The Easter Parade: A Novel (Paperback)

by Richard Yates (Author) "Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Aunt Emmy, Geoffrey Wilson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Yates writes powerfully and enters completely and effortlessly into the lives of his characters . . . A spare yet wrenching tale."—The New York Times Book Review

"An elegant, moving novel, quietly poignant."—Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post

"Invigorating and even gripping. The dialogue is artful enough to sound natural. In his descriptive prose every word works quietly to inspire the illusion that things are happening by themselves . . . A literary achievement."—Paul Gray, Time

"Exact, indisputable, and moving."—Richard Todd, The Atlantic

"Extraordinarily good . . . Written with the force and simplicity of absolute truth."—The San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

"The effect is at once cruel and sweet, heartbreaking and brutal . . . The Easter Parade has an astonishing sweep and weight."—Stuart O'Nan, The Boston Book Review
-- Review

Review

"Yates writes powerfully and enters completely and effortlessly into the lives of his characters . . . A spare yet wrenching tale."—The New York Times Book Review

"An elegant, moving novel, quietly poignant."—Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post

"Invigorating and even gripping. The dialogue is artful enough to sound natural. In his descriptive prose every word works quietly to inspire the illusion that things are happening by themselves . . . A literary achievement."—Paul Gray, Time

"Exact, indisputable, and moving."—Richard Todd, The Atlantic

"Extraordinarily good . . . Written with the force and simplicity of absolute truth."—The San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

"The effect is at once cruel and sweet, heartbreaking and brutal . . . The Easter Parade has an astonishing sweep and weight."—Stuart O'Nan, The Boston Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Picador (May 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312278284
• ISBN-13: 978-0312278281
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,455 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She was always misunderstood, July 11, 2004

By	Westley (Stuck in my head) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"Easter Parade" follows sisters, Emily and Sarah Grimes, over forty years. They enter adulthood during WWII, and their lives follow tremendously different trajectories. Sarah is the traditional one: she marries early, has three children, and settles into a seemingly idyllic life in the countryside. Emily is more independent, and she experiences a series of unsatisfying intimate relationships and drifts through life. The novel chiefly concerns the relationship, or lack thereof, between the sisters and their family. The story climaxes in the 1960's with mild invocations of the women's liberation movement, and Yates draws clear parallels between the sisters and their times. Although the time period is specific, the characters remain amazingly relatable and universal.

The most exceptional aspect of Yates's writing is the effortlessness with which he encapsulates life: "The Easter Parade" is a relatively short novel - yet it's remarkably complete due to Yates's talent in creating scenes that so clearly recapitulate a particular period in the sisters' lives. Yates is best-known for his brilliant debut, "Revolutionary Road." His subsequent novels have received considerably less acclaim - an untenable situation considering the quality and exquisiteness of his writing. With "The Easter Parade" the story is simple but heart-breaking; the characters are unforgettable; the final epiphany is indisputable. Most highly recommended.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Less Is More, July 9, 2001

By	vanishingpoint - See all my reviews

Having recently finished Revolutionary Road (and loving every page of it), I picked up The Easter Parade. People have told me that it was a better book than Rev Road, to which I thought: "How could it possibly surpass it?"

It does, and does so without much fanfare. EP is a quieter book than RR, and initially that quietness let me down. It was missing RR's raw energy, that relentless, menacing, racing-to-a-head-on-collision-at-90-mph feeling, maybe because so much time passes in this thin novel -- a good forty years. But as I got to the last page and ruminated on Emily Grimes' and her family's tragic lives, I realized that EP is the better book because it doesn't do anything too spectacular (the ending of RR could be seen as a bit melodramatic, especially after EP).

After finishing it, I flipped through the pages again and again, admiring these heartbreaking passages strewn throughout. I was amazed at how much time does indeed pass in about two hundred pages, and yet not for a second did I feel like I was getting a Reader's Digest version of Emily's life. Yates marvelously intersperses perfect quick scenes in between summarizations, never making it boring.

Unlike RR, EP doesn't have any cartoonish supporting characters. Everyone in this book is real. Their pain is real, especially Emily's. You will learn to care for her, even when she's doing something horrifyingly stupid or cruel, or perhaps because of it. Her faults are our own; they belong to all of us.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A neglected talent, July 16, 2001

By	Geoff Schumacher (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews

My God, how did Richard Yates fall between the cracks? This is an excellent novel, a compelling story told with seamless, word-perfect writing. Yet, as an avid reader of contemporary literature for at least 15 years now, I had not heard of Yates until very recently. After relishing "The Easter Parade," I intend to hunt down all of Yates' books. Which is not a simple task, since he's mostly out of print and hard to find even in the better used bookstores. "The Easter Parade" excels in at least two ways. First, it is extremely well written. Yates is not a flashy writer. His sentences are grammatically perfect and tightly crafted. There are no wasted or throwaway words. He stays out of the way of the story, which can be the hardest thing for a writer to do. Second, Yates crafts believable characters who live realistic, plausible lives. This could be a recipe for boring, but Yates deftly keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace, covering about 45 years in 225 pages. Here's hoping for a Richard Yates revival, akin to the recent resurgence of interest in Charles Portis.