Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Revolutionary Road

I finally got around to reading this book, Revolutionary Road, I have yet to see the movie, though now my interest is piqued and I think that I will have to. If there were ever any doubts that a man could write masterfully about domesticity from both sides, this book would dispel them. Richard Yates did a fantastic job of turning this 1950's marriage inside and out. It helped that the couple spent so much time talking, it helped in terms of writing the novel, it certainly didn't help in terms of the couplehood which was in sad decline from the get-go. There was a short period in the middle of the novel where the reader had a sense of hope for Frank and April Wheeler, this hopeful period was shrouded though in the reader's mind. Reading this book one does get a sense of doom.

In my opinion it was a great romance. Depressing, surely, but great nonetheless. I am not, nor have I ever been a sappy, happy romance kind of gal. Nicolas Sparks is not for me. I like pivotal realities in the relationships that I read about or view cinematically. While I don't like the fact that love and romance isn't all happy, I like it even less when books and movies make it into something that defies everything, even individuality. Revolutionary Road did not defy individuality. Even when the couple was their most together, one sensed that the individual would come out, the foreshadowing was there. All-in-all a fantastic read.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Not having read the book, I thought the film was fantastic. I was equally impressed with how well the wife's side of things was presented. Although I was a little sad that it took a man (two of them, really) to tell a woman's story. Of course, you have to wonder, could a woman capture the husband's POV with the same balance?

Kristine said...

I agree!!! I read it a month ago, and I also want to see the movie now.