Hurry and read this book before the movie comes out!
I loved this book for a number of reasons. Who knew that there was so much of this type of thinking in the fifties? I think the main characters might have been the first hippies if they followed their initial instincts - but they didn't. This is a disturbing novel - a lot goes wrong for all these people. This is also probably the booziest novel I've ever read.
My dad worked for IBM for his entire career, beginning in the early sixties (somewhat after the time in which this novel occurs) so I felt a little voyeuristic reading this. But I can't imagine his IBM, and the people he worked with, were like the people in this book. But then again, to quote Cheap Trick:
Then I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling
Got my Kiss records out
I recommended the book to my dad and he read it and enjoyed it, but pointed out that it wasn't like that for him. Here is a quote from an email from my dad after he had read the first fifty pages:
>>I just walked in here to send you a note of how awed I am having read the
first fifty pages or so of "Revolutionary Road," plus Ford's prolog that
describes the plot and suggests the meanings of the book. Wow. And I
start thinking, after Ford's descriptions and your queuing this up as being
something like my own life, this can't be me, and us. And it isn't, so far
anyway. We were so happy, and scared, when we learned that Marlee was
pregnant with you .. with me jobless and full time in grad school, and
here making $300-something or less in a huge insurance office, and both of
us little more than big children ourselves .. nothing like the
self-absorbed Wheeler parents. But I was reminded of my relationship with
my Dad and I am sure there's lots more connections to come. This is
marvelous writing and I am so glad you put me on to it.<<
Okay, for those of you with long attention spans I'll quote my dad's email after he finished the novel:
>>"Revolutionary Road" was a wonderful experience. He was a master at
flicking back and forth to what characters were saying and what they were
thinking at the time, seamless. He was talking about IBM, for sure, but he
had it quite wrong. My stay began just after the heyday of punched card,
wired board systems and right at the start of commercial computer usage by
business. He was right about the mystical aura of 'headquarters' and the
managers there, whether it was a district, region a or corporate setting.
But at IBM in my on-the- street days (1963-1969, 1973-1993) there were no
people doing the "no work" jobs that the novel's hero described. I did see
some of that in the staff workers, which is what turned me off and got me
to threaten to leave if they didn't let me back on the street. The "old
boy" ambiance was real. In my first branch office there were two women
SEs and zero salespersons or managers. IBM worked very hard to change
that throughout my life and the balance seemed pretty good to me by the
end; males still outnumbered females in the sales ranks by 2-to1 but the
SEs were closer and the managers were about equal. Of the 35 or so
managers that I worked for in IBM, two of the top four, by my view, were
women.
The drinking at work never happened at IBM. As at Notre Dame, you got
caught having a drink , you're gone. IBM loosened that to the point by the
1990s that you could have a drink with a customer at lunch if they
initiated the action but you were obliged to go directly home afterward
and could not return to their office or yours. Some few people did ignore
the rule, but they were very, very rare.
The snobbery towards the intellectual sterility was a hot topic in print at
the time. But I never felt that way in our home. I thought we were
surrounded by people with common goals, focussed on raising good kids,
largely Catholic but including other mainstream religions too, though not
much on our block, and answering the bell every day to go to work and do
your best. We were short on intellectual discussions but after the kid and
work thing, there really wasn't a lot of time or energy left to pursue
knowledge or seek inner growth. Maybe there should have been, but once you
start having kids, for most people that stuff is over. C'est le vie.
So thanks for turning me on to this book and I will pursue his work and
Ford's as well.<<
So there you go - right from the horse's mouth.
I am looking forward to the movie. I didn't now about the movie when I read this book (about a year ago) and while reading it I sort of had a mental image of Russell Crowe as Frank. It will be interesting to see Leonardo DiCaprio in that roll. I think Kathy Bates as Helen is absolutely brilliant! I can not wait.
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Reviews with images
The movie certainly didn't do this book justice
DaVinCat Book Review: I went into this book with relatively low expectations, having seen the movie first and getting pretty bored by it. I should have known better! The book was so much better. There was so much more depth to the characters and their emotions, but isn’t that always the case? The plot centers around Frank Wheeler; his job in the city and his picturesque family in the suburbs and as anybody who grew up in the suburbs can tell you, things are not always as they seem on the outside, though I’m sure that’s the case for many things.There are times when the novel slows down a little bit, but to me that added to the depth of Frank’s character and his narcissism. There were also a few times when I had to make sure that I wasn’t actually reading “Mad Men: The Novel” because of the eerie similarities. They just both show similar representations of the time period, which makes them reminiscent of each other.Overall, this book was a good read. It kept me entertained. Yates did an incredible job of painting a picture of the Wheeler family and their life. If you saw the movie, and thought it was boring, please give the book a try! It is well worth the time and a much more involved story than the movie could portray.
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Kenzo Suzuki
A Amazon poderia ter mais cuidado na entrega.
Reviewed in Brazil on January 26, 2022
Kenzo Suzuki
Reviewed in Brazil on January 26, 2022
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