Set in 1955 and originally published in 1961, the book was adapted into a movie in 2009. However, its beauty and intelligence can’t be portrayed on film because they arise from the narrative techniques, not the plot or the dialogue. Yates is a master of point-of-view, using limited third-person, speculative, roaming and omniscient to tell the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a couple whose marriage is falling apart. While April is intensely and fully-realized with the most minimal of strokes, Frank is explored in detail, a complex man whose inner world is vastly more sympathetic than his observed weakness and foolishness. Simultaneously personal fiction and grand cultural indictment, like The Great Gatsby, Revolutionary Road is a masterpiece that manages to be both very much of its time and endure across the decades.
