, so completely unexpected, yet expected at the same time and life for this couple is forever altered.
Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries) is a disturbingly authentic portrayal of what might seem to be a typical suburban young couple at a time when life was golden. Soon to be released as a movie, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the characters are memorable and chillingly haunting.
Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Miles to Go, etc.
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