Revolutionary Road (1961)

I finished this book on September 7 and returned it to the library weeks ago, but haven't managed to put this together until now.  


Arrrr, thar be spoilers below.


I remember seeing that there existed a Kate Winslet movie called Revolutionary Road, but didn't realize until after reading this book that it was based on this book.  Doink.  I'm very slightly amused to think that this what would have happened to Rose & Jack if Jack had survived; that is, if they were teleported 28 years into the future after the sinking of the Titanic and then lived through WWII before the events of the book.


So, funny story.  When I reached the part about April's 3rd pregnancy, I gave Sarahmac the plot summary to that point, and mentioned the rubber syringe thing.  Sarahmac then gave me a lecture (in the academic sense) about how the internal hemorrhaging mortality rate for young women dropped dramatically after Roe v. Wade because women could get abortions safely.  I said I didn't really think the story was about that, but as it turns out, that's precisely the takeaway for me, even if Richard Yates didn't intend it to be.  He is quoted as saying: 

I think I meant it more as an indictment of American life in the 1950s. Because during the Fifties there was a general lust for conformity all over this country, by no means only in the suburbs — a kind of blind, desperate clinging to safety and security at any price.

I'm somewhat conflicted as to whether the novel succeeds at this.  Frank and April openly deride the conformity of the suburbs at the beginning of the novel, but I feel we're given very little actual evidence of it in their community, and they display a kind of blind, desperate clinging to the idea that they are exceptional.  Well, maybe Frank isn't exceptional.  Maybe his talent lies in writing good marketing copy.  April simply made the mistake of falling in love with her idea of what Frank could be, rather than what he was (which she couldn't have fallen in love with).  Frank's great sin is a lack of communication with April concerning his fears of her plan to move to Europe.  This is not a lust for conformity, but an inability to accept that he can't live up to expectations.