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Book Review of Revolutionary Road (Vintage Contemporaries)

Revolutionary Road (Vintage Contemporaries)
Leigh avatar reviewed on + 378 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 10


This is a deeply disturbing, unsentimental, unsparing portrait of a married couple. No cliches, just brutal honesty--so brutal that it's hard to read. Great writing, but not showy, and amazing pyschological insights into the characters. You're often both repelled by and empathize with the husband and wife at the center of the story.

The story itself is rather simple: a domestic drama about April and Frank Wheeler and their kids, set in the 1950s, dealing with jobs, friends, children, and their dreams for the future. The book paints a bleak picture about the choices they make and their fading idealism. Although it was written in '61 and describes the '50s, it still feels fresh.

File this one under "Domestic Holocaust".