Revolutionary Road

by: Richard Yates

Published by: Vintage Books

Reviewed by Heather Durow

Revolutionary Road introduces us to Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living in suburbia in the 1950s, on the eve of April’s stage debut for the community theater group. After a less-than-stellar performance, we begin to see the breakdown of the Wheeler’s marriage.

You are taken back to when they first met and fell in love–and throughout the book get flashback glimpses of when their life was seemingly happy, although it had a rocky start. After awhile, we learn Frank is unhappy with his job, his life and seems to resent his children and even April. He begins to make poor and selfish decisions without thinking of the consequences. Frank and April’s life together begins a downward spiral that ends in tragedy.

While a very well written and critically acclaimed piece of literature, I found it very difficult to relate to the characters and even care about what happened to them. They seemed very two-dimensional and not the most moral or likable people. I understand that this was written at a very different time from where we are now but I still could not get past the fact that this couple was boring. Also, the story skipped around between the main characters and minor characters that didn’t really seem to add anything of importance to the story.

However, I would still recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a well-written piece. They may take more from it that I did. I would also like to read more from this author because of his interesting style.

Armchair Interviews agrees.