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Revolutionary Road
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Revolutionary Road
Unavailable
Revolutionary Road
Audiobook11 hours

Revolutionary Road

Written by Richard Yates

Narrated by Mark Bramhall

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs since it's publication in 1961, Revolutionary Road is the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

In his introduction to this edition, novelist Richard Ford pays homage to the lasting influence and enduring power of Revolutionary Road.

Editor's Note

Overlooked classic...

An overlooked classic, Yates’ brilliant debut is a Gatsby-like story of disillusionment, loneliness, and anxiety in the American suburbs, written in prose thats coldly beautiful and devastatingly clear.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 25, 2008
ISBN9780739359389
Unavailable
Revolutionary Road
Author

Richard Yates

Richard Yates was the author of the novels Revolutionary Road, A Special Providence, Disturbing the Peace, The Easter Parade, A Good School, Young Hearts Crying, and Cold Spring Harbor, as well as the short story collections Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Liars in Love. He died in 1992.

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Reviews for Revolutionary Road

Rating: 4.033385960042061 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,902 ratings121 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Frank and April Wheeler live in the New York suburbs in 1955, which they somehow cannot explain ... the one thing they agree upon is that moving to Paris might save them from the bourgeois existence they find themselves in. This novel is strongly tinged with social satire - the Wheelers and their friends have all the advantages of modern life, but think all of it is somehow reprehensible. Enter John Givings, a paranoid schizophrenic, who alone among the characters, sees and appreciates the efficacy of the Wheelers' Paris dream. The dream falls apart of course - April becomes pregnant, Frank newly committed to the career in the middle of the "hopeless emptiness" of the American Dream. Once the pipe dream of Paris cannot come about, John speaks out loud of the betrayal in it, the surrender to the material and orthodox American nightmare.I think it's a wonderful thing Yates does with this character: he puts the clear-headed voice of conscience in the mouth of a mental patient, turning all of existence on its head. This is balanced, wry, funny, and completely unblinking - and for all those reasons, I appreciate and recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Trying to escape the phoniness of life in suburban America, a couple move to France. Well that didn’t work out. The squabbling and bickering continues. Lots of details about a struggling marriage complete with some humor. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is the look at women’s roles in the 1950’s.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Tried to read this about 6 times before getting married. Read it my honeymoon 4 months after we got married and finished it in a day . . .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Revolutionary Road as a whole is a triumph of realistic writing. Yates’s dialogue rings true and becomes increasingly sharp as Frank and April become more and more deluded. When they argue, you feel the sting of every overt insult and subtle jab, and when it all starts to come down around them, you know that this is how it must really be when a marriage implodes. This is not a quiet collapse.I loved Yates’s style from the opening chapter and was consistently impressed by his realism and his ability to portray his characters’ inner lives and their well-acted relationships equally well. This is clearly the work that sparked the idea that eventually inspired movies like American Beauty, and I’m sure Yates has been inspiration for many contemporary writers. Tom Perrotta’s writing seems to bear some marks of this influence, particularly in Little Children, but that’s just my guess.Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I heard someone describe the film version of this book as "bleak and depressing", I had a hunch I'd like the book. I think of the things people consider bleak and depression as merely being realistic. This book is a realistic view of a marriage, a marriage struggling to be a happy one. A marriage made up of two people struggling for happiness, or at least contentment.Frank and April are a youngish couple with 2 kids- he commutes, she is a home maker. They are witty and fun and pretty sure that they are better than the mediocrity that their neighbours display. They are dead keen to prove themselves able to rise above the suburbs, and the cookie-cutter banality of their commuter-estate home. They decide on a course of action to prove their adventurousness. They are sure this will jump-start their lives. Well anyway, plans change. Things change and the storyline comes to a crux with a devastating act .The writing is sublime! How cleverly Yates captures the thoughts behind the actions of Frank. The observations are so subtle. Descriptive but not overly so. This book is one of my favourites of the year so far.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nominated for 1961 National Book Award.Frank & April Wheeler, living in Connecticut suburb; Frank works in NYC. Consider themselves above others in suburbia; April has bright idea that they’ll sell the house and move to Paris so she can work and support Frank & the 2 kids while Frank “finds himself”. Instead, SPOILERS - they have an unplanned pregnancy (diaphragm was loose) and April dies after inducing a miscarriage at 4 months.I don't think this aged well. I found Frank to be insufferable bores.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the first Richard Yates novel I've read. My first thoughts were that Yates is an Updike with charm. Frank and April Wheeler live on Revolutionary Road, a suburb that is commutable to New York. They live in a standard suburban house, with standard suburban neighbours, and have a standard suburban social life. Frank works in the sales department of a company that manufactures calculating and computing machinery. April is a stay at home mother. Neither character is likeable, and yet each seems very real. They are not happy, trapped as they are in the mediocre life that a steady job and an anonymous house in the suburbs has afforded them. They plaster over each argument and fight, returning to the script until the next argument blows up. It's awful, but I couldn't look away. Yates describes the awfulness beautifully. His prose is taut and compelling. Not a word is wasted. Every word chosen is positioned just so. I'll be reading more by him.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Heart-breaking, atmospheric, full of truth and rawness. Enjoyed the film when it first came out and had been meaning to read for some time. Read very quickly over a day of travel which intensified the experience.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of my all time favourite novels. It is such a raw, and honest piece of fiction that revolves around lies, inadequacy, the inability to be fulfilled, and judgement. It also has one of the most interesting, to me at least, characters written in the 20th century. John Givings, a man who we are to assume is severely broken from reality but is actually the only character who is able to see things for what they really are.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Such a well-written novel. But, to see into the self-centered mind of Frank is often crushing, and his wife April knows his true nature. It's obvious from the beginning that their story will not end well. Because this novel was published in 1961 and takes place in the 1950s, it seems like a lot of readers focus on the fact that it's set in suburbia and in an era where women had few opportunities other than being a housewife or secretary. Maybe so, but I feel that the problems Frank and April dealt with were a lot due to their faults -- and disaster could have happened to their relationship whether it was in the 2010s or set in a city. I admit I was hesitant for a long time to read this because the only cover I ever encountered was the movie-tie in cover (who really likes those?); I finally picked it up only because I needed an Y author to complete a reading challenge. I'm glad I did, even if it left me feeling a bit unsettled after finishing. Definitely will seek out more of Yates.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Revolutionary Road is the story of a marriage. Starting with all the optimism and eagerness that should begin every marriage, April and Frank see their relationship slowly eroded by the disappointments and responsibilities that accompany a family in the 1950s and when April finds a solution to fix their deteriorating marriage, it seems as though they might be able to rebuild. Richard Yates has created a world that feels much like a [[Cheever]] short story (or much like Mad Men, for that matter). There's a sense that far from being a master of the universe, Frank, with his college education and quick wit, is every bit as trapped as his wife by the social expectations of the community they live in, and their own expectations about what their life is supposed to look like. Everyone in this book is trapped, finding small pleasures in convincing themselves that they are better than the neighbors, but always returning to a deep sense of dissatisfaction.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I found the book to be boring. I saw the movie based on the book with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and I found that to be boring. The story takes place in the 1950's and it's centered around a failing marriage and failed ambitions. The book failed to keep my interest.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book had been lying on a shelf for years, and I kept seeing references to it in discussions about books but never got around to reading in until now. In many ways it is now a period piece, set back in the seventies; but at the same time it is timeless in what it tells us about aspects of the human condition. The plot is always interesting; the characters generally well drawn and the writing good, albeit lapsing into the overly literary at times. I am very happy to recommend this to those of you who have not tried it yet. Not "The Great American Novel" but a really good try.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Vivid, haunting reality of the increasingly common failure in interpersonal existential growth.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a reading group book and I was not happy - it looks like exactly the kind of book I hate. But rather to my surprise I didn't hate it. I actually found it quite readable and got through it easily. It's very depressing though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was amazing! I was surprised to find of a book from the early 60's that the female character was not only well-developed, but built out with revolutionary views. She was amazing and thought provoking. The audiobook narrated by Mark Bramhall set the right tone. I was skeptical when I first turned it on, but within the first 30 minutes was hooked on the reading. My only complaint was that Bramhall's voice for April was somewhat whiny and annoying. I do not think I would have heard her that way had I chosen to read the book as a paper/e-book copy. Will read again as a paper edition.

    While I expected a death at the close of the novel, I was surprised at how it ultimately came about. The close of the novel circled back in a complete way. All of the open narratives were closed and it was clear the purpose of each character. I will say that I do not quite understand the role of John Givings, but I think that might have more to do with the nature of the audiobook reading than with the existence of his character.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A decent novel about the lives of Frank and April Weaver and the struggling, strife-ridden journey that they are forced to undertake. While I did like the Vogel, and felt that the characterization was strong, I felt like the dynamic in the plot and prose were not fully to my personal liking and that is why my rating is as it is. It is worth checking out for those into contemporary classics and American literature.3.25 stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Een voorstad van New York, in de jaren 50, dat is de setting voor dit verhaal over een koppel, Frank en April Wheeler, dat in het reine probeert te komen met een wel zeer vroege midlifecrisis (ze zijn amper 30). Vooral Frank staat centraal; April komt er wat magertjes uit. De recensies zien dit verhaal vooral als een kritiek op het lege leven in de Amerikaanse voorsteden (met hun materi?le welvaart). Maar voor mij ligt de sterkte toch eerder in de beklemmende schets van het menselijk tekort, de eenzaamheid en zelfbegoocheling van het individu, de kloof tussen wat een mens is en wat hij denkt te zijn, de delicate omgang tussen 2 partners. Bijzondere pluim voor de stijl: die lijkt conventioneel, maar is zeer uitgekiend en gepolijst. Een ontdekking!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I fell in love with this book from the first page (second paragraph, I believe). The author has a gift of describing people's thoughts, and adding little disjointed bits of dialogue here and there, that is unlike anything I have ever read before. I absolutely hated every adult character in the book. They are all terrible people. Still, I felt sorry for them and their bitter, miserable lives, and could not wait to find out more about them. This very much reminds me of The Sound and Fury by William Faulkner and February by Lisa Moore: the book really made it possible to get into the minds of the people in the story, you don't just passively read a story about them.

