 | By: Richard Yates Binding: Paperback Publisher: Vintage Classics ISBN: 0099518570 ISBN-13: 9780099518570 Released: 03 Apr 2008 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Man: I've got this book of stories I want you to publish.
Publisher: Oh yeah? Let me see that.
Man: Try this one.
Publisher: [reading] Well, this is gloomy as hell, buddy, but there's something there. Maybe we can get them in with a cheery title, they won't know what hit 'em.
Man: I have a title.
Publisher: How many stories have you got for the book?
Man: Eleven.
Publisher: And what's your title?
Man: ...Eleven Kinds of Loneliness.
Publisher: Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, buddy.
And yet - it worked. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, & acclaimed, shortly after Revolutionary Road. Didn't sell, of course, but what do you expect? It is gloomy as hell - but there's most certainly something there. More than something: misery, humiliation, pity, desperation, weakness, ignorance, bullying - oh & loneliness. But despite alll this, the stories are bright-eyed & pink-tongued. They shine or bristle with life, even if it's not the sort of life you would conceivably care to share in. This is the sort of thing you get, from the second story, The Best of Everything, about a couple who are about to get married without either reallly wanting to:
"She'd have time for a long talk with her mother that night, & the next morning, "bright & early" (her eyes stung at the thought of her mother's plain, happy face), they would start getting dressed for the wedding. Then the church & the ceremony, & then the reception (Would her father get drunk? Would Muriel Ketchel sulk about not being a bridesmaid?), & finallly the train to Atlantic City, & the hotel. But from the hotel on she couldn't plan any more. A door would lock behind her & there would be a wild, fantastic silence, & nobody in alll the world but Ralph to lead the way."
The pleasure in Yates's stories is not some sort of misanthopric delight in seeing the downtrodden trodden yet further down. His characters are unfortunate yet resilient (admittedly because sometimes they're unaware how unfortunate they are); they bear their fate with stoicism, & there are no culpably dramatic Perfect-Day-for-Bananafish endings. Even, in a rare moment of generosity, there is compassionate relief for a character at the end of his story (A Glutton for Punishment), albeit only in the sense that he gets to share his burden with his wife, rather than concealing it as he had intended to.
Whatever the pleasure, it's undeniable & unopposable, because the stories kept me reopening them - just one more - like some sort of anti-candy, as unsweet as can be but nonetheless addictive.
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