Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Too often Yates is referred to as a "writer's writer." Well, I'm not a writer. But I just love this book. This is a great read, not an exercise in writing acrobatics. I picked it up at a friend's house one day, and read about fifty pages. I bought it on my way home, and have since read all of Yates' work more than once.Yates is a great writer. Clear, simple, powerful. Honest, unflinching, observant, funny. He writes about the everyday tedium of office work better than anyone. Most important, he writes honestly about human self-destruction. This is often seen as another indictment on suburban living. But the 'burbs don't do anything evil here. It is the characters who destroy themselves. Self-delusion, selfishness, ego. The fascinating thing about this painful story is how much we can relate to the characters. The end is a bit over the top, but the journey is a pleasure. Illuminating, entertaining, horrifying. Read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Stale look at American suburbs
Review: "Revolutionary Road": brilliant work of almost forgotten genius? Nah. I found it to be quite dull, actually. It reminded me of Updike's "Run, Rabbit, Run," or Joyce Carol Oates' "Them," two other stale indictments of American suburban life. I know scads of readers love Updike's Rabbit novels - and it's apparent by the glowing reviews of "Revolutionary Road" that scads also love Yates' work - but I find novels about suburban couples engaged in suburban angst and turmoil to be quite boring. Sure, the conflicts resonate with us: most of us struggle constantly with the image of ourselves, feel the biting pangs of self disappointment. But the characters in these books go nowhere with their conflicts. Whatever happened to the strong, interesting character? The original suburban angst books, Bovary and Karenina, at least serve up a steamy dish of feminine sexuality, hinting at a passionate - and quite human -- underbelly in an otherwise orderly-seeming existence. "Revolutionary Road" is primarily about Frank Wheeler, a self-inflated and self-proclaimed intellectual who works in the marketing department of some faceless corporation. He lives with a babely wife, April, in a little white house in the suburbs of New York. There's also children in the picture. Frank says he hates his job; April hates being a housewife and wants to move to Europe. In the end, Frank's cowardice and increasing interest in his job combine with a new Wheeler on the way to pin the two to their meaningless, dull little lives. Hijinks ensue: adultery, heavy drinking, death, brown-nosing, visits from a madman, a little jazz, and some extended babysitting. Okay, I'm going to reveal the ending now, so turn away if you don't want to see: April basically offs herself in the end, because she can't deal anymore. I hate this silly ending. No central character makes any adjustment at all during the book. April is the only character with any hope of changing, with any hope or vision for the future, and what happens? The first obstacle in her path leads her to suicide. Basically, it indicates that the writer couldn't imagine his way out of the conflict, and reflects lazy plotting. Oh well. You will hate this review, surely, because you're in love with the book. I'm sorry. I freely admit that my expectations projected onto the book led me to my disappointment. I also admit that I am prejudiced against the suburban angst book, perhaps because it's a bit too close to home for my own comfort. But there are dozens of excellent examples of better books touching on the same topic, from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., to Don DeLillo. Even Kerouac had something interesting to say about the human condition bent under the wheel of conformity...
Rating:
Summary: Thank heaven this book didn't get lost . . .
Review: because it almost did. Many critics believe Richard Yates to be one of the most overlooked--but best--author of the 20th century, and it's easy to see why. This well-written and perceptive novel, set in 1955, deals with a couple of intellectually snobbish New Yorkers who, for reasons not entirely of their own choosing, are forced to move into 'tickey tackey' conformist suburbia. The husband commutes and the wife stays home and keeps house in true pre-feminist style. Most of the story takes place through husband Frank's perspective, and at age 30 he is proof that a man can have a midlife crisis at any age. He unwillingly takes a job with a large, IBM-like company to support the family and discovers, much to his horror and fascination, that he actually likes his work. But things are not going well at home. His wife April resents the time he spends in Manhattan, and not without reason. Yates doesn't often leave Frank's point-of-view but when he does, as when relating a fight between Richard and April, he cross-cuts so dextrously as to lend a whole new insight to the term 'battle of the sexes.' Why wasn't Richard Yates more of a success when he was alive? He lived until 1992 and has a large body of writing. Was it a matter of his being too popular to be esoteric and too esoteric to be popular? Was he one of those Howard Roark-type geniuses who refused to do anything to help his career? Or was it simply a matter of bad luck? While the author, sadly, is prematurely deceased we will have his novels and other writing with us and people will be reading them for many years to come, not only for their considerable entertainment value but for their spot-on descriptions of a certain kind of American life in the middle of the 20th Century.
