This is the story of Emily Grimes, from her childhood in the 1930s to her late ‘40s in the 1970s, and the people in her life: her older sister Sarah, her mother Esther or “Pookie”, and her father Walter, as well as the numerous men she has relationships with.
I can’t review The Easter Parade properly without mentioning details so, even though this isn’t a plot-heavy book, some people might consider these details “spoilers”. If that’s a concern and you’re thinking of checking this book out, then stop reading now; it’s an excellent novel, well worth reading and highly enjoyable, if very dark - if domestic abuse is too much, give this one a miss.
Everyone else, let’s go!
If you know the name Richard Yates, maybe the one thing you’ve heard about his writing is that it’s very depressing (the other thing you may have heard about him is that his daughter Monica dated a young Larry David and became the inspiration for Elaine on Seinfeld!). I’m not saying that perception is wrong - the final third of The Easter Parade is especially bleak - but that it’s perhaps overstated and ultimately reductive of Yates’ superlative art.
Most of this novel is actually fairly upbeat. I read it thinking that there was nothing depressing about Emily’s life - she had setbacks and lost her father young but these aren’t exceptionally sad or unique. Her sister Sarah married young and had three sons while Emily went to university, got work as a journalist and copywriter, and had relationships with various men like an academic, a poet and a lawyer.
If anything, Emily is a kind of role model for the newly-emerging independent woman of the mid-20th century, without Yates standing on a soapbox and preaching about feminism (you might even view that odd scene at the end when Emily goes to a women’s masturbation class meant to empower women and sees the models of vaginas with distaste as a rejection of modern feminism).
What I did notice as a consistent theme was illusions and how characters often lied to one another and themselves. That and the constant presence of hard alcohol, perhaps as necessary fuel for the characters to continue their delusions. And why pretend and lie? This is where the “depressing” aspect of Yates’ fiction emerges as you realise none of the characters are particularly happy with their lives and don’t know how to change them.
Emily’s father drank heavily because he never did what he wanted to do with his career. Similarly, her mother became an alcoholic because she couldn’t find whatever it was she was looking for. Even minor characters like Sarah’s first possible fiance fabricates an entire work history to seem more appealing to his potential in-laws.
The saddest character is of course Sarah, Emily’s older sister, whose seemingly idealistic marriage was nothing but a sham. Her husband Tony was secretly a mean, abusive drunk who might’ve even possibly murdered her in a drunken rage. Sarah quietly endures the constant domestic abuse, in the process becoming an alcoholic herself to help get herself through it all and soften her painful reality and only after many years does she slowly reveal her horrible life to Emily.
Even Emily, who seems to have the best life out of them all, ends up lost and drinking herself into blackouts, waking up in strange apartments next to men she doesn’t remember meeting, let alone going home with. Maybe it’s an unfortunate familial trait, or maybe she too is unhappy with her life - she never married, never had kids, and, while she makes her living writing copy at an ad agency, her own writing never went anywhere. Like her father, she wanted to be a great writer and fell short of it - booze can help with the disappointment, to a point.
That’s something I really liked about Yates’ writing: Emily is clearly the main character and meant to be the one the reader connects with, but he makes her flawed and weak as well, which only endears her more to us because she’s more relatable. Throughout the story we catch glimpses of her character and see her as selfish, spiteful and conceited.
You could even interpret her fury at the end of the novel as directed at herself - Sarah called her near the end, trying to escape certain death with Tony, and Emily turned her away because it wasn’t convenient for her. Sure, maybe Tony killed her, maybe it really was a combination of alcoholism and an accidental fall, and maybe she would’ve died regardless - maybe her alcoholism was too far gone by that stage. But maybe she wouldn’t have died if Emily had been there for her, gotten her away from Tony, dried her out, given her a new lease on life.
All of which sounds like Yates’ reputation as a depressing writer is well earned - but no more so than say Steinbeck or Shirley Jackson and his writing is deservedly up there with such exalted company. The Easter Parade is a masterpiece of character work, capturing the highs and lows of life at its different stages, while also telling a complex and always intriguing story of a family of fascinating characters. I loved The Easter Parade and highly recommend seeking out the books of this author if you haven’t already. An amazing achievement from a perennially-underrated writer.
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