Updike's men in skirts.

So another attempt to find a compatible, intelligent, attractive and above all well read man is tonight. To be honest I keep wavering between nerves and sickening indifference at the idea. I rather think the aborted attempt to meet the smoking loser for coffee yesterday has put me off. But I am not going to let my nerves and bad luck stop me, I am going to do all the usual pre-date prep and then saunter out bravely and hope for the best. At least this one claims to have read a lot of books so really how bad can it be?

I am going through a John Updike phase and have purchased not only 'The Witches of Eastwick' but also 'The Maples Stories' and 'Marry Me'. I am avoiding his Rabbit series as a long time ago I borrowed the first one from my ex but was unable to finish it as I had to return it when we split and rather soured to the poor book as a result. Besides it really wasn't anywhere near as good as some of his others. So far am a little disappointed by the witches... it just doesn't pack the punch I thought it would, and I don't feel he has properly written the three female leads. He is entirely capable of writing women well, but to my mind they never come across as real women and always remain, no matter how interestingly conceived, as women as seen through the eyes of a man. I don't think this is because he has written the women as the sort of strong and hard drinking, promiscuous characters he also writes his men as, for Richard Yates did the same with his women and yet they always seemed very female, as did the women in 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf' who of course were also penned by a man. But somehow Updike's women always come across as men posing as women or worse they are just a shade too shrill and nagging to be quite accurate.

From Richard Yates to Lionel Shriver.

I firmly and without a shadow of a doubt believe Richard Yates to be one of the most skilled authors I have ever read. His novels paint pictures in your mind so finely tuned that afterwards the plots and characters feel more like memories you have lived through than mere words on a page. He wrote with a precision all too rarely seen and with not one superfluous word in hundreds of pages of text. He evoked such raw and tender feelings within one and seemed to understand his characters so perfectly and absolutely, with no holds barred. No character was perfect, and all were endowed the most human of flaws. It was not until I read the novels of Lionel Shriver that I felt Richard Yates' legacy had been continued.

Lionel Shriver's work, since the day I first turned the pages of her greatest novel 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' has strongly reminded me of Yates. To my mind she is the female, modern equivolent of the ultimate writers' writer. So it was with a rather smug feeling, as though I had proved my great insight into matters literary, that I heard her on the radio a few days ago naming Yates' 'Revolutionary Road' as her favourite book. 

When I said Shriver carried on the style of Yates I mean it only in the very purest sense. Their characters and plots are nothing alike, nor the settings or the ideas. However, the same tone emanates through the books of both and the same precision over the choice and placement of words. They are both pitch perfect with their characters and unflinching in depicting them in all their unflattering truth. One would never dream of living in a book by either in the same way that one might fantasise about living in the pages of 'Pride and Prejudice'.

'We Need to Talk About Kevin' is a magnum opus of a book, a complete and utter masterpiece. Shriver had written several books and been a writer for decades before it was published but it proved to be her breakthrough. If I were to tell the uninitiated that it is about a teenage boy who massacres several of his classmates then I make it sound like a trashy novel, but nothing could be further from the truth. The book is not the least bit sensational and is rather a character piece about the mother of the boy, her life and her relationship with her son. A wonderfully full and masterful book which succeeds in painting the picture of a woman, not merely a mother, a complicated individual and one who without intentional bias and with stark truths addresses her life.

Sadly Shriver's 'The Post-Birthday World' fails to work. The characterisations are all still there, though less effective than in her other books, and the tone remains beautifully pitched. However, the disgustingly clunky framework (two divergent lives using the same character are given chapters in turn which means the same events are gone over twice just in different ways) totally spoils it and really is unforgivable. You expect that sort of thing from less skilled authors and find it in popular crowd pleasers like the gruesomely boring but very popular 'One Day' by David Nicholls but not from writers of Shriver's capabilities.

But my favourite of her novels has to be the wonderful 'Double Fault'. It depicts the relationship of a tennis professional with her partner and with the game itself. That is the book that makes me most strongly, and flatteringly, liken Shriver's style to that of Yates for just like him she perfectly paints the picture of her protagonist as a fully rounded and often rather unlikeable figure and is able to define and show her feelings with what feels like true and steady accuracy. With both authors one never feels that they have shirked away from mentioning the more real and unpleasant aspects of their characters and so one is left not necessarily liking the characters but certainly believing in them as true depictions.

