To say he is criminally neglected is an understatement….Yates really knows the foibles of people what destructive patterns they lock into and allow to ruin their lives....I also think he does a good job of showing people who don't see themselves well, that is have no clear understanding what they are actually good at and what would make them happy and content....
I’ve been steadily working my way through his works over the last several years….
EASTER PARADE, the story of two sisters with very different lives, is an amazing book…. Is the prototype for feminism, the Sex and the City girl, who cannot find happiness largely because of her own life and choices and also because of her upbringing….Yates should be commended for making it clear that this character would be a failure if she attempted to live the life of the older sister whose idyllic life on an estate in New York is all charade as she is an abused wife who sacrificed her own goals and interests for her family and eventually becomes an alcoholic.
The characterizations in this novel are letter perfect as is the ending where one character finally attempts to give voice to the existential funk as well as the nagging guilt and anger over another character’s death….
A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE is Yates most autobiographical novel dealing with a young man’s experiences in WWII and his relationship with his overbearing mother….Maybe because it is less in Yates’ heads and more based on his actual life, it has a realism his other books don’t….Certainly his most underrated book.
I just finished DISTURBING THE PEACE which I found a bit disjointed but still very good….The sequences regarding the main character’s mental breakdowns are harrowing and disturbing especially the last fifty books although it does seem like the book ends too abruptly.
There are a still few more Yates books I haven’t got too….But so far my thoughts are he is one of the most technically accomplished writers I’ve ever read.
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