Book #14: Revolutionary Road

Title: Revolutionary Road
Author: Richard Yates

Like most of you, we saw preview after preview for Revolutionary Road at the movies last fall. Each time we saw it, Eddie would turn to me and say, "That movie looks so depressing. You couldn't pay me to go see it." (And this from the man who secretly adored Titanic). But I was intrigued by the story, and one of these nights, when Eddie's on call, I'm sure I'll watch the movie by myself.

Maybe Eddie would really like the movie, though. He loves the character of Betty Draper on AMC's Mad Men, loved the scene last season when a character on the show called her "so profoundly sad." In Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler is also profoundly sad. She hates that she gave up a life in New York City for a neat a suburban prison too perfect to complain about (so did Betty). She hates that she's unable to break back into acting after quitting to stay home with her kids (Betty tried to get back into modeling). She hates that her equally unhappy husband gets to escape into the city day after day (so does Betty), where he has affair with his secretary (so does Betty's husband). And she really, really hates it when she finds out that she's pregnant with a third child she doesn't want (Betty does too). Do you think the writers at Mad Men are guilty of a little character stealing (RR was written in 1962)? Regardless of the similarities, both Revolutionary Road and Mad Men highlight the hollow promises of the suburbs and of the 1950-1960s ideals, and both, quite frankly scare the crap out of me that I might fall into the same trap that Betty and April find themselves.