Literary Pick (***)

The Easter Parade -Richard Yates

 

 Quite an interesting story, but not half as good as Revolutionary Road. The synopsis on the back cover suggests the story is about two sisters, Sarah and Emily Grimes, but it seems to focus more on the younger sister, Emily, a divorcee career woman who has had quite a few casual relationships in her life. Her sister Sarah, is married to an abuser, they have three boys. Sarah is an alcoholic like their mother Esther (kookie) Grimes. I think their father, Esther's husband, was an alcoholic too. The novel is a steady-paced account of the lives of these two siblings. But mostly about Emily's detached relationship with her mother and sister. I guess Emily, as a then modern-day career woman (the only one in the family who graduated college) felt smarter in more ways than one than her sister who got married so young, and her over-bearing mother who ultimately ends up in an insane asylum. In the end Emily ends up worse than her mother and sister. Her live-in boyfriend leaves for an ex-wife. She then loses her job, ends up in a smaller Apt. on unemployment, with nothing to do, nowhere to go. She decides to call an estranged nephew, (Sarah's son) moves to New England to stay with him, his wife and their little girl, has a mini nervous breakdown from the station to his house. I think this book might have impacted me more than I'd like to admit.

Yates is so easy and pleasant to read, so although I didn't consider this a 4-5 star novel, I still enjoyed reading his work and I thought the story was very unique.