Finished: Revolutionary Road (Yates). Good, but haunting book. A very well-written book about a young, married couple with two young children, living in the suburbs in the 1950's. They have everything in the world that most people back then could want, but they are terribly unhappy. As it turns out, neither of them are doing what they truly wanted to be doing having been saddled down with a surprise pregnancy, rushed marriage, a mundane job for the husband, stay-at-home life for the wife, and now the life that everyone else seems to live instead of the excitement of going and becoming what they truly wanted to be. Of course, neither of them ever explains what that is that they so desperately wanted to be. They are both pretty selfish, but honest, and devoid of that unconditional parental love I think. The book is so descriptively written that I can truly picture those 1950's times. Something as simple as describing how the annoying real estate agent, Mrs. Givings, can't relax and let her husband drive. She constantly jams her foot down on the passenger side floor and throws her arm out...as if that would control the car! I can SO remember my mom doing this to my dad when we were little. Of course, it was accompanied by a panicked "Dave!". That's probably, actually a timeless institution still going on around the world to this day. :-)

Anyway, in the movie version, Frank and April Wheeler were played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet...an acting couple who I really love. This is one of those instances when I truly wish I hadn't seen the movie before reading the book; not because I knew what was going to happen...but because I couldn't get Kate and Leo out of my heads! I could even hear their voices saying all the lines. There were no surprises in the book, as the movie stayed pretty true to it. I have the same feeling of non-pity and confusion after reading the book as I did after seeing the movie. OK, getting married and having kids and living that life isn't for everyone, but that was the decision they made. Did they have to wallow around in self-pity and think that their lives were so loathsome that it was worth taking horribly desperate measures to change things? Honestly, there wasn't a mothering bone in April Wheeler's body to do what she did...not just the failed self-abortion attempt...but not thinking about the ramifications that her actions would have on her children. Not to  mention her cockamamie idea of uprooting her children and moving them to France before she found out she was pregnant for the third time. That was the only time in the book she seemed to see a bright future...but then that was shattered for her when she realized Frank wouldn't be able to up and quit her job with her pregnant.

At times it seemed like the only sane person was Mr. and Mrs. Givings' son John...but wait...he was a schizophrenic who lived in a mental institution who got to go on outings with his parents occasionally. But, he certainly called the Wheelers out on their truths and lies. He could see right through them! I did like Frank and April's best friends, the Campbells, Shep and Millie...but probably because that is more how I imagined "normal" to be back then. Normal was definitely not the Wheelers...at least I hope it wasn't! I hope my parents never felt about me the way the Wheelers felt about their kids. I don't think they did.

I'm really glad I read the book...it was one I asked for for Christmas. :-) And, as I said, it was truly well written and very descriptive, evoking powerful images or every day details that I can remember from my childhood at times. I'm just thinking that I need a more uplifting book or maybe a thriller of some sort next.