Yates

Tea or Books? #74: YA (yay or nay?) and Stoner vs The Easter Parade

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , , 10 Comments

Young Adult fiction – are we fans? And Richard Yates vs John Williams.


 
In the first half of this episode, we venture into potentially controversial territory as we discuss young adult (YA) fiction, and whether or not we think it should be in our reading diet. In the second half, we pit two mid-century American novels against each other: Stoner by John Williams and The Easter Parade by Richard Yates.

Do let us know what you’d choose! The article about Stoner that I mention is on Victoria’s blog here.

Get in touch if you have any thoughts for future episodes, and we always appreciate rating and reviewing through your podcast app of choice. You can see us on iTunes, and can support the podcast through Patreon.

Books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Gil North
Dickens by Osbert Sitwell
Mrs Tim Carries On by D.E. Stevenson
Diana Tempest by Mary Cholmondeley
Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley
Point Horror
Sweet Valley High
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Thomas Hardy
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Anne of Green Gables
The Easter Party by Vita Sackville-West
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Young Hearts Crying by Richard Yates
Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes

The Easter Parade by Richard Yates (25 Books in 25 Days #1)

StuckinaBook All , , 16 Comments

Last year I did a reading project – 25 Books in 25 Days (starting here), and I knew that I’d want to repeat it at some point in 2019. I kept looking at possible novellas to read (ideally ones with names in the title, of course), and finally decided: why am I putting it off?

And so I’ve taken the plunge today. The first of my 25 books has been read! And, as with last year, I have inspired by Madame Bibi Lophile‘s Novella A Day in May project, which is drawing to a close.

Every day, I’ll give a very quick intro to the book, where and why I got hold of it, and a quote. The posts won’t really be reviews, as they’ll almost certainly be too short for that – but let’s see how it goes!

*

Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents’ divorce. That happened in 1930, when Sarah was nine years old and Emily five. Their mother, who encouraged both girls to call her ‘Pookie,’ took them out of New York to a rented house in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she thought the schools would be better and where she hoped to launch a career in suburban real estate. It didn’t work out – very few of her plans for independence ever did – and they left Tenafly after two years, but it was a memorable time for the girls.

That’s the opening paragraph of The Easter Parade, and those first words set you up for what is likely to be a melancholy read. And, yes, Emily and Sarah don’t have happy lives – but the way Yates writes the novel is so captivating that it doesn’t feel miserable. We watch as they grow up – Sarah settles into domesticity, while Emily is keen for education, career, and the right man. And she gets instead, of course, a series of wrong men – though each relationship is delineated so carefully and with such realism that we swoop through the hopes and disappointments with her each time. The Easter parade of the title is a snapshot taken at a moment when it looks like the future will be bright.

I read Revolutionary Road during my Masters and thought it was brilliant – I bought this in 2011, but had yet to read another Yates since 2009. Thank goodness I did – what a wonderful and observant writer. Perhaps it would have made more sense to read this one gradually, to join more steadily in these advancing and unfortunate lives, but it was such a page turner that I’m not sure I could have put it down for long anyway.

Off to a good start! And more on this one in the next episode of ‘Tea or Books?’

The Road to Revolution

StuckinaBook All , 2 Comments

I mentioned that I’d read Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road last week, for part of my Masters course, and Lucy added in the comments that a film is coming out – which probably means the novel (complete with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the cover, no doubt) will be rocketing up bestseller lists again. Well, whatever small amount my influence can do will, I hope, give the book a start on its way.

Published in the early 1960s, Revolutionary Road was successful in some respects, but widespread popularity doesn’t seem to have been one of them, at least not for very long – Yates’ is now described as a ‘writer’s writer’, whatever that means. Has to be a good thing, one assumes. Revolutionary Road tells the story of Frank and April Wheeler, idealists who live in non-ideal suburbia. The novel opens with a play in which April plays the lead – and it is an unmitigated failure. So (watch out for the simple transferral of allegory) is April’s performance as a housewife; so is her performance as a latent revolutionary. The Wheelers dream of better things, and think they are hiding their gold amongst dross – but the credentials of that gold come under question when April decides to put their long-held plans into action.

Revolutionary Road is unmistakably American, and I don’t know why. It’s not just the “Geez, baby”s that crop up from time to time, but… well, I just don’t know. The American Dream in the background, perhaps. The striving for an achievement, even when that achievement is impossible – striving where the English would have cynically given up and put on a pot of tea.

Similarly, I don’t know why this novel is so good. All the usual – writing that grabs you, situations which need resolution, a subtle wit throughout – though undeniably sad, too. As I was reading (and before I knew that the Titanic co-stars would be reuniting) I kept thinking the book would make an excellent film – the plot is so event-led. Lots of emotions on the surface, or lots of surface emotions anyway. Kate Winslet rarely does a bad film, and never turns in a bad performance, so I’m quite excited at the prospect of seeing this one on the silver screen. Hopefully Yates will become a readers’ writer.