Jacket Copy: 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.
Similar to: Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Henry James' Daisy Miller, E.M. Forster
My Take:
-- I hardly think a movie version of this book was necessary, since the story comes so vividly to life on the pages, that you can picture it in your head as you read.
--This book is not a light-hearted, uplifting read by any means. It's disturbing and haunts you after you read it.
--This book is about how nothing in life is black and white, there's always gray areas and ambiguity, no matter how much 1950s suburban America tried to pretend like these complications didn't exist and tried to create a much more simple version of reality for people to console themselves with.
--This book is most well-known for its style of prose, its known primarily as a "well-written" novel. But I actually found the writing much less enjoyable than i found the story and the plot itself, and particularly, the well-developed portrait he creates of the characters. He describes them in great detail like Dickens does, but unlike Dickens characters, who are often caricatures or stereotypes, the characters in Yates' novels are real people; they're complex and complicated and not at all easy to pin down.
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