Rediscovering ‘Revolutionary Road’
Until recently, Richard Yates’s 1961 novel, Revolutionary Road was a cult book. As the NY Times describes its audience,
Revolutionary Road is a novel cherished by a passionate and protective coven of admirers (including, incidentally, Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men) who pass it along, the novelist Richard Ford has said, like a secret literary handshake. They cherish its honesty, its uncompromising exactness, the austere beauty of its prose.
And, now, thanks to the movies, it’s gone from cult status to bestsellerdom. Yates’s biographer, Blake Bailey described its long route to becoming a movie in a piece in Slate in June,
From the beginning, ambitious filmmakers couldn’t help being tempted by the book—a “tough” look at the squalid heart of the American Dream—but only tempted. In the end, would people really pay good money to see a movie in which almost everything ends badly?
The first reviews indicate that the answer will be “no.” In The New Yorker, David Denby applauds the movie’s ambition, but finds it lacking in many respects; “There’s a sourness, a relentlessness about the movie which borders on misanthropy.”
But awards may bring a larger audience to the movie. It has been nominated for four major Golden Globe Awards and is getting Oscar buzz.
Whatever happens to the movie, this is a great opportunity to rediscover the book. Several articles will whet the appetite:
- “Like Men Betrayed; Revisiting Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road,” James Wood, The New Yorker, 12/15 (Refers to the Everyman edition which includes the short story, “The Easter Parade”)
- “An Appreciation: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates,” Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune, 11/29
- Essay; “American Beauty (Circa 1955)”, Richard Ford, New York Times, April 9, 2000
- “The Lost World of Richard Yates”, Stewart O’Nan, Boston Review, October/November 1999
- Paperback: $14.95; 368 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (November 25, 2008)
- ISBN-10: 0307454622
- ISBN-13: 978-0307454621
It is also being reissued as part of the Everyman Library (with an intro. by Richard Price, yet another major contemporary author revealed as a member of the cult):
Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
by Richard Yates, Introduction by Richard Price
- Hardcover: $26; 696 pages
- Publisher: Everyman’s Library (January 6, 2009)
- ISBN-10: 0307270890
- ISBN-13: 978-0307270894
It was republished in trade paperback in 2000 as part of Knopf’s Vintage line:
- Paperback: $14.95; 368 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; 2 Reprint edition (April 25, 2000)
- ISBN-10: 0375708448
- ISBN-13: 978-0375708442
And, it was released last month as an audio tie-in (also available on OverDrive), reviewed in the December issue of AudioFile magazine.
- Audio CD: Unabridged; $29.95
- Publisher: Random House Audio; (November 25, 2008)
- Reader: Mark Bramhall
- ISBN-10: 0739359371
- ISBN-13: 978-0739359372
- Library Edition: Books on Tape, $100
- ISBN-10: 1415956766
- ISBN-13: 978-1415956762
A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates
Blake Bailey
- Paperback: $18; 688 pages
- Publisher: Picador (May 1, 2004)
- ISBN-10: 0312423756
- ISBN-13: 978-0312423759
December 19th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Revolutionary Road will probably remain a “cult novel” because of it’s relentlessly depressing portrait of a marriage descending into hell. The writing is superb and the description of suburban living in the 50’s (or maybe any decade?) is more than recognizable.
This was Yates’s first novel and many think it was all downhill from there. However, many of his stories rival Cheevers and a later novel, Easter Parade, is quite goo.
I do have a question regarding the new editions of Revolutionary Road – why is the Everyman edition listed in your coverage over 300 pages longer than the novel itself?
December 19th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Hi Dean;
Good point about the Everyman edition being longer than the others. It includes his short novel, “Easter Parade” and a short story collection, “Eleven Kinds of Loneliness” as well as the intro by Richard Price.
Thanks for the comment,
Nora