Why did Daniel love this book?
Richard Yates' richly nuanced novel from 1976 also became one of my favorite novels upon reading it this year.
Depicting the early childhood-through-midlife of Emily Grimes, Yates takes us on an uncompromising, unsettling, and moving journey, from Emily's imbalanced upbringing to the challenging relationships between her mother and older sister, as well as the men that enter in and out of her life, and how her search for self becomes somewhat obscured as a result of all, despite her obvious intelligence.
While Yates was primarily known for his first novel, Revolutionary Road, this is very much a work that should be required reading for any reader who truly appreciates mature literature and complex heroines. Rarely have I read such a work set in a domestic setting depicted so honestly.
2 authors picked The Easter Parade as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
In The Easter Parade, first published in 1976, we meet sisters Sarah and Emily Grimes when they are still the children of divorced parents. We observe the sisters over four decades, watching them grow into two very different women. Sarah is stable and stalwart, settling into an unhappy marriage. Emily is precocious and independent, struggling with one unsatisfactory love affair after another. Richard Yates's classic novel is about how both women struggle to overcome their tarnished family's past, and how both finally reach for some semblance of renewal.