Customer Reviews

Young Hearts Crying

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think I've found my author. You know, that person whose work you are more and more compelled to read every time you read something else they've written? Even if that work is ultimately depressing or heart-wrenching or terrifying?

'Young Hearts Crying' has been re-issued by Vintage Contemporaries with a pile of lousy editing errors (come ON, guys!!) and some stunning cover art direction, and thank heaven for it. I was having trouble finding Yates in used bookstores, and now, because of 'Revolutionary Road,' he's baaaa-ack. Back with all the agony of the 'Age of Anxiety,' with a fundamentally depressing group of delusional, failing characters, and with a plot that lowers the reader deeper and deeper into their neuroses and desires, both deserved and ridiculous. I was fascinated with the cruelty with which Yates methodically tore apart each character, so that their whims gained equal weight as their real work. How does he do that, and with such diffident, casual prose? Amazing!

I'm sure Yates's battered vision of a lost era isn't for everybody. Aficionados of 'Mad Men,' with its glossy looks and measured pain, might find the source material too unrelenting, too stricken. But if you're up for it, this is a pretty extraordinarily written book.

Young Hearts is yet another "must read" Richard Yates novel loaded with killer scene closers (one that had me speak out loud on the staten island ferry this week) ... another that left me uplifted (the end of the book).

Yates knew people; their speak and their demons and he was a master at presenting emotionally crippled lives in raw form ... whether they sink or swim.

READING is what it's all about, amici ... and Yates' Young Hearts Crying is truly a MUST READ.

What does it take to be an artist? Is it important to be one? This book is a touching discourse on those questions.

After comtemplating a couple of weeks on this book I am going to up my rating as I considered the questions that the novel was asking and actually believe it is even a better (more realistic) piece than the dramatic Rev-Road. And just as good as the more celebrated "Easter Parade".)

Often it is said how sad and hopeless Yates' stories are, but they actualy enjoyable in there truth when one reached that "ah ha" moment in the climactic moments. While the characters do not vibrate off the page, the events and conclusions do - I feel that although his characters do not have glorious victories, they are given a fair chance at an almost zen like acceptance --- I do not want to give anything away, but readers must really watch what goes on in the very last pages to get the the message of these tales.

I read the original, negative NYT review for this and was amazed at by what I consider the shallowness of the writing that was and still is accepted as the "The News Paper of Record"

In Young Hearts Crying Richard Yates explores what happens when illusions of grandeur crash against the rocks of reality. Michael Davenport pens one great poem in his youth and spends the rest of his life trying to replicate that success with dreams of rising to literary stardom. His talents, however, do not sustain his ambition, and the reader follows Michael as he careens through life, always at the cusp of despair, alienating himself with his boorish behavior and Tourette-ish outbursts. Other characters, almost all yearning to achieve that greatness they just know resides somewhere deep inside them, collide, smash, and bounce against each other along the way. Can the characters walk away from the wreckage with meaningful lives? Can they find grace without greatness?

First of all, the title is terrible (is it supposed to be a joke?) and so is the cover design. But getting past that, this late novel by Richard Yates is probably worth reading by those who appreciate his clean, clear-eyed writing style. This was written in 1984, when I believe he was living in squalor and obscurity, and, like Revolutionary Road, concerns the romantic and artistic ambitions of a couple. Lucy and Michael share a background of excellent education and interest in higher culture. He is an aspiring poet, and she, well... she doesn't really do anything but doesn't really have to because her family is rich as hell. But Michael insists they don't live off her money. He gets a 9- to-5 writing for a trade magazine called "Chain Store Age" (a better title for a book perhaps?) while working on his poetry, and Lucy raises their daughter on his salary while using "her" money for therapy. Their sole diversion is hobnobbing with artists and writers, at whose parties Michael invariably drinks too much and punches someone in the stomach. This lovely couple soon separate and long years of romantic and artistic frustration ensue for both. This novel lacks the coherence of Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade, and yet it feels far more personal, often uncomfortably so. Yet Michael, Lucy, and even their neglected daughter end up in better places in the end than the characters in those other books. But that's not saying much. Yates is not interested in writing about life's successes, but rather it's constant struggles and humiliations. Probably not most people's idea of a good read, but still better than most.

This book is great. It is well written and well paced. You will never be left reading a portion of the book where you are left hoping that things would move on, quickly. Rather, the book is just a force of its own. It will grip you and not let go of you once it has your attention. The story is realistic, it is not sanitized. It reflects the disappointment of one couple when their dreams and plans fail to materialize. What they do in reaction to this realization is very harsh and brutal, but one that is familiar as well. When you read this you will be exposed to the discussions and decisions that this couple made as they dealt with the end of their dream. Very, very good book.

After Revolutionary Road, Young Hears Crying is a let down. Whereas in Revolutionary Road, Yates was able to penetrate not only the skins but the souls of his characters and unpack his plot in a deliberate and surprising manner, in this book he can only draw sketchy characters who act without rime or reason, who pass by rather than communicate with each other, and who act--if they do-without purpose or motivation. Sad to say, this is a dull and boring book, unfocused and unenlightening. I couldn't finish it.

Just a question: Was the alcohol responsible for this failure of vision and commitment?