Revolutionary Road

I finished Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road awhile ago which would normally be an impediment to my recalling much of anything about the book. That I remember it enough to write something tonight is a testament to the enduring strength of the material. The story tracks the increasingly strained relationship of the Wheelers, a young, married couple living the dream in 1950s Connecticut, but secretly believing themselves superior to their environment and suffering in its blandness. Suburban malaise might seem an easy target now, but you can imagine it was a fresh and surprising theme when the book appeared in 1961. Frank has married a beautiful girl, April, created the perfectly balanced family (one girl, one boy) and settled into a low-stakes business job in the city. But he's not satisfied and neither is his wife. As Frank struggles to understand the enigmatic April, his perceptions of her stifle all but the odd glimpse of the actual woman sharing his home. His narrative grip on the unfolding story mirrors for the reader the suffocation that she feels. Yet, Frank isn't a villain. He is as clueless about the way his life has turned out as April is despairing about hers. The Wheelers' story can only end badly, but Yates' novel never takes a wrong turn. It's not easy to witness two characters floundering so miserably. Still, the book compels you to stick by them, even as they seem to be abandoning each other.

The novel gets movie treatment in December with the on-screen reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the title roles. When will those two kids get it together and be happy?

Soundtrack for this post: I am a Scientist by Guided by Voices