Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

I had mixed feelings about this book, which is highly acclaimed - Kurt Vonnegut says it's "The Great Gatsby of my time...One of the best books by a member of my generation." Possibly because I am not of that generation, I didn't feel the same about it.

It was a bit depressing. Frank and April Wheeler seemed like any ordinary couple, going through marriage and children and life just like any other couple. He worked while she raised the kids. They both lived their lives as they felt they should, compared to society, but were always waiting for the next thing, something new and exciting around the corner.

"Sometimes there was a glint of humor in these embraces of the eye: I know I'm showing off, they seemed to say, but so are you, and I love you...And what did it matter? The very substance of their talk, after all, the message and the rhyme of it, whatever else they might be saying, was that they were going to be new and better people from now on." (pg 133)

Oh, and they both had a major downfall that really didn't allow their relationship to work well: he's a very angry man who would go ballistic, and she's so insecure she looks for assurance in everything.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Ultimately it lead to her demise. While they cheated on each other, planned to move abroad and start life anew, their current life and an unwanted pregnancy set them too far off track to recover, and April committed suicide. What a sad, sad ending. I really wasn't sure what to expect, and although I saw it coming toward the end, I was still surprised it ended that way.