I had an unfortunate bout with a stomach bug this weekend which is rarely if ever a good thing unless you consider it the ultimate lazy persons diet. But, in this case, it turned out to be a good excuse to lay in bed and read the tragically beautiful novel Revolutionary Road.
I happened upon it in an attempt to move a giant stack of books from one remote corner of our house to an equally remote corner. My tendency in house keeping is to move things from place to place without truly sorting through them until I want to throw everything into the street. So, after wobbling off the top of the stack and nearly missing my toe, this novel presented itself to me and I was immediately drawn into it’s theme of “darkness lies behind the seemingly perfect facade of 1950’s suburbia.” This may seem like a common, if not completely overdone subject but many of the books and movies that draw on this idea are probably built on the ideas brought forth by this novel written in 1961. There is so much to love about this book.
Let me begin with the beautiful prose. Normally I have to read and re-read phrases or whole pages to feel like I am really gathering the full point a writer is trying to convey. But with Yates fluidity of words I found myself breezing from page to page while still gathering a true picture of the complex group of characters who are essentially neighbors in a Connecticut suburb off of the newly built Route 12. But, the realization occurs shortly after the first few chapters that their emotional, marital, and relational problems stem from much more than just the constraint of living in an artificial cheery world of pastel homes with perfect lawns.
This is really a universal, timeless story with the same issues that people have today. A young woman who is married with two children finds she lacks the ability to love due to the abandonment by her parents, A man feels trapped by his boring job, A middle-aged woman who spends most of her days staying busy so that she does not have to think too long about her institutionalized son or apathetic, retired husband. These and other people of the novel think their problems stem from their isolation in their “happy” community but really they are selling themselves short by playing into the very stereotypes they shun.
-Caroline
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