Rating:
Summary: The best writing I have ever read
Review: This is my first book review, but if I were to comment on any book that has moved me more than any other, this would be it. I was recommended this novel by a creative writing instructor I had in college who would eventually publish his own short stories influenced by the beautiful writing and intriguing dialogue of this novel. I have also modeled my own writing off the writing of Yates. Revolutionary Road is one of those books that you cannot forget because the writing is so vivid and real and tangible and the dialogue and characters are so believable. Revolutionary Road is a tragic, dark novel about a failing marriage and the artificiality and isolation of 1950's suburban life. The characters are tragic but real, and possibly people you know or have known in your own life. Richard Yates was probably the most underrated author of all time - an author with the talent of Hemingway and Faulkner but without the recognition of the public. Hopefully, people will begin discovering the beauty of this novel and seek out two others which are out of print, the Easter Parade and a Good School. I highly recommend this book. If you have an appreciation for the written word, you will truly love it.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was interesting, well-written, and true to life. It portrays the 1950s in a way that's often ignored - the darkside. Fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a philosophical look at human beings.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: To find a book as prescient as this so terribly neglected is truly a shame. This is undoubtably a classic work of American Literature. Like all truly great books it anticipates the hordes of suburban writers that would follow him and yet Yates always surpasses the best of them. This book should stand along side "Lolita", "The Recognitions" and "Desperate Characters" as the the greatest American novels of the past 50 years.
Rating:
Summary: advertisement for religion
Review: I had heard Revolutionary Road described as "satirical", but I think the tone is realistic. In any case, this is a very well written novel about narcissists who have no love or affection for anyone in their lives: not their parents, not their spouses, not their friends. Most startling is their indifference toward their own children. These characters look at their small children and, even as they go through the motions of parenthood, don't even see them as anything other than burdens. As I read Revolutionary Road, I kept thinking, what kind of people don't love their own children? I think it is significant that none of these characters gives a thought to God or religion of any kind: no church on Sunday, no wondering what God wants from all of them. Actually, this book is a good advertisement for fostering religiosity or spirituality of some kind in one's life. Solipsistic angst may be inevitable for people who don't, in the parlance of 2000, "get over themselves". The writing warrants three stars for this novel, but I can't really recommend Revolutionary Road. Better that readers go back to Steinbeck or even Fitzgerald and read about existential problems in a moral context.
Rating:
Summary: the unknown classic
Review: The rare book, that is actually better the second time through. Of all of Yates works, this is his favorite, and he has often been quoted as saying he was "cursed to write his best book first." The story of the Wheelers and all of their shortcomings is not so much about everything that is wrong with the suburbs, but everything that is wrong with many of the people who live there. Yates uses his knack for creating memorable, flawed characters that make fascinating mess out of their very believable lives. Frank is the perfect coward, who stays in a job he hates, cheats on his wife, and has no relationship with his children, while his wife April is self-centered, moody and does not want to take responsibiliy for her own life. The novel is brilliantly constructed, and has peeripheral characters as interesting and deep as the central ones. This book is as good as anything written in the last 50 years. Unfortunately, Richard Ford's introduction offers nothing to this edition, but it is still nice to see this great novel back in print.
Rating: 
Summary: The American Dream
Review: A good job, a pretty wife, nice kids, and a home in the suburbs. This novel, written in 1961, is about a couple that lives this American Dream. But this pre-yuppie pair leads a life of exquisite monotony. He hates his white-collar job; she stays home with the kids. One of their most frequent recreational activities is to visit with another similar couple, and spend a few hours shaking their heads and complaining about how unevolved everyone else is. We smile ruefully as we read about them, thinking how common these folks are. Or have we fallen into a trap by putting ourselves in the same place by looking down on Frank and April as they look down on others. Frank and April Wheeler look forward to things: a part in a little theater play, a move to Paris, an affair, a promotion. It would seem, though, that for them happiness is only in the anticipation of events. The story's participants also are deeply into playing roles with their spouses, their co-workers, their friends, and above all with themselves. There is no one in this book that you want to identify with. Why? Is it because they are poor, hopelessly lost dullards, or is it because they represent us in too many unpleasant ways? It's a sad story, but one that makes you think about your own life, and the ultimate value of what you have accomplished. While some of our culture has changed since this book was written (we no longer sit in hospital waiting rooms smoking cigarettes), its theme is as modern as can be.
Rating:
Summary: Effortlessly written and startling
Review: An illuminating portrait of a marriage set against the backdrop of the American dream. A timeless work.
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