Richard Yates’ REVOLUTIONARY ROAD might not yet be considered a classic, but it ought to be. Published in 1961, the novel takes a look at the dark side of marriage in kind of the same as Edward Albee’s WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? But what sets the two works apart is their dialogue. Where Albee’s dialogue is natural and was totally shocking to theatre audiences of the Camelot years, it was still an elevated language, filled with malevolent wit and pointed barbs. Each night, the play ran for an incredible 3 and a half hours…unheard of back then, and unthinkable now. The script was something like 265 pages and was nothing but dialogue.
But, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD was different. Like WOOLF, it’s also dialogue heavy, but this dialogue is not elevated…it’s natural, free and real. For my money, Richard Yates was the best and greatest writer of dialogue in the 20th century…maybe ever. I know that’s saying a lot, but, I mean it. Whenever I talk to writing classes or aspiring writers or people who pretend to be poets, I always tell them that if they want to learn how to do dialogue well, they gotta read REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.
Now, Yates, as talented and great as he was, also wrote six or seven other novels, and a bunch of short stories and they all contain the same amazing language as does ROAD, but the slight problem I have with them is that they’re all pretty much another version of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. But, ROAD is just so great a novel that Yates can’t be faulted for letting this book cast its shadow over pretty much everything else he ever wrote. The story stuck with him and he kept coming back to it, turning it over and over in his mind, trying to write his way out. But, he couldn’t. The problem (and subject) was just so great that he ended up frustrated and frozen and pretty much drank himself to death.
In looking back over what I’ve written so far…the three paragraphs that you’ve already read…I see that I’ve not really described the plot of the book other than to imply that it’s the story of a marriage coming apart at the seams. A book about frustrated dreams and the assumption that redemption and greatness are just around the corner.
Even though it was published in 1961, it’s the perfect 1950s book. Much like PEYTON PLACE and THE MAN IN THE GREY FLANNEL SUIT and THE AMBOY DUKES, it’s a perfect evocation of a time and a place rapidly fading from living memory. But what’s lasting about it…what’s memorable and fine…is that it describes feelings and forces that remain powerful to this very day.
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by Richard Yates. It’s a classic. You just don’t know it yet.
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