The current movie trailer shows a lot of emotive angst and anger. The book is incredibly subtle when it comes to that; the characters empty lives are reflected in cardboard suburban lifestyles. As close as possible to a five star rating save for a slowness in the books center section, but a necessary one nonetheless preparing the reader for a gut-wrenching conclusion. Yates is one of those authors I hate; he makes prose look so easy. This is an exceptionally well-written book. ( )

Frank and April Wheeler are desperately unhappy. Married for the sake of their children, living lives that they believe are meaningless, in a suburban town full of similar ordinary couples, they are both clamoring inwardly for a change. They believe they are superior to their neighbors and are determined to prove it. April comes up with the genius idea of uprooting and moving to France, where she can work and Frank can find the intellectual fulfillment that he’s always longed for. Unfortunately, this plan sets the couple on a path to their own personal tragedy.

This is a deft, amazing book. Frank and April despair at the ordinariness of their neighbors in the suburbs, lamenting the blandness and sameness of their lives, but the reader knows better. Yates treats us to an inside view of the Wheelers’ closest neighbors, and we learn that one of their friends mistakenly believes he is in love with April, while the other older couple has a son committed to a mental institution. When that son starts to espouse the same views that Frank and April have, we begin to realize that everyone is slightly off-kilter here. Everyone is unhappy and dissatisfied. Frank and April are deluded by their own aspirations into thinking that they’re better than their neighbors, when really they quite simply belong. They believe they’re extraordinary, but over the course of the novel, we realize that they are perfectly ordinary. They fit right in.

It is certainly those ordinary characters that succeed as the huge draw for this novel. Their humanity is overwhelmingly real. Frank, for example, is insufferably arrogant at times, and totally misguided about almost everyone he interacts with, but few people set him straight. Worse, he says one thing and thinks another. He claims to want to go to France and find himself, but it becomes clear very early on that he’s actually quite satisfied with his job. He’s bored but he doesn’t want to disturb the status quo; he believes he is special, but he isn’t going to put forth the effort to actually prove it. Perhaps he knows it isn’t true, even as he’s unwilling to admit it. April seeks to recapture something with her acting and briefly succeeds, only to become an embarrassing failure when she doesn’t actually prove to be as spectacular as she’d hoped. Their lives are empty and they are always seeking, but never finding.

Of course, the book is very well written, and in the one instance that I’d have loved to share passages, the book had to go back to the library. Regardless, I could easily place myself in these characters’ shoes and there wasn’t anything that threw me out of the story. The eeriest part about it is that Revolutionary Road makes us think about our own lives and those of our neighbors. Frank and April are still very relevant almost fifty years on as people consistently search for meaning in their lives. It often seems that we are all on a quest for fulfillment and in that respect, this book’s message is haunting, reminding us to seek happiness in what we have and not what is constantly out of reach. ( )

“I love you when you're nice.” April Wheeler says this to her husband Frank and it becomes a defining moment for the couple. This single line gives the reader an intimate look at these two characters and how they cling to each while trying to break free at the same time.

April and Frank are the perfect example of a happy young couple, or at least that's the image they project to friends and neighbors. They are young, beautiful, and living what can be thought of as a happy life in the suburbs of Connecticut. Frank works a job he simply describes as boring and does his best not to talk about if at all possible. In fact, he secretly finds irony in the knowledge that his father also worked for the same company, something he has only ever mentioned to his wife.

April spends her days searching for her true self and yearning for a different life. She and Frank talk constantly of the draining existence that is the suburbs and how they will never live to their full potential and will die inside trying to live a dream that is not their own. They want out and it's April that finally concocts a plan to get them out --- by moving to France. They begin making plans and life takes on a new excitement for them. They look forward to leaving behind the drudgery of their lives. It's only when circumstances change do their lives take on the stark reality of everyday life they attempt to avoid each and every day.

Yates writes in such a way that readers feel as if they are these people and what they are feeling and experiencing is so real that you want to recoil at the rawness of it all. You feel the strain in the marriage, the love they do have for one another at certain times, and the embarrassment they feel. There is also the sheer realization that what these two characters are facing are questions we all have about our own lives. They are sad people, wonderful people, and very much real people.

You see the falling apart of two people and the life they have tried to cobble together in this book. The hopes and dreams of two people shattered, yet, there is also an incredible hopefulness especially when they are planning their future but you know all of it is really just an exercise in escapism for these two people who are just so very unhappy and disappointed with how their lives have turned out. You want to root for them but you know they are going to only remain disgusted with not only each other but everyone in their lives.

Revolutionary Road is a great book for the simple reason that Yates makes us April and Frank. He pushes us to examine our needs, wants, and dreams and do it in such a way that makes you want to run away to France to make yourself over. You hate him for making you feel so intensely, not only for these two characters, but for the very real way he is going to make you examine your life. ( )

A great book that really gets you thinking about class, position and aspiration- and do you really want to get there anyway?
Frank Wheeler and his wife, April, look down on the others in their middle-class American suburb and dream of an exotic, cultured life in Europe. As they get closer and closer to planning their dream, wishes begin to change but not always with desired results...
I read this on the recommendation that this book was like the TV show Mad Men. There's no Don Draper in this book, but this gives you a similar feel of the times and the trappings. ( )

The movie is breathtaking and devastating, but the book is even more so. ( )