A Tragic Honesty

The Life and Work of Richard Yates

Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book A Tragic Honesty by Blake Bailey, Picador
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Blake Bailey ISBN: 9781466848856
Publisher: Picador Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Picador Language: English
Author: Blake Bailey
ISBN: 9781466848856
Publisher: Picador
Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Picador
Language: English

The first biography of acclaimed American novelist and story writer Richard Yates

Celebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. Classic novels such as Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are incomparable chronicles of the quiet and not-so-quiet desperation of the American middle-class. Lonely housewives, addled businessmen, desperate career-girls and fearful boys and soldiers, Yates's America was a panorama of high living, self-doubt and self-deception. And in the tradition of other great realistic writers of his time (Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Cheever and Updike), Yates's fictional world mirrored his own. A manic-depressive alcoholic and unapologetic gentleman, his life was a hornets' nest of childhood ghosts, the horrors of war, money woes, and ebullient cocktailed evenings in New York, Hollywood, and the Riviera.

A Tragic Honesty is a masterful evocation of a man who in many ways embodied the struggles of the Great American Writer in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fame and reward followed by heartbreak and obscurity, Richard Yates here stands for what the writer must sacrifice for his craft, the devil's bargain of artistry for happiness, praise for sanity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The first biography of acclaimed American novelist and story writer Richard Yates

Celebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. Classic novels such as Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are incomparable chronicles of the quiet and not-so-quiet desperation of the American middle-class. Lonely housewives, addled businessmen, desperate career-girls and fearful boys and soldiers, Yates's America was a panorama of high living, self-doubt and self-deception. And in the tradition of other great realistic writers of his time (Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Cheever and Updike), Yates's fictional world mirrored his own. A manic-depressive alcoholic and unapologetic gentleman, his life was a hornets' nest of childhood ghosts, the horrors of war, money woes, and ebullient cocktailed evenings in New York, Hollywood, and the Riviera.

A Tragic Honesty is a masterful evocation of a man who in many ways embodied the struggles of the Great American Writer in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fame and reward followed by heartbreak and obscurity, Richard Yates here stands for what the writer must sacrifice for his craft, the devil's bargain of artistry for happiness, praise for sanity.

More books from Picador

Cover of the book Shakespeare's Dark Lady by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Voices from the Rust Belt by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Sixties by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Bearing the Body by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Balkan Ghosts by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Revenge by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book 90 Church by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Dress Codes by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Bodies Electric by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book This Is Not My Beautiful Life by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Last Pilot by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Achilles by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Never Drank the Kool-Aid by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book We Gon' Be Alright by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book A Woman in Berlin by Blake Bailey
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy