American · b. 1926
Richard Yates was an American writer now regarded as a master of mid-century realism, author of Revolutionary Road, a devastating portrait of suburban disillusionment.
Richard Yates wrote unflinching, finely crafted fiction about the disappointments, self-deceptions, and quiet desperation of mid-twentieth-century American life, though he found little commercial success in his lifetime.
His debut novel, Revolutionary Road (1961), a searing portrait of a young suburban couple’s unraveling marriage and thwarted dreams, was a finalist for the National Book Award and is now considered a classic; it was later adapted into an acclaimed film. His story collection Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and other novels have been steadily rediscovered.
Yates is now celebrated as one of the great realists of postwar America, an unsparing chronicler of the gap between aspiration and reality.
by Richard Yates
Frank and April Wheeler have convinced themselves they are different from their suburban Connecticut neighbours — more intelligent, more alive, too good for the lives they are living. April proposes they move to Paris. Frank agrees. The plan unravels. Yates's debut novel is the most precise and merciless portrait of postwar American suburban conformity ever written.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)
by Richard Yates
The novel begins: 'Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce.' Emily and Sarah Grimes grow up in Depression-era New York and move through postwar America — marriages, jobs, affairs, children — in separate but parallel patterns of disappointment. Yates's most compressed novel and possibly his finest.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)guide
Where to start with Richard Yates — whether to begin with Revolutionary Road or The Easter Parade. A complete reading guide to the American novelist.
guide
Richard Yates's complete bibliography in order — from Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade to Disturbing the Peace. Best starting points for new readers.
Disclosure: Amazon links on this page are affiliate links. If you purchase through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.