Book Review: Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road
The Richard Yates back-story has passed into popular literary legend: the acclaimed author who never sold more than 12,000 copies per hardback, and whose works were largely out of print before being rediscovered posthumously and enjoying a revival. For a Yates novice such as myself this might seem a [...]
The road to perdition
March 22nd, 2009 · 6 Comments · Fiction
Tags:1950s·1950s America·abortion·April Wheeler·conformity·Frank Wheeler·Leonardo DiCaprio·marriage·masculinity·Richard Ford·Sam Mendes·suburbia
John Updike - Rabbit, Run
August 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Fiction
“He’ll get by without his rabbit pie … run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run”
9/10
‘Rabbit, Run‘ is the first in a quartet of novels by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist that revolve around the varying fortunes of a former high school Basketball champion Rabbit Angstrom. All four novels were written at the end of the a [...]
Tags:1950s·1950s America·basketball·Death·John Updike·pregnancy·Rabbit Angstrom·small town America·society·USA
Far From Heaven - Todd Haynes
May 19th, 2008 · No Comments · Film
Smoke and mirrors
9/10
Todd Haynes’ 2002 film ‘Far From Heaven‘ was a masterpiece of subtle subversion that paid homage to the richly coloured 1950s film style (and specifically the ‘women’s pictures’ of Douglas Sirk and his contemporaries). What could have been hollow pastiche is in fact a thoughtful and moving examination of US social [...]
Tags:1950s·America·black·civil rights·Dennis Haysbert·Dennis Quaid·Douglas Sirk·gay·hypocrisy·Julianne Moore·melodrama·Patricia Clarkson·Race·sex·technicolour·Todd Haynes·USA·Viola Davis