Revolutionary Road (Modern American Fiction) [Paperback]

Originally published in 1961 to great critical acclaim, Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road subsequently fell into obscurity in the UK, only to be rediscovered in a new edition published in 2001. Its rejuvenation is due in large part to its continuing emotional and moral resonance for an early 21st-century readership. April and Frank Wheeler are a young, ostensibly thriving couple living with their two children in a prosperous Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. However, like the characters in John Updike's similarly themed Couples, the self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled or happy in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paid but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. However, as their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfilment are thrown into jeopardy. Yates's incisive, moving and often very funny prose weaves a tale that is at once a fascinating period piece and a prescient anticipation of the way we live now. Many of the cultural motifs now seem quaintly dated--the early evening cocktails, Frank's illicit lunch breaks with his secretary, the way Frank isn't averse to knocking April around when she speaks out of turn all seem to belong to a different world--and yet the quiet desperation at thwarted dreams reverberates as much now as it did 40 years ago. Like F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this novel conveys, with brilliant erudition, the poverty at the soul of many wealthy Americans and the exacting cost of chasing the American Dream. --Jane Morris

`Extraordinarily well written, grimly comical, and with some of the most eerily accurate depiction of marital rows in literature' --Evening Standard

"... [the characters reveal themselves] with an intensity that excited the reader's compassion as well as his interest."
--The Times

"A cracking read, and much funnier than the film." --Red

'Yates' masterpiece... Superbly crafted prose, complex characters and a gripping plot... An all-round winner' --Independent on Sunday --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'It's worth revisiting Yates's original 1961 novel...an author only now receiving just acclaim'

'The book is oppressively grim and very funny, in a cruel almost gloating way'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'Brilliant. Without exaggeration one of the best novels of the last century' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

`Ruthlessly accurate'. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Revolutionary Road is an American classic and has been made into a film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio which is due for release in January 2009 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

`The exquisite precision with which Yates depicts the anguish and longing of small lives has led to comparison with Chekhov.' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'By all means buy your popcorn and book your seat, but pick up the paperback first'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

"A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." —William Styron

From the moment of its publication in 1961, Revolutionary Road was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It's the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

In his introduction to this edition, novelist Richard Ford pays homage to the lasting influence and enduring power of Revolutionary Road.


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

'Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely and brilliantly alive...a masterpiece' Tennessee Williams

Hailed as a masterpiece from its first publication, Revolutionary Road is the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary. With heartbreaking compassion and clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April's decision to change their lives for the better leads to betrayal and tragedy.

'The Great Gatsby of my time... One of the best books by a member of my generation' Kurt Vonnegut

'One of the best novels ever written about the death of the American Dream' Kate Atkinson, Daily Telegraph

'Easily the best novel I've read this year' Nick Hornby

CREDIT BLOCK FOR FILM AND LOGOS

Jpegs

The Easter Parade/ Yates

Collected Stories/Yates

Liars in Love/Yates

A Good School/Yates

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Richard Yates was born in 1926 in New York and lived in California. His prize-winning stories began to appear in 1953 and his first novel, Revolutionary Road, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. He is the author of eight other works, including the novels A Good School, The Easter Parade, and Disturbing the Peace, and two collections of short stories, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Liars in Love. He died in 1992. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.