THE COLLECTED STORIES OF RICHARD YATES
Richard Yates, THE COLLECTED STORIES OF RICHARD YATESA tinted review in adult Forecasts indicates a book that we believe is of paramount interest to our readers but that hasn't received a starred or boxed review.
THE COLLECTED STORIES OF RICHARD YATES Richard Yates . Holt, $28 (496p) ISBN 0-8050-6693-4 Bitterness, loneliness and lack of fulfillment are the central themes of this grim posthumous collection. Yates (1926–1992) was the consummate writer's writer; his fiction influenced a generation of young admirers, including Andre Dubus and Richard Ford, but he has yet to achieve the name recognition of many of his disciples. This collection of 27 stories, seven previously unpublished, but most reprints from two long-out-of-print collections issued in 1962 and 1981, may change that. Yates is a gifted storyteller, particularly skilled at making emotional pain and sadness starkly real as his characters manage to live below even their own meager expectations. Compulsive failure Walter Henderson, the protagonist of "A Glutton for Punishment," plans his life as a series of expected defeats. In "The Canal" two veterans play at macho one-upmanship with phony war stories as their wives snicker with disdain. "A Clinical Romance" tells of the bickering and despair of men confined to a tuberculosis ward in a gloomy Virginia hospital. "Evening on the Côte d'Azur" is an achingly sad tale of lonely navy wives with too much time on their hands and too little self-esteem. Pitch-perfect in their gloomy detachment, these stories about the fractured relationships of lovers, friends, parents and children, and husbands and wives ring all too true. Yates's powerful dialogue and narrative make it entirely clear that no matter what, people are going to be only as happy as they have already made up their minds to be. (May 3)
Forecast: A heartfelt introduction by Richard Russo expresses just how much Yates once meant to younger writers. If reviews make the stories' appeal similarly plain to today's readers, the collection should do well; in any case, it will remain a strong backlist title for years to come.
closeDetailsReviewed on: 03/05/2001
Genre: Fiction
Bitterness, loneliness and lack of fulfillment are the central themes of this grim posthumous collection. Yates (1926–1992) was the consummate writer's writer; his fiction influenced a generation of young admirers, including Andre Dubus and Richard Ford, but he has yet to achieve the name recognition of many of his disciples. This collection of 27 stories, seven previously unpublished, but most reprints from two long-out-of-print collections issued in 1962 and 1981, may change that. Yates is a gifted storyteller, particularly skilled at making emotional pain and sadness starkly real as his characters manage to live below even their own meager expectations. Compulsive failure Walter Henderson, the protagonist of "A Glutton for Punishment," plans his life as a series of expected defeats. In "The Canal" two veterans play at macho one-upmanship with phony war stories as their wives snicker with disdain. "A Clinical Romance" tells of the bickering and despair of men confined to a tuberculosis ward in a gloomy Virginia hospital. "Evening on the Côte d'Azur" is an achingly sad tale of lonely navy wives with too much time on their hands and too little self-esteem. Pitch-perfect in their gloomy detachment, these stories about the fractured relationships of lovers, friends, parents and children, and husbands and wives ring all too true. Yates's powerful dialogue and narrative make it entirely clear that no matter what, people are going to be only as happy as they have already made up their minds to be.
Reviewed on: 03/05/2001
Genre: Fiction