    This is not a happy book. It is not, however, a book that becomes preachy or beats you over the head with forced emotions, tugging at your heart until you break down. It is emotional, but in a very real way.

    Absolutely amazing. It is easily one of the best three books I have ever read.

    EDIT: Do not read any reviews or plot summaries before reading the book! If you are reading this without having finished Revolutionary Road, immediately stop what you are doing and pick up the book. Do not read more reviews. The book unfolds so well, it would really be a shame if it gets spoiled for you!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked it about 3-and-a-half-stars' worth. It's definitely as topical today as when it was first published in the '60's, and to me in particular, as I too hover on the cusp of 30 & feel middle-aged, lost, and unrooted. (I know, First World Problem. Not having an easy time with this upcoming birthday, am I?)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This one is a high three--there were parts that I did really like but parts that I felt dragged a bit. Here were two people that I just wanted to slap--a visceral reaction like that is a good thing in this case.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Published in 1961, Revolutionary Road takes us inside the lives of Frank and April Wheeler, a couple who met in New York City, but now lives in the suburbs with their two children. Both Frank and April are deeply discontented, with their lives and with their marriage. As they struggle to make meaning of their lives, their feelings are palpable. It was the realism with which this story was told that impressed me the most.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a depressing book about depressing people. Given that, I'm almost surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Yates wrote to question the accepted middle-class goals of the mid-20th century -- wife, kids, a good job in the city, a house in the suburbs, He uses an abundance of symbols, from the unfinished stone walkway to the dead plants in the basement, to picture the "series of abortions" that the this life has provided for Frank and April. While I don't accept the critique of the American Dream, this book does make you think about how we got to where we are today, given a starting point of post-WW2. Worth reading, even though it means you have to work at it. I prefer books that have characters I want to like; this wasn't that kind of book. (Maybe it goes better with a box of chocolates!)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fiction in the grand old tragic style. People with dreams, self-aware and aware of the compromises they "must" make, real dialogue, straighforward narrative...I loved this book! You can see where Russell Banks, Richard Ford, Richard Price (and many others, I'm sure) may have all been inspired by Richard Yates. It was so refreshing to read a book that wasn't meant to showcase the author's cleverness, but rather to truly capture a piece of real life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was infuriating, in the best possible way. Richard Yates wrote characters who are so self-absorbed and realistic that I wanted to reach onto the pages and give them all a smack. It truly is a marvelous book.I bought the book after I saw the movie, which I loved (Kate & Leo are my favorites), but I only just now got around to reading it (shame on me!). What I loved about the book, as opposed to the movie, was the inner thoughts and feelings of Frank Wheeler, who really is kind of a big butthead, but I still found myself feeling sorry for him, and for April, too. They became stuck in a marriage that was built on false feelings and the seemingly interesting and poignant ramblings of two young people having a good time. The "American Dream" of a stable job, 2 kids, and a house in the suburbs was not enough for the Wheelers, yet they could not bring themselves to fully commit and escape their dreary, "hopeless emptiness" they've found themselves in. I want to read more by Richard Yates, as he seems to be able to perfectly capture the essence of American life, as frightening and hopeless as it can be.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having read the book after seeing the movie--I was a little surprised at how strong and potent it was, and the feelings that it arose. I felt more sympathy (pity?) for the characters even than I had in the movie. I also felt that the characters had more say and responsibility in what happened than I did in the movie. They became more real--but less likable.

    Definitely worth it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a sad, we'll-written novel of a flawed couple that move to the suburbs during the 1950s.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a 1961 novel which Time in 2001 named as one of the 100 best novels of all-time, though when it first came out in 1961 it sold poorly. The author, Richard Yates, was born Feb 3, 1926, which happens to be the exact date one of my brothers was born. Yates died Nov 7, 1992. I used to think the book was a historical novel dealing with the American Revoluiton, but the title is a road in a Connecticut suburb. Frank Wheeler is a pretty obnoxious person and one can sympathize with his wife, who is also a weak and non-admirable character. There is a time in the novel when one admires Frank for opposing his wife's desire to kill their unborn child. But in general I could not appreciate much in this novel, which reads smoothly enough but is an account of vapid folk.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good. Moody, dissolution of modern marriage.This book got me looking for everything she wrote. Noted during my 1980's attempt to read every book in my small town library.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An excellent book. A perceptive analysis of what can go wrong in the lives and relationship of a 20th century American couple. I especially liked the way Yates detailed the characters' thoughts and their rehearsals of what they might say. Somewhat depressing - but that's reality.