Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates Review

Frank and April Wheeler are married with kids, living in suburbia, on idyllic Revolutionary Road. They have drinks with the neighbours, Frank works in the city, April keeps house - but both are unsatisfied. They plan to start a new life in Paris. Yes, that’ll definitely happen…

Richard Yates was a fine writer but I fail to see why his most well-known novel, Revolutionary Road, is considered his best when it’s so… poor. Yates seems to be railing against the new middle class and domesticated suburbia, criticising its empty soullessness - but without offering up a better alternative or even hinting at something else. The novel is a paper tiger.

The book has a reputation for being grim and I can see why. That said, the parts when Frank and April are arguing, especially at the start when April appears in a local community theatre play that turns into a mess, are the best parts of the novel. Yates captures the energy between the two characters, showing us their unhappiness vividly, and the pair of them come alive, albeit briefly - and that’s compelling.

Unfortunately, those scenes are few and far between. Instead, Yates offers up Frank’s boring day-to-day for vast swathes of the book. His dull office job, that he doesn’t understand or care about, selling computers and his sad little affairs with office workers, who apparently don’t have a brain cell to rub against another - that or Yates’ more complex characterisation is strictly reserved for the main cast only.

It goes on and on, to no effect. We get it: Frank’s a cretin. I genuinely grew to hate the man, which might be the point, but still - why would anyone want to spend so much time with a loathsome character? It only makes for a dismal reading experience. And, similar to how Yates fails to offer a better alternative to his criticism of suburban middle class life, he doesn’t present a better character as Frank’s opposite; April is just as bad as he is!

At first, in her fighting Frank post-play, she came across as a real person - then, she quickly retreats to being a cartoonish housewife, wholly subservient to the husband, happy to play second fiddle, for no real reason. When they make their absurd plan to move the family to Paris, April promises to work and make money to pay the bills while Frank… finds himself? Or some such drivel. He fancies himself an artist, I think, and she’s going to help him realise his dream - for no real reason? Because she wants to be a dreamless slave? Honestly, her platitudes became as sickening as Frank’s banally sybaritic existence and I hated both characters.

The only other part of the novel I actually enjoyed was the supporting character of John Givings, the mentally-ill adult son of one of the Wheelers’ neighbours. Refreshingly, he cuts through the dull pleasantries of polite society and injects some much needed drama into the staid narrative. But is he Shakespeare’s Fool in Lear, the only character who sees clearly in the story? No, he’s just another malcontent, complaining for the sake of it.

Because what is the point of all this angst? Frank and April, like most other characters in the story, lie to themselves and each other. Ok - and? Life in 1950s American suburbia sucks. Ok - and? Is that it - Yates just putting his curmudgeonly views down on paper? I really don’t understand what’s meant to be so great about this novel. The characters are horrible in different ways, the story is unremarkable and obvious, not to mention pointlessly bleak, so it can only end one way - it’s bad!

The prose isn’t terrible but also not that special - Yates has written better, like in The Easter Parade, which is his real masterpiece, not Revolutionary Road. Aside from the occasional clashes between Frank and April, and the even fewer scenes with crazy John, Revolutionary Road was immensely tedious to slog through - it definitely isn’t Richard Yates’ best and I recommend to anyone interested in this author The Easter Parade instead of this dreary nonsense.