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 | | Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates ISBN-10: 9780837162218 ISBN-10: 0-8371-6221-1 ISBN-13: 9780837162218 ISBN-13: 978-0-8371-6221-8 Hardcover 1971-10-29 Greenwood Press Reprint Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description From the moment of its publication in 1961, "Revolutionary Road" was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It's the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves. | ||
Amazon.com Review The rediscovery and rejuvenation of Richard Yates's 1961 novel Revolutionary Road is due in large part to its continuing emotional and moral resonance for an early 21st-century readership. April and Frank Wheeler are a young, ostensibly thriving couple living with their two children in a prosperous Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. However, like the characters in John Updike's similarly themed Couples, the self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy. Yates's incisive, moving, and often very funny prose weaves a tale that is at once a fascinating period piece and a prescient anticipation of the way we live now. Many of the cultural motifs seem quaintly dated--the early-evening cocktails, Frank's illicit lunch breaks with his secretary, the way Frank isn't averse to knocking April around when she speaks out of turn--and yet the quiet desperation at thwarted dreams reverberates as much now as it did years ago. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this novel conveys, with brilliant erudition, the exacting cost of chasing the American dream. --Jane Morris, Amazon.co.uk | ||
Reviews | ||
From the Horse's Mouth - A Review Co-written By My Dad Hurry and read this book before the movie comes out! I loved this book for a number of reasons. Who knew that there was so much of this type of thinking in the fifties? I think the main characters might have been the first hippies if they followed their initial instincts - but they didn't. This is a disturbing novel - a lot goes wrong for all these people. This is also probably the booziest novel I've ever read. My dad worked for IBM for his entire career, beginning in the early sixties (somewhat after the time in which this novel occurs) so I felt a little voyeuristic reading this. But I can't imagine his IBM, and the people he worked with, were like the people in this book. But then again, to quote Cheap Trick: Then I woke up, Mom and Dad Are rolling on the couch Rolling numbers, rock and rolling Got my Kiss records out I recommended the book to my dad and he read it and enjoyed it, but pointed out that it wasn't like that for him. Here is a quote from an email from my dad after he had read the first fifty pages: >>I just walked in here to send you a note of how awed I am having read the first fifty pages or so of "Revolutionary Road," plus Ford's prolog that describes the plot and suggests the meanings of the book. Wow. And I start thinking, after Ford's descriptions and your queuing this up as being something like my own life, this can't be me, and us. And it isn't, so far anyway. We were so happy, and scared, when we learned that Marlee was pregnant with you .. with me jobless and full time in grad school, and here making $300-something or less in a huge insurance office, and both of us little more than big children ourselves .. nothing like the self-absorbed Wheeler parents. But I was reminded of my relationship with my Dad and I am sure there's lots more connections to come. This is marvelous writing and I am so glad you put me on to it.<< Okay, for those of you with long attention spans I'll quote my dad's email after he finished the novel: >>"Revolutionary Road" was a wonderful experience. He was a master at flicking back and forth to what characters were saying and what they were thinking at the time, seamless. He was talking about IBM, for sure, but he had it quite wrong. My stay began just after the heyday of punched card, wired board systems and right at the start of commercial computer usage by business. He was right about the mystical aura of 'headquarters' and the managers there, whether it was a district, region a or corporate setting. But at IBM in my on-the- street days (1963-1969, 1973-1993) there were no people doing the "no work" jobs that the novel's hero described. I did see some of that in the staff workers, which is what turned me off and got me to threaten to leave if they didn't let me back on the street. The "old boy" ambiance was real. In my first branch office there were two women SEs and zero salespersons or managers. IBM worked very hard to change that throughout my life and the balance seemed pretty good to me by the end; males still outnumbered females in the sales ranks by 2-to1 but the SEs were closer and the managers were about equal. Of the 35 or so managers that I worked for in IBM, two of the top four, by my view, were women. The drinking at work never happened at IBM. As at Notre Dame, you got caught having a drink , you're gone. IBM loosened that to the point by the 1990s