The Book: Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
The Story: April and Frank Wheeler are this kind of bright, beautiful, perfect couple. They have two great kids and live in the ‘burbs, you know, planting stuff in the garden, going to dinner parties, participating in community theatre… stuff like that.
Below their glossy surface they are both pretty messed up. They have been living their whole life waiting for the “greatness” to start. They are both dissatisfied with their lives and slowly, slowly they start to unravel. They are taking it out on each other and just falling apart.
What I Thought: I’m just going to let you know ahead of time that I feel pretty conflicted about this book
Here is why:
- I get it. I get the terror that sets in when you realize that you are settling for this mediocre life. I get the feeling of waiting for something great to come along while you are sitting in your happy little house with your happy little family. I think that the author captured this idea perfectly. I really do. BUT I feel like while trying to capture this idea, Yates failed to write characters that inspired empathy. I wanted to feel for Frank & April, I really did… but they were just so awful. I didn’t feel like that they just “ended up” in this life that they didn’t want. I felt like they were pompous and arrogant and just… yuck. By about the middle of the book, I honestly didn’t care what happened to them one way or the other. I must add, some authors can write a ‘hate-able’ character in a way that doesn’t make the book crappy. Richard Yates is not one of them.
- I could tell throughout the book that the author was doing the “write a novel to make a point” thing… which is great. There are a lot of novels that I love that obviously set out with just that in mind… BUT I feel like the complete lack of a moral compass negated his whole deal. There weren’t any characters that were a foil to this lifestyle that Frank & April ended up in, therefore I feel like his point was largely missed.
- All that being said, there were parts of this book that were just beautiful… we’re talking “write down that passage” beautiful. There is just something about good solid prose that can wash away a world of sins. I would say that this bumped this from an annoying, un-readable book to a book that I kind of loved reading regardless of its faults.
- In addition, this book made me oh so thankful for my life. I love my husband dearly, we are purposely living a life that we truly enjoy, even if that sometimes making a decision that makes us temporarily uncomfortable or doesn’t line up with Mr. & Mrs. Suburbia. I think that the best way to read this book is as a warning. I never want to be April Wheeler.
So there ya go. I told you I was conflicted. I’m sure that when this book was first published in the early 60’s it was more of a statement book than it is now. I can see people just being blown away by someone finally writing what everyone else was thinking. Maybe my numbness or over-exposure to these
That’s all I’ve got.
Conclusion: Weeeeelllll… You know what, I’d say skip this. It’s not great. It’s not revolutionary anymore. It’s just eh. There has to be something else to spend your time reading.