And Now For Something Completely Different

Novelist William Styron has died, from pneumonia. A good article on his passing can be found on the web site of NPR. I have never read Styron, nor thought much about him, but something I do know about him is that he once wrote a novel called Lie Down In Darkness, which another writer called Richard Yates once tried to develop into a screenplay for a major motion picture.

And that was really the whole point of this post, to get around to talking about Richard Yates, a writer about whom I know far more than I know about Styron and whose work I have thoroughly enjoyed since my good friend Ana introduced me to him a number of years ago.

If you haven’t read anything by Richard Yates, you owe it to yourself to go get one of his books and start reading it right now. He wrote seven novels and two volumes of short stories (now collected into one book), and here is the list:

Revolutionary Road (1961)
Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness (1962)
A Special Providence (1969)
Disturbing The Peace (1975)
The Easter Parade (1976)
A Good School (1978)
Liars In Love (1981)
Young Hearts Crying (1984)
Cold Spring Harbor (1986)
The Collected Stories Of Richard Yates (2001)*
*Collects the stories in Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness and Liars In Love

Disturbing The Peace, Young Hearts Crying, and Cold Spring Harbor are out of print, as are Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness and Liars In Love (although there is obviously no need to print these individual titles any longer, owing to the collection). The other books can be found at your local bookstore (try Big Hat Books in Broad Ripple first, then the big chains, like Borders and Half Price Books), although you may have to order them. The ones you are most likely to find on the shelf are Collected Stories and Revolutionary Road.

He was not the world’s most prolific writer, but the things he wrote, especially his first novel, Revolutionary Road, and his short stories, are absolutely amazing - right on the edge of downright depressing, but always hopeful, and written with an evocative, liquid prose that demonstrates a complete mastery of the English language. Revolutionary Road was the only one of his books that was ever a commerical hit, and he died penniless, with the unfinished manuscript of an eighth novel, Uncertain Times, in his freezer for safekeeping.

Perhaps better than any of his own books, however, is the story of his life, which tells like one of his novels (and which makes sense in a way, as most of his work was autobiographical, to the point that the people in his life on whom he based his characters could often pick themselves out in his work - and were not always happy about it), and was written by a fellow called Blake Bailey. The book is called Tragic Honesty, and is a marvelous read - if you're into long biographies.

And now for some recent news concerning Richard Yates. Upon reading of Styron’s death and thinking of Yates again, I made some inquiries about the web, and discovered, via the Internet Movie Database, that The Easter Parade has been announced as a major motion picture for a 2008 release in the United States. The only further details available at this time are that it has been optioned by Applehead Pictures. Click here for a blurb on indieWIRE about the production company. It’s the last item, so scroll all the way down. Not much there to talk about just yet, but I like the sound of the idea.