that you could have a drink with a customer at lunch if they initiated the action but you were obliged to go directly home afterward and could not return to their office or yours. Some few people did ignore the rule, but they were very, very rare. The snobbery towards the intellectual sterility was a hot topic in print at the time. But I never felt that way in our home. I thought we were surrounded by people with common goals, focussed on raising good kids, largely Catholic but including other mainstream religions too, though not much on our block, and answering the bell every day to go to work and do your best. We were short on intellectual discussions but after the kid and work thing, there really wasn't a lot of time or energy left to pursue knowledge or seek inner growth. Maybe there should have been, but once you start having kids, for most people that stuff is over. C'est le vie. So thanks for turning me on to this book and I will pursue his work and Ford's as well.<< So there you go - right from the horse's mouth. I am looking forward to the movie. I didn't now about the movie when I read this book (about a year ago) and while reading it I sort of had a mental image of Russell Crowe as Frank. It will be interesting to see Leonardo DiCaprio in that roll. I think Kathy Bates as Helen is absolutely brilliant! I can not wait. | ||
Classic tale of the suburban nightmare. Richard Yates' 1961 novel, "Revolutionary Road", is a classic that has taken far too long to get the recognition it deserves (considering Yates died in 1992). With the Hollywood version coming out the best way to describe this haunting novel in cinematic terms would be: "American Beauty" meets "In the Bedroom" meets "The Ice Storm" and set in 1961. Even with the 1960 sentiments throughout this novel still rings true for modern times and is completely accessible with its theme of unrealized dreams and feelings of being trapped in a life out of your control. The Wheeler's are the perfect symbol of suburbia on the surface - but to look deeper you see the turmoil just out of eyesight. The most pivotal character in the entire novel is that of John Givings, the institutionalized son of the Wheeler's realtor who hits to the core with every insightful barb that flies from his mouth. I can only hope the movie version can come even close to the vision Yates has created in this classic tale. | ||
Revolutionary Writing The writing is astounding, the story depressing, the ending somewhat predictable. I can see how this book would have altered the course of literature when it was first published. Nowadays, it is no longer a revelation to find suburbanites living in quiet desperation engaged in medicinal drinking to numb themselves even more. So, it may be a "same-old" kind of story by now, but the writing is as fresh and masterful as I've ever seen. There is not a single word out of its necessary place. Not one word too many nor one word too few. Genius. | ||
Couldn't continue.... After seeing the movie preview (starring Dicaprio & Winslet), I decided to see if they have this book at local library. I had to be on a wait list for this book and was the 6th or 7th person in line. I thought this must be a really good book for the wait list to be that long. And boy, was I so wrong. When I finally got the book, I started to read it right away. I was forcing myself to read it and when I read up to where they were talking about the rumors of Mrs. Givings' son in the loony bin, I couldn't read any further. I don't know why so many readers love this book so much. But for me, it's way boring and uninterested. I didn't care about any of the characters or willing to read further to find out about the characters and their lives. This book is the first book I returned to the library after reading so little of it. On to my next book....... | ||
Not sure how I feel about this book After reading this, I felt the same as I did after watching Ordinary People. It's depressing, the characters are for the most part unlikable, at times it seems to drag, but I wanted to know how it ends. Richard Yates is a great writer and I like his style, but I don't think this is the type of book that you just LOVE. I am always fascinated by novels with similar themes of disillusionment, etc. What I found most interesting about this book is the fact that the 1950s is the modern era in which the characters yearn for yesteryear. For me growing up, the 50s were always pointed to as the good old days, and it wasn't until the mid 60s that things started to change. I liked the descriptions of the kids zoning out in front of the TV and Frank describing how the men on TV are always portrayed as bumbling idiots while the wives have it all together. It's just funny to see that the same observations and complaints have been made for decades. People complained about the cookie-cutter houses then just as they do now about the McMansions..... Anyway, it's not a classic, and if you're pressed for time, I don't know that I would spend what time I did have reading this particular book. Try Fitzgerald instead. | ||