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Revolutionary Road
By Matt Margolis | September 23, 2007
Back in June, I set upon starting Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. It actually took me a while to get started, and it eventually became my morning reading on the train during my commute to work. I finished it this weekend while flying to Santa Barbara, California.
The novel tells the story of Frank and April Wheeler, Connecticut suburbanites in the 1950s who both want more out of life than what they got. Frank has a mundane, pointless job and feels like a failure. April wants to restart their life and move them and their two young kids to Paris, France, where she would support the family so he can focus his time and energy trying to fulfill his life’s dreams. Things don’t work out as either of them hoped.
I really enjoyed the novel — perhaps not as much as a the character J.J. in Nick Hornby’s novel A Long Way Down did, but enjoyed it all the same. He certainly was right in saying the ending “is a real downer.”
Kurt Vonnegut is quoted on the back, saying calling the novel. “The Great Gatsby of [his] time,” and I can see the connection.
Filming for the movie Revolutionary Road finished last month, and the movie is set for a 2008 release. I look forward to seeing that and comparing it with the novel.
On my return flight(s) from Santa Barbara, California, I started Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I’m already about half-way through it, and will post a short review when I finish.
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