When I first saw trailer of the movie adaptation “Revolutionary Road” I immediately knew that I have to read the book that was written by Richard Yates. The novel that was first published in 1961 is story of our times. The story line is timeless, it is a view of 1950s society which is a very realistic view of today society, and it shows how little we have transformed.
Yates set the novel in year 1955 and tells the story of April and Frank Wheeler, an American married suburban couple with two kids. It is story about their life which appears to be perfect. It turns out that both characters hate their life as it is, they hate that they are typical family with typical house and typical work. They have live in the illusion that they are destined for something grander than the life they are now leading. As April sad “Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we're special. They we're superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We're just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion. That we have to resign from life and settle down the moment we have children. And we've been punishing each other for it”. The nothingness of their life is killing them and they are dealing with it in their own different ways. As a result they marriage is falling apart and they are more distant from each other.
Yates deals in this book with reality of everyday life. The novel is a portrait of a failing marriage. The realism of the dialogue is overwhelming, painfully truthful.
This book makes us question ourselves and the world we live in. “Revolutionary road” is masterpiece of realistic fiction.
