Richard Yates (1926-92)

Dear Charlie,
I know many of you are keen to find out which Richards I've been reading, so (better late than never) I'll tell you about my (2nd) favourite Richard, a writer called Richard Yates, whose great novel "Cold Spring Harbor" I read just before Christmas.

A few years ago, everyone started talking about this great neglected writer, who died in 1992 at the age of 66, ravaged by alcohol and fast living. Another favourite Richard of mine, Richard Ford, wrote a preface to his masterpiece, "Revolutionary Road", so I asked for it for Christmas and loved it. Since then, it's been filmed by Sam Mendes starring his then-wife Kate Winslet (it was her pet project) and Leonardo DiCaprio (remind you of anything?), but I didn't want to see it, I loved the book so much. It charts the ups and downs (mainly downs) of a shipwreck of a marriage with such great psychological insight that I found it staggering. Luckily most of his other books have also been brought out, so I strongly recommend "The Easter Parade"; a collection of short stories called "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" (which you can find in a volume called "Collected Stories"); and now this wonderful novel following the Shepards, a Long Island family, and particularly Evan, the young son, during the late '30s and wartime. Yet again, we see the strains and stresses of married life, and, as always it's not exactly a barrel of laughs, but it's so well-written and involving that you just want more and more. (And the novel's less than 200 pages long, which doesn't do any harm).
I'd suggest it for the Book Club, but I don't want anyone to tell me they don't like it, as Yates is one of my favourite authors. So give him a go!

Mr Leah