Revolutionary Road: Depressing, but still a great commentary on modern life

I read this on my Kindle -
purchased through Amazon.

I chose Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates as the first book to tackle in my 40-by-40 goal to read Time's 100 best English-language novels. I had already read 14 of the novels when I decided to embark on this list, so Revolutionary Road marks No. 15 complete.

The book focuses on Alice and Frank Wheeler's life on – where else – Revolutionary Road, in a new development filled with "great hulking split levels." It is, as Richard Lacayo says in his reasoning for choosing this book for the Time list, an "account of lethal disappointment in the Connecticut suburbs in 1955."

The author explained in a 1972 interview (as noted on Wikipedia): "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."


And he illustrates this whole-heartedly through his main characters. Here's a passage from the book that defines the main character Frank Wheeler's sad mindset:

"Wasn't it true, then, that everything in his life from that point on had been a succession of things he hadn't really wanted to do? Taking a hopelessly dull job to prove he could be as responsible as any other family man, moving to an overpriced, genteel apartment to prove his mature belief in the fundamentals of orderliness and good health, having another child to prove that the first one hadn't been a mistake, buying a house in the country because that was the next logical step and had to prove himself capable of taking it."

I enjoyed the book because of its well-done examination of the life that people often fall into as they grow older, putting aside or changing their plans to accommodate children, a job, and any other number of responsibilities that can change a life's course. The Wheelers do attempt to break out of their rut, but only prove how difficult that can be to do. Though depressing in the end and even tiresome in spots, the book provided food for thought on how to balance my life as I take on more responsibilities of adult life.

It could be that the rising average age of first marriages mitigates some of the challenges/depressing circumstances faced by the 1950s characters in this book. For example, I'm 32, married for just under two years, and have already done many of the things that I wanted to as an individual, such as the Peace Corps. But I still found myself understanding what the author was portraying, as he delved so deeply into the questions we all ask ourselves as we move forward in life, so the book certainly holds relevance today.  But I didn't take the messages too seriously and instead determined to just take a broad message from the book that people should strive to live and not just be, if that makes any sense.

I found mixed reviews of this book online, but I'm inclined to agree with one of the composers of Time's 100 Best Novels that this is a book that everyone should pick up.

Has anyone else read this book? What did you think?

Side note: Revolutionary Road was made into a movie in 2008, starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. I have not seen the film so I cannot say whether it followed the book closely.

I'm now reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, published in 2002.