A Special Providence : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Good But Falls Short of Revolutionary Road
Review: A Distant Second to Revolutionary Road.

Yates draws some compelling characters in this drama about a mother's inability to come to terms with a cruel world that doesn't give a damn about her 3rd rate artwork, and her son, a young private in the army during WWII. There were some poignant moments and Yates, as always, shows us the dirty