Helpful Score: 5
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.
Helpful Score: 4
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.
Helpful Score: 1
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.
Helpful Score: 1
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.
Helpful Score: 1
hated it. but depressing books just aren't up my alley. I found it predictable and whiny.
Helpful Score: 1
I had a hard time getting into this book, but then all of a sudden I could not put it down. What an ending!!
ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS I HAVE EVER READ!
Richard Yates is brillant.
Richard Yates is brillant.
This book is wonderfully written... almost wonderfully enough to keep you interested but not quite. I love what I call 'quiet tragedies' but this one is just a little too stale. Add that to the fact that I saw the movie several months ago (and although slightly boring it only took a couple hours to endure) and the book goes along quite well with the movie so there were no suprises. Its not the worst book ever written but its not one you can read all at one time at a risk of being bored or depressed into a stupor.
I could not get interested in this book.
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.
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.
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.
Worst book I ever read. I finished it because I kept hoping it would get better but it never did.
This book was wonderful. The characters were well written and you became sorry for both Frank and April. The saddness that these characters felt with their own lives were evident throughout the pages. I could not put it down!!! I can't wait to see the movie.
Probably would have liked the book better if I hadn't known what was coming because I watched the movie first. Adequate.
Good book - took a while to get into it...a little bit depressing while reading.
You are praying for this book and this terrible relationship to end. It's like watching a couple self-destruct in slow motion. Very painful.
Excellent writing
Ok book, slow reading in spots. Not the best book I have read. Really did not get the point of the story.
This book was weird. A little to let's look in our navel. It had some interesting observations about life in the 50s, but with the amount of time spend in the heads of the characters, I don't feel like I really understand anything about them.
Frank is a jerk, who thinks he is more than what he is. April is a broken woman who needs some psycho therapy. Their so-called friends are wanna bees. I think the most true character in the book is Ms. Givens. She is herself and doesn't make excuses for it.
I didn't "get" the point of the story. What gives?
Frank is a jerk, who thinks he is more than what he is. April is a broken woman who needs some psycho therapy. Their so-called friends are wanna bees. I think the most true character in the book is Ms. Givens. She is herself and doesn't make excuses for it.
I didn't "get" the point of the story. What gives?
What a total waste of ink. This book was about as exciting as a bowl of vanilla pudding, full of whiny, angst-ridden, self-centered, incredibly shallow characters mired in mid-1950s suburbia blandness. Pah. Ptui.
I just could not get into this book.
The book description sounded interesting, but I could not get into it. I wanted to see the movie, but decided to read the book first. If not for the movie, I would have put the book down. One of the main characters, Frank, is selfish and narcisistic. He is unfaithful to his wife many times and ends up breaking his last mistress' heart. I felt sorry for Alice, but then in the end, didn't feel too sorry for her as she ended up being almost as bad as Frank. She comes to the conclusion that she never loved him and she spends an evening in the back of a car with a man. Frank and Alice have a couple that they are good friends with (not really, but it is the couple they hang out with the most) and this is the man she has sex with in the car. His name is Shep. Shep decided a while ago that he worships Alice from afar...
The book also throughs in a couple that lives next door to Frank and Alice, Mr. & Mrs. Givings, who have a son who is committed to a sanitarium from time to time. Alice can't stand Mrs. givings, neither can Frank. this whole twiest to the story doesn't make sense and doesn't add much ro it, other than to help Frank think that Alice is possibly off her rocker herself, but doesn't get into that idea much...
Alice almost aborted her first child herself. A friend told her how to do it. Frank was so upset that she would even suggest doing this to their child. Alice wanted to end the child's life since she conceieved accidently too soon in their marriage. She ends up wanting to do the same thing to the third child. She had concocted a plan for their family to move to Europe and this fouled up their future. Frank still doesn't want her to abort the child, expecially herself. The safe window to do this is the first trimester. Frank ends up telling Alice about his most serious fling with Maureen. Alice told him he never should have said a thing. She tells him that she never loved him. While their two children are in the care of Milly, Alice performs the procedure (which is now past the supposed safety zone) on herself. She wrote a note to her husband, short one, in case she wouldn't survive. Of course, she doesn't. Bu she his the equipment so it looked like a miscarriage.
In the end, his wife Milly gossips to every new person, especially the ones who buy Frank and Alice's home, about Alice's death. Shep can't stand it when she does this.
I just had to read the book to get to the end. I don't think I'll go see the movie. I was so disappointed. I don't understand all the rage about the book or the movie. I have trouble with people who are in love with themselves and put themselves above others. I don't see how I can go watch the movie.
I wouldn't waste my time reading this book or seeing the movie if I were you.
The book also throughs in a couple that lives next door to Frank and Alice, Mr. & Mrs. Givings, who have a son who is committed to a sanitarium from time to time. Alice can't stand Mrs. givings, neither can Frank. this whole twiest to the story doesn't make sense and doesn't add much ro it, other than to help Frank think that Alice is possibly off her rocker herself, but doesn't get into that idea much...
Alice almost aborted her first child herself. A friend told her how to do it. Frank was so upset that she would even suggest doing this to their child. Alice wanted to end the child's life since she conceieved accidently too soon in their marriage. She ends up wanting to do the same thing to the third child. She had concocted a plan for their family to move to Europe and this fouled up their future. Frank still doesn't want her to abort the child, expecially herself. The safe window to do this is the first trimester. Frank ends up telling Alice about his most serious fling with Maureen. Alice told him he never should have said a thing. She tells him that she never loved him. While their two children are in the care of Milly, Alice performs the procedure (which is now past the supposed safety zone) on herself. She wrote a note to her husband, short one, in case she wouldn't survive. Of course, she doesn't. Bu she his the equipment so it looked like a miscarriage.
In the end, his wife Milly gossips to every new person, especially the ones who buy Frank and Alice's home, about Alice's death. Shep can't stand it when she does this.
I just had to read the book to get to the end. I don't think I'll go see the movie. I was so disappointed. I don't understand all the rage about the book or the movie. I have trouble with people who are in love with themselves and put themselves above others. I don't see how I can go watch the movie.
I wouldn't waste my time reading this book or seeing the movie if I were you.
