I finished reading "Revolutionary Road" last night. SIGH. I have not seen the screen version yet, being more in the mood for comedy and sci-fi fantasy this summer so far. If you have not read this Richard Yates novel, written around the early 60's, let me give you a few brief but informative points without giving away the ending or the whole plot.
It's a really incredible novel, written in Hemingway's style- simple, masculine, harsh, sometimes so unsentimental you'd wish the author would have some sympathy for his flawed characters. Yet that is what makes you keep reading- the tension and the hope you have for April and Frank Wheeler (the main characters) leads you along their story like a tour guide through a messed up Disney World. What is truly scary about this story is how truthfully it reveals the cracks in a relationship that should have never consumated in a marriage or children (know any relationships like that?- I do! And no, not my own). The two characters dance around each other for years, fighting, making love, having children that they seem to regard as accessories (alot of Mad Men material here, and I am sure Matt Weiner the writer of Mad Men has read this book). You hope their love will hold them together, but then you start to wonder if perhaps, like alot of relationships, they married under the spell of lust, of wanting to escape their own dull lives, or just for the excitement of it. This is a very common reason why people get married- and in reality, sometimes it works out and they go on to have full, loving long marriages. Otherwise, the marriage starts to turn colors, it reveals itself for the truths people try to bury, and alot of good people with good intentions are left to figure out what to do with broken pieces, and broken hearts.
This is what "Revolutionary Road" deals with, among other themes of emotional repression, lost dreams and gender issues. At times, you hate Frank's spinelessness, while feeling sorry for his suffering wife, yet in another chapter you hate April for her coldness and sympathize with Frank's blundering. This is why the novel is successful, like any good story, nothing is black or white, and the characters are neither wholly bad or good. If I were a pre-marriage counselor, I would make every couple read this book, really! It would save alot of disappointed hearts and open dialogue to the reality of sharing dreams, a home, and longterm lifestyle with another person that you may be hanging some very unreal expectations upon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment