A literary event of the highest order, The Collected Stories of Richard Yates brings together Yates's peerless short fiction in a single volume for the first time.
Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate, and technically accomplished writers of America's postwar generation, and his work has inspired such diverse talents as Richard Ford, Ann Beattie, André Dubus, Robert Stone, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This collection, as powerful as Yate's beloved Revolutionary Road, contains the stories of his classic works Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (a book The New York Times Book Review hailed as "the New York equivalent of Dubliners") and Liars in Love; it also features nine new stories, seven of which have never been published.
Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers, the grim humor that atts life on a tuberculosis ward, or the moments of terrified peace experienced by American soldiers in World War II, Yates examines every frayed corner of the American dream. His stories, as empathetic as they are unforgiving, are like no others in our nation's literature. Published with a moving introduction by the novelist Richard Russo, this collection will stand as its author's final masterpiece.
Richard Yates shone bright upon the publication of his first novel, Revolutionary Road, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. It drew unbridled praise and branded Yates an important, new writer. Kurt Vonnegut claimed that Revolutionary Road was The Great Gatsby of his time. William Sytron described it as "A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." Tennessee Williams went one further and said, "Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it is."
In 1962 Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, his first collection of short stories. It too had praise heaped upon it. Kurt Vonnegut said it was "the best short-story collection ever written by an American."
Yates' writing skills were further utilized when, upon returning from Los Angeles, he began working as a speechwriter for then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy until the assassination of JFK. From there he moved onto Iowa where, as a creative writing teacher, he would influence and inspire writers such as Andre Dubus and Dewitt Henry.
His third novel, Disturbing the Peace, was published in 1975. Perhaps his second most well-known novel, The Easter Parade, was published in 1976. The story follows the lives of the Grimes sisters and ends in typical Yatesian fashion, replicating the disappointed lives of Revolutionary Road.
However, Yates began to find himself as a writer cut adrift in a sea fast turning towards postmodernism; yet, he would stay true to realism. His heroes and influences remained the classics of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flaubert and short-story master, Chekov.
It was to his school and army days that Richard turned to for his next novel, A Good School, which was quickly followed by his second collection of short stories, Liars in Love. Young Hearts Crying emerged in 1984 followed two years later with Cold Spring Harbour, which would prove to be his final completed novel.
Like the fate of his hero, Flaubert, whose novel Madame Bovary influenced Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade, Richard Yates' works are enjoying a posthumous renaissance, attracting newly devoted fans across the Atlantic and beyond.
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我常常觉得,Yates 是一位“气氛大师”。他的故事里,天气、光线、房间里的家具摆设,都不仅仅是背景,它们是人物情绪的延伸,是故事不可分割的一部分。比如,描绘一场即将破裂的谈话时,窗外阴沉的天色,房间里那盏昏黄的台灯,桌面上未干的咖啡渍,都仿佛被赋予了生命,共同烘托出那种一触即发的紧张感。这种环境的暗示性写作,手法极其高明,它让读者无需太多解释,便能自然而然地进入到那种特有的、带着霉味的感伤氛围中去。阅读体验是沉浸式的,我甚至能想象出那个年代特定款式的沙发面料的触感。更妙的是,他很少使用宏大的叙事视角来评判什么,一切都通过角色的行动和他们的自我辩解来呈现,使得读者被迫成为一个道德审判官,自行去拼凑出事件的全貌和背后的无奈。
评分这套精选集,说实话,读起来有点挑战性,它不会给你那种读完就能立刻感到被治愈的廉价满足感。恰恰相反,Yates 更像一个高明的心理医生,他不会轻易给你开止痛药,而是让你直面你一直试图回避的病灶。他的句子结构非常考究,常常是那种长句和短句的交替使用,长句用来铺陈环境和人物的思绪链条,短句则像一把锋利的冰锥,突然刺穿整个氛围,让你猛地惊醒。我发现自己经常需要停下来,反复阅读某一段落,不是因为我没看懂,而是因为文字的力量太强,需要时间去消化那种被精准击中的感觉。那些家庭场景,那些婚姻中的冷战,那种表面上客气周到,骨子里却早已千疮百孔的关系,描写得真实得让人心痛。他没有给人物任何廉价的救赎,这才是最可贵的地方——生活就是这样,很多时候,我们只能带着伤口继续前行。
评分老实讲,如果你追求的是情节跌宕起伏、高潮迭起的爽文体验,那么你可能要对这本书有所保留。Yates 的魅力在于“克制”与“内敛”。他把最激烈的情感处理得像是平静湖面下暗涌的潮流,你看到的是波澜不惊的水面,但深知水下那股强大的拉扯力正在撕扯着一切。他的语言精准到令人发指,每一个词语的选择都像经过了最严格的筛选,没有一个多余的形容词,没有一句空洞的宣言。这种精炼带来的力量,比任何花哨的辞藻都要强大得多。我特别欣赏他对于记忆与现实的交织处理,人物总是在当下与过去的某个瞬间之间摇摆不定,而正是这种不确定性,揭示了人类心灵的复杂性。读完后留下的,不是一个清晰的结论,而是一串复杂的回响,迫使你不断反思,我们究竟是活在现实里,还是活在自己不断修饰的记忆版本里。
评分这本书,我得说,拿到手的时候就感觉沉甸甸的,不是那种虚浮的重量,而是实打实的文字分量。 Yates 的文字有一种魔力,让你在阅读的时候,仿佛能闻到那种带着年代感的旧家具散发出的木头味,甚至能感受到人物内心深处那种难以言喻的、像夏日午后闷热空气一样的压抑感。他描写的那些小人物,那些生活在时代夹缝里、努力想抓住点什么却总是徒劳无功的人们,他们的挣扎和脆弱,就像一帧帧老电影的慢镜头,虽然缓慢,却足够让你看清每一个细微的表情变化和眼神的闪躲。我特别喜欢他处理叙事节奏的方式,它不是那种一泻千里的豪迈,而是像探戈一样,进退有据,时而急促,时而停顿,让你跟着他的节奏,一步步走进那个精心构建的、既熟悉又陌生的世界。每次读完一个故事,我都会把书合上,留出几分钟的时间,让那些人物和场景在脑海里继续播放,仿佛他们并没有真正“结束”,只是暂时退回到了那个幽暗的角落,等待下一次被唤醒。这种细腻入微的心理刻画,简直让人拍案叫绝,他似乎比人物自己更了解他们内心深处最隐秘的恐惧和渴望。
评分初次接触 Yates 的作品集,给我的感觉就像是误闯进了一场精心布置的私人派对,你既是受邀的宾客,又是那个站在角落里默默观察一切的局外人。他的叙事腔调,带着一种近乎冷峻的优雅,仿佛一位经验丰富的调酒师,不加修饰地将生活的苦涩与微甜精准地调配在一起,一口饮尽,后劲十足。我尤其欣赏他对于“失败”这个主题的处理,他笔下的失败不是戏剧性的崩溃,而是渗透在日常生活肌理中的一种慢性病,它以各种隐蔽的方式出现——一句未说出口的道歉,一次错失的晋升,或仅仅是清晨醒来时,对镜子里那个陌生面孔的瞬间怀疑。这种“日常的悲剧感”构筑了他作品的基石。读他的故事,需要慢下来,需要细细咀嚼那些看似平淡无奇的对话,因为真正的张力往往隐藏在那言语的间隙,在那对视的瞬间,以及那些被刻意忽略的细节里。我感觉自己不是在读小说,而是在偷窥别人的日记,那份坦诚与残忍,让人既不安又着迷。
评分十一种孤独大赞。。。criminally underrated
评分十一种孤独大赞。。。criminally underrated
评分十一种孤独大赞。。。criminally underrated
评分十一种孤独大赞。。。criminally underrated
评分十一种孤独大赞。。。criminally underrated
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