Partnership.

Two girls I knew as children and who are about my age are married. Just heard about the second one this morning. I find this jolly interesting a vague sort of gosh aren't they young to be making such a huge commitment, they will will be missing out on so many things now way but also in an envious they have found someone who loves them so much they married them way.

I don't want to get married so young, although I would certainly love to meet the man I want to marry one day, so I am not jealous of them for actually getting married. But I do envy them the being with someone who loves them so much and who they love so much.

I think as humans we are all lonely and spend a lot of time, effort and money in trying to escape that fact. Richard Yates, who was terribly lonely and wrote about it so brilliantly, said that "Most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy". I think he was right.


Being home over Christmas I have been jolly bored and also there have been the odd times, typical of family life, where there are cross words and fractious moments. During these times I have longed to have someone who was always on my side and who I could rely on to be there for me and to understand. A partner to go through life with. I think deep down that is what everyone wants, and some people find, and when it boils down to it is the reason people get married, they wish to go through their life with another person to share it with.


Tomorrow is the last day of 2010 and I have been giving a lot of thought to my resolutions. Typically I want all the usual things: good grades at uni, to go to the gym and eat healthily all year long rather than Bridget Jones style in fits and spurts, and to date more. I really need to come up with a proper plan to meet the sort of men I want to date rather than my current situation of meeting men who many want to date me but who I find unattractive!

Comfort reads and Richard Yates.

I have a stinking cold and so have been hunting out my most comforting reads. For some reason amusing diaries are tremendous favourites of mine in times like this and so good old Adrian Mole has been looked out, as has 'Diary of a Nobody' and Bridget Jones might even make an appearence. Nancy Mitford is another great standby and her 'Love in a Cold Climate' is my most re-read book of all. I just adore the way she writes and think her one of the most under-rated authors of all time. That title used to belong to Richard Yates. I discovered him about 7 years ago when my mother bought me 'Revolutionary Road'. I adored it and went on to read his full back catalogue.

Richard Yates specialised in writing of the bursting of the American bubble post World War II and the enemy in all of his novels was the dreaded surburbs. His use of words is incredible and there is never a superfluous word, his style is so sharp and precise. He was much lauded by fellow authors and by some critics during his life but his books did not sell and he was very hard up. He used a lot of his own or friends experiences in his books and the one criticism I have ever agreed with about his work is that there are many aspects from different books that are hugely similar.

'Revolutionary Road' was his first book and I believe his best, although 'Easter Parade' is rypically recognised as being his best work. The former was made into a film a couple of years ago by Sam Mendes and staring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio and all of a sudden Yates' legacy altered beyond all recognition and his books were stocked everywhere and most of them were republished. I thought the film a fine adaptation his the book although I disliked the way the ending was handled and subtly altered. I do feel sad that Yates did not gain the profile he so sorely desearved and also craved during his lifetime for he was very much overlooked and had rather a horrid time of it. To anyone interested in reading about the man himself there exists a terrific biography of him by Blake Bailey called 'A Tragic Honesty'.

I think there is great skill in being able to match your mood with an appropriate book to suit it and as demonstrated above I find humour and light reading best for times of ill health and feeling sorry for oneself. Reading Richard Yates if hihgly inappropriate for such times! His books I rate very highly indeed but their tone is depressing and I keep them for periods of contemplation. I would certainly never read them at a specially fun time where I wanted my mood to be light and happy such as a holiday or Christmas. But for times when one is at a crossroads or feels like doing a lot of thinking about life, the world and other people they are very insightful for they do make one think. For me 'Revolutionary Road' always makes me consider the Paris of our imagination, and how most people are simply too scared to break free to ever try for their particular Paris. Also it makes me consider what it is to be female and how few men are really male. 'Easter Parade' is quite different and I find it darker for Yates wrote women terribly well and it follows one woman through her unsatisfying and ultimately empty life. It is a dark portrait of being alone, single and above all female.