This was one of the most well written books I have ever read. The plot is very concise and flows seamlessly, so Yates has a lot of room to develop the characters. Heartbreak and restlessness seep through the pages, and the reader is left with one of the most memorable endings ever.

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Beautifully written, expressive story - I love how the author describes the emotions and thoughts of the characters. However, the characters are dreary, self-involved unhappy people who look down their noses at "regular" people, all the while living in denial of their own regular-ness. The story was an interesting and sad depiction of society.

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Wow, this was a depressing book. I have not seen the movie yet but could totally picture that this book was written for Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio. I was surprised to find the book was written in 1961! The author definitely conveys the sense of despondency that these characters apparently feel.

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I started out hating this book, based on the first approximately 100 pages, but I ended up liking it after that. Yates writes well and his sardonic sense of humor had me laughing out loud at times. The main characters were unlikable and pretentious and I preferred when Yates wrote about the other people in Frank and April's sphere.

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I had a hard time getting into this book, but then all of a sudden I could not put it down. What an ending!!

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I have to admit that the only reason I finally picked up this book was because I caught the last 30 minuets or so of the movie on TV and was intrigued. Then I learned that it was a book and so I decided to read the book before I watched the whole movie. I still have yet to see the whole movie, but based on what I saw the book is better than the movie and I thought what I saw was pretty good!

I'm really not 100% sure why I liked this book so much. I didn't like Frank, and I despised April. They just weren't good people. They both seemed to be a bit self-centered and not quite "grown-up". So how I enjoyed a book so much when I didn't like the main characters is a mystery to me. I thought that they both needed a big dose of reality and that the world needed to knock them down a bit. But the supporting characters were pretty good. And the overall character development was great. It would have been a lot harder to despise them if I'd not had such a good understanding of them!

The writing in this book was great. I could picture everything in my mind as I was reading. At the beginning of the book I saw Leonardo and Kate as Frank and April, but as I continued to read the image I had of them in my mind changed so much. That was really impressive to me. When I read a book after I've already seen the movie I tend to use the actor's and actresses in my mental image of the book. I don't know if it was more attributed to the fact that I've only seen part of the movie or the fact that the writing in this book was really good and over-rode my natural tendency to rely on images I already have. Either way it was refreshing to read a book without picturing the actors that were in the movie.

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ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS I HAVE EVER READ!

Richard Yates is brillant.

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I saw the movie before I read this book. One problem I had with the movie was - I wanted to know what the characters were thinking and what their inner dialogue would be. I purchased the book with that hope, and it delivered. It helped lend insight into the characters' actions in the film. It is a quick read, and a really helpful compliment to the movie.

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