Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road is a novel written by Richard Yates. Released in 1961, it is Yates' debut novel and tells of a marriage in America.

Characters[]

Frank Wheeler - a vain pseudointellectual
April Wheeler - Frank's wife, a depressed and somewhat snobbish woman
Shep Campbell
Maureen Grube - a woman that Frank works with
Mrs. Helen Givings - a real-estate broker
Mr. Givings
Milly Campbell - Shep's wife

rest to be added

Publisher's summary[]

In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be a model American couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too young and started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is now about to crumble. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

Plot[]

Part One[]

Chapter One[]

In the suburbs of a city in the west of Connecticut in the spring of 1955, a newly-established theater company by the name of the "Laurel Players" has begun a performance of The Petrified Forest. Though the performers pretend that the performance will be perfect, they all know that this will be a lie. The only member of the troupe with any actual experience is the leading lady (one April Wheeler, the wife of Frank Wheeler). On the day of the performance, the leading man is so sick with the flu that the director has to take his part - and plays horribly. This throws off everyone else (including April) and most of the audience is unhappy with the performance, though a real-estate broker named Helen Givings says the performance is "very nice" during the encores.

Chapter Two[]

While leaving the play, Frank speaks to the Campbells (who were also in the Laurel Players) and promises to meet with them for a drink later. Once he reveals this to his wife, April tells him to make an excuse for why they can't go. Though Frank tries to convince April to go out with the Campbells, he eventually relents and tells them that they need to go home because of their babysitter.

While walking outside with April, Frank thinks about a humiliating incident from his time at high school and from April's childhood. Once in his car, Frank thinks over his young adulthood - which he spent at Columbia and in an apartment on Bethune Street after leaving the army. While on Bethune Street, Frank met Abby at a party and began dating her a week later. After finishing these ruminations, Frank tries to console April but she only wants quiet. When Frank tries to hug April, she gets out of the car and runs into the road. Though Frank worries that his wife plans to kill herself and runs after her. Once he catches up to April, the two of them start arguing - with their argument nearly turning violent (though it ends with Frank punching the roof of his car) before the two of them drive home.

While driving home, the couple drives past the titular Revolutionary Road and are reminded of when they were shown around the "tasteless" homes on the Road by Helen Givings before buying their home two years ago. Once home, Frank gets into bed and waits for April to get in for several minutes before finding her on the living room sofa.

Chapter Three[]

Frank wakes up to find that he is very hungover from drinking throughout the night and that April is doing the lawn - something he promised to last weekend. While looking at an injury on his hand from last night, Frank thinks over his relationship with his dead father and the vague details that April has told him about her childhood (which is that she was orphaned as a child and was raised by various aunts).

While Frank works on building a stone path around the house, Mrs. Givings arrives to drop off a sedum plant. The two talk about the play (with Helen being very supportive while Frank, annoyed that Helen saw his wife doing the lawn, is more cynical). Helen then leaves Frank with the sedum, which he throws into the basement after discussing the vaguely-remembered directions Helen gave him to take care of the plant with April and his children.

Once he has eaten lunch, Frank begins taking stones from a wooded area behind his house using a shovel. As he removes stones, he is watched by his two children, Jennifer and Michael. The two children try to find out why their mother slept on the couch last night but Frank gives them a somewhat flimsy excuse. While trying to cut a tree root with his shovel, Frank thinks that Michael has put his foot too close to the shovel and begins spanking him. Michael and Jennifer then run away while crying, leaving Frank to justify what he thinks happened to his wife.

Chapter Four[]

On the next day (a Sunday), April goes alone to the second performance of The Petrified Forest while Frank stays at home. While at home, he reads from a Times Magazine and thinks about a woman from his office named Maurice Grube. Once April returns home and begins doing the dishes, Frank tries to console April while holding her elbows but she rebukes him. Frank then begins to read the funnies to his children but finds it tedious.

That night, the Wheelers are visited by the Campbells. Frank looks forwards to this visit as his wife will have to hide her anger in front of their guests. Once the Campbells arrive, they begin talking about suburban topics but soon realize that they have almost nothing to really talk about. During their previous meetings, the four talked at length about politics and how they were separate from everyone else in suburbia (who they believed were better than everyone else in suburbia) and it was these meetings that convinced the Wheelers to join into the Laurel Players. While discussing the sedum plant that the Givings gave them, Frank and April learn that the Givings' son was committed to a mental asylum after holding his parents hostage for several days. This leads Frank to give a speech on psychiatry and then (while briefly retiring to the kitchen to get drinks for everyone) remember that his thirtieth birthday is coming up. As such, Frank recounts a story of a birthday he spent on the battlefield but remembers that he told the story last year while recounting it. When he finishes, he sees his wife giving him a stare of pitying boredom and thinks about it for days afterwards.

Chapter Five[]

As a child of the early 1930s, Frank was invited by his father to visit his workplace - the extremely imposing Knox Building in New York City. There, Frank was introduced to his father's boss (who had the amusing name of Oat Fields) and was disgusted by how his father flattered his boss. Unbeknownst to Frank, his father had learned that he was not going to get a promotion he wanted - which started Earl Wheeler's decline. Several years later, Frank took a job at that same building as he sought an extremely boring job that wouldn't become enmeshed with his own identity.

It is the Monday after April's performance. While walking into work, Frank is greeted by Maureen Grube. This leads Frank to think about starting an affair with Maureen (thinking that he has been tempted for a while and most likely due to the bad mood that April has been in). Before he does so, Frank slinks over to his desk and listens to his coworker Jack Ordway talk about the resentful heiress he is married to before looking over the papers that were left on his desk. While doing so, Frank finds a letter from Toledo asking him to rewrite a poorly-worded pamphlet from Toledo. Though this could be a pivotal moment in Frank's career, all he can think about is his more base desires. As such, he visits Maureen to get her to find some files for him. Once he has done this, Frank thinks up a plan to take Maureen to lunch with him. Before doing so, he blows off Jack's offer to go lunch with him and some other work friends. While taking Maureen to lunch, Frank briefly worries about his coworkers seeing him but, once they are outside, he becomes carefree about the whole thing.

Chapters Six and Seven[]

After calling Maureen's boss and saying that she will be busy for the rest of the day, Frank drinks with Maureen and wows her by talking about philosophy and politics. Frank then follows Maureen to her apartment - where she lives with an older roommate named Norma. Once inside, the two "perform" in the nude before Frank leaves for home in a train. Once at home, Frank is greeted by his wife and brought into the kitchen so that she and her children can sing Happy Birthday to him.

Once the children are asleep, Frank and April are left alone. Though Frank feels guilty about sleeping with another woman, he decides not to reveal this to his wife while taking a cold shower. Once he is out of the shower, the two slide into bed and April reveals that she wants to move the family to Paris and have a job while Frank finds himself. Though Frank is threatened by the idea of a change in their lifestyle and doesn't want to move, he somewhat agrees with her to not disappoint her. As such, April says that she will plan the move in the morning.

Part Two[]

to be added

Sources[]

Wikipedia
Goodreads

Title	Author	Release date	Significance
The Moviegoer	Walker Percy	1961	A novel with similar themes which was a finalist for the National Book Award alongside this novel
Rabbit, Run	John Updike	1960	A novel with similar themes
Catch-22	Joseph Heller	1961	A novel which was a finalist for the National Book Award alongside this novel
Bullet Park	John Cheever	1967	Another suburban novel with similar themes
American Pastoral	Philip Roth	1997	A novel with somewhat similar themes
A Home at the End of the World	Michael Cunningham	1990	An urban novel with similar themes
The Sportswriter	Richard Ford	1986	A novel with similar themes
Franny and Zooey	J.D. Salinger	1961	A book which was a finalist for the National Book Award alongside this novel
The Corrections	Jonathan Franzen	2001	A novel with somewhat similar themes