Book Review: Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates

Title: Revolutionary Road
Author: Richard Yates
Pages: 463
Format: Paperback
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Star Rating: 5/5
Network: Goodreads | Shelfari | LibraryThing
Buy: Amazon

My Summary: April and Frank Wheeler, along with their two children, aren't really suited to suburban life in 1955 America. Frank has a job where he doesn't really have to do (much of) anything, and April was never really suited to the life of a house wife. They want something bigger, and something better. There's only one thing standing in their way....

My Review:  This book is amazing, and you should read it. This book challenged me to think about my preconceived ideas of what it must have been to live during the 1950s and I have been changed by a fascinating and skillful narrative that I will never forget. I know, finishing this story, that April and Frank Wheeler will stay with me.

Revolutionary Road is undeniably a sad book. You may feel horror, revulsion, disillusionment when reading this novel. I believe that is how Yates intended the story to be read. But if you let it, this is the kind of book that comes along so very rarely: it is a book that will take you along with it, based purely on the reality of the story and the people in it.

More after the jump! (May contain spoilers!)

Book Review: What's Eating Gilbert Grape, by Peter Hedges

Warning: What's Eating Gilbert Grape is on my favorites list. My review may be considered slightly skewed by my love for this book. Consider yourself warned.

I read What's Eating Gilbert Grape, by Peter Hedges, when I was fifteen years old and the movie had recently been released. Because I'm just that kind of person, I wanted to read the book first and then see what the movie was like. Being a huge fan of both Johnny Depp and Leonardo Dicaprio, I knew that I had to see the movie (and would ultimately be disappointed by it) so the book simply had to come first.

I loved this book right from the outset. During the period of my life when I first read What's Eating Gilbert Grape I was in love with first person narrative, and Gilbert is an excellent narrator! He has a unique perspective on life and on his off-the-wall family, from his morbidly obese mother (who is caving the floor in), to portly Amy and sixteen year-old boy-crazy Ellen: and of course, who can forget retarded Arnie, who is eighteen but wasn't supposed to live past ten?

"I just wanna see my boy turn eighteen. Is that too much to ask?" Gilbert's mother repeats these words like a mantra, driving Gilbert to distraction. All he wants is to get out of his small Iowa town and move up in the world, but he stays at home, helping to hold the last parts of his family together.

This is a book about families and relationships, about the importance of loving one another and of holding onto the things that really matter. It's a realistic look at small-town life. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a very touching and enduring book. Of all the books I've ever read, none has stayed with me the way that Peter Hedge's debut novel has.

I believe that you will love this book.

You can get your copy of What's Eating Gilbert Grape on Amazon.

Book Review: The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

I picked up The Lovely Bones on a whim, not long before the movie was released to the theaters (and I still haven't seen it). I figured that I probably ought to review the book while the title was still a popular term on Twitter and in the search engines. Truth be told, I was hoping for a traffic boost that never came (on my old blog).

Whatever my intentions for picking up and reading this book, I am very glad that I chose to read the story of Susie Salmon, a fourteen year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered by her neighbor. The story is told from Susie's point of view as she speaks from her version of Heaven, looking down on her family as they grieve her loss.

The story of The Lovely Bones is less about Susie and more about her father and her sister, both of whom suffer greatly due to her loss and struggle to uncover the mystery of the man who killed her and hid her body where it was never found.

The Lovely Bones isn't a mystery novel: that disappointed me. Right from the beginning (the first chapter) we know who the murderer is (enough that I'm comfortable putting that information in a review!). Instead, the story is about a family's redemption following the murder of a loved one. This is a subject that most families never have to think about, and it is very touching indeed.

Two months after having first read this book, I can look back and say that while I certainly enjoyed it and can recommend it to others, it isn't a book that has stayed with me. As emotional as the reading was, I don't find myself attached to any of the characters in the book, and would classify The Lovely Bones as largely unmemorable but very much worth the read!

You can get your copy of The Lovely Bones on Amazon.

Book Review: Atonement, by Ian McEwan

Atonement, by Ian McEwan, is one of those rare books that I don't like. I have observed in recent months that the more I anticipate a book, the less I seem to enjoy it when I finally have the opportunity to read it.

The story is that of Briony Tallis, who during her childhood witnesses a brief incident between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie, the son of a servant. Her young and imaginative mind make the encounter into something dirty and disastrous, and Briony lives out the rest of her life struggling to make atonement for her accusations against her sister's lover.

I didn't particularly like Ian McEwan's Atonement at first. The book progressed (for me) very slowly and I found it difficult to pick up the threads of plot that should have been holding the overall story together. When I was finished, I swore that I would never read this book (or anything else written by McEwan) again. Three months later I realized that I was wrong.

While Atonement didn't surprise me in the way that it seems to surprise other readers, it did leave me with an aching desire to know more, to go deeper, to have a greater sympathy for Robbie and Cecilia, or even Briony. Atonement left me with an ache that wouldn't go away, and told me that I would read this book again.

Atonement is incredibly slow, and the story could be told in a few paragraphs rather than 496 pages. At times the book was overwhelmingly descriptive, even repetitive. The characters (yes, all of them!) are unlikeable and perhaps too realistic as a result.

But those characters have stayed with me for a reason, and I know that I will read (and enjoy) Atonement again.

Ian McEwan has a gift in this respect: I can't stop thinking about this book. Whenever I look up and see it on my shelf, a little pang of longing goes through me: a desire to read the book and experience it again (and perhaps again). You never know, Atonement might just wind up on my "favorites" shelf!

You can get your copy of Atonement on Amazon.