Tuesday, May 26, 2009

'Revolutionary Road' Book Review



I finished reading 'Revolutionary Road' by Richard Yates this evening.

I didn't really care for the book but proceeded to finish the novel. The book was written back in 1961 but was revised with the movie that premiered, December 2008. The stars that appear in the movie is Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm sorry but I have to mention here that I just loved 'Titanic,' that they both starred in back in 1999. That will always be my best loved movie. Although I would like to see them in a movie together again, I don't know if I'll be watching 'Revolutionary Road' any time soon. I watched a movie trailer of it tonight and it just didn't grab me. Just like the book didn't.

The best way to read this story is not get to hung up on the words and to just move swiftly through the story and it seems to go along much nicer.

It's pretty much about every day life set in America in the 1950's and it can get kind of boring at times. But what the author really impressed me with is that he zero inned on the emotions of this couple's marriage. Whether it be good emotions or dysfunctional. You could really get into the feelings of their marriage through the authors writing. The problems that this couple had, allowed me to feel very unsettled and not comfortable. It kept me wondering if they would ever come to a place where they would feel each others love ever again. Being a married woman myself, you want to be able to come to a point in your marriage where you feel completely loved by your spouse. To be able to always find that connection between two people that brought you two there to begin with. That connection is that promise that two people make to each other, no matter what. That's what was so unsettling and uncomfortable in this story. You just wondered if they would ever come back to that connection, that promise, that love that brought them two together in the first place.
And the author does let us know how they feel in the story. Thank goodness. I'm not saying if it was good or bad either. You have to read the story. =)

But a lot of untied loops remained at the end of the story which I did not care for. I mean, who would like that? But I guess I can understand why the author did that. He wanted to point out that life goes on and that not everything comes to a concluding point at the end of the story. Which made the story even more realistic.

In 2005, Time announced that Revolutionary Road was one of the 100 best English language novels from 1923 to the present time.
I guess it was an OK book. =)
I'm signing off....from Peek-A-Boo Street!

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5/26/2009

    I hate untied endings. Thank you for the warning.

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  2. Anonymous5/26/2009

    I have never read the book or heard a lot about it. It sounds complex in the sense it's difficult to figure out what is going on with the couple. I wonder if it is like the movie Doubt that I saw tonight. Everyone raved about it and it has won awards but in the end there were unanswered questions. I don't like that because it leaves you wondering. Nice book review.

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  3. Nice review. I don't like endings like that either. :(

    ReplyDelete

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Peace & Love, Anne