Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries) (original 1961; edition 2008)

Masterful ( )

… I remember looking at you and thinking ‘God, if only he’d stop talking.’ Because everything you said was based on this great premise of ours that we’re somehow very special and superior to the whole thing, and I wanted to say ‘But we’re not! Look at us! We’re just like the people you’re talking about! We are the people you’re talking about!’ - p.110

Revolutionary Road is a devastating look at the disintegration of a marriage. It is also an indictment of a certain way of living, perhaps even of a whole culture. Enough dirt has been flung on the idea of the ‘American Dream’ for me to desist from doing so, but Richard Yates clearly had serious problems with the superficial, materialistic culture of the 50s, enough so to write a searing account of one couple and their hopeless attempts to escape the pitfalls of middle America.

Frank and April Wheeler are upper-middle class suburbanites living lives of quiet desperation. Frank works for the same company his father worked for, ostensibly as a lark, or until he can find a better job, but really it seems because he is haunted by a feeling of inadequacy towards his father. April has, by default, become a suburban housewife, looking after the Wheelers’ two young children. Both Frank and April are intelligent, attractive people, and believe that they are somehow superior to their neighbours and friends. They hatch a scheme to emigrate to France, where April will work while Frank takes time to ‘find himself’ (a concept that is never fully explained by the Wheelers, probably because they hardly know what this means themselves). The best laid plans of mice and men, however… April falls pregnant again, while Frank commits adultery, and the plot heads towards a harrowing conclusion.

I could employ any amount of clichés to describe the book (e.g. ‘it packs an emotional punch’, etc.), but they would all ultimately be reductive. Although the book does pack a punch, it is almost more of a sucker punch than anything else. Like all good tragedy, one expects things to come to a terrible end, but Yates manages to make the Wheelers’ traumatic story personal in its impact. The book is written with tremendous force, and contains insights about modern life that are still very much applicable to contemporary society. One almost wishes that the things Yates writes weren’t true, but one must ultimately admit the honesty of his critique.

Besides the ending of the novel (scenes which I won’t give away) the parts that affected me the most were those involving John Givings. He is the son of the Wheelers’ estate agent, and also an inmate in an insane asylum. He used to be a mathematician, so his parents take him to visit the Wheelers, as he will supposedly be able to relate to this intelligent, sophisticated couple. But things do not work out the way the Givingses imagined, as John treats his parents with contempt, while forming a strange rapport with the Wheelers. These scenes are excellent. They show the absurdity that often lies behind the notion of institutionalisation (John finds his whole situation ridiculous), while still showing insanity without hiding its traumatic aspects.

The Wheelers’ struggle to be something more than they are ends up destroying them. Perhaps we are all condemned to ‘vaulting ambition’, and this cautionary tale warns us against reaching too far. And yet, there is irony here as well. Richard Yates himself tried to grasp success through writing, yet remained a fairly obscure entity until recently. Maybe he could appreciate the Wheelers’ tale more than most. In any case, this is a wonderful, sad novel, perhaps the best evocation of suburban malaise I have ever read. ( )

Wonderfully written book. A haunting picture of a marriage falling apart. ( )

I loved this book a lot more when i started it then when I finished it. It's a beautiful book, well-written and evocative of a time. But it depicts such a miserable existence that it's hard to get too excited about it. This is a good one to read if you're looking for a reason NEVER to get married.
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saw the movie first, still tragic even knowing what was coming, disappointed in the husband- says he would never give up his children, but does; echoes Friedan's criticisms of stultifying world women seemed trapped in; surprised at how modern the relationship was before their marriage