Nearly fifty years after it first appeared on American bookshelves (Little, Brown, 1961) Richard Yates’ first novel ‘Revolutionary Road’ remains an impressively relevant tale.
Set in the Stepford Wives suburbia of 1950s America, Yates brings to life the characters of April and Frank Wheeler flawlessly. Two above average Americans, this couple see through the homogoneity that keeps them and their friends locked into modes of normal and acceptable behaviour at the same time as they fight to resist it.
Believing themselves to be revolutionary citizens even as they adhere to the American Ideal the two of them struggle to survive within this paradox until finally April announces that enough is enough. They hatch a plan to leave the United States for Europe, "the only place worth living in," happy to put themselves before their children if it means escaping the small town suburbia that they feel encroaching their very identities.
Yates builds up their individual psychologies and sets them against an army of surrounding minor characters in a way so rare it makes this book unforgettable. Expertly developing the theme of disappointment, Yates explores the dangers of hoping too high and living in the imagination as time and time again his characters set themselves up for painful crashes to reality, forever unable to escape themselves and their all too human condition.
Made last year into a film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio at the helm it will be interesting to see how this legend of literature transfers to the big screen.
Revolutionary Road is released in the UK on the 30th January.
Leave Your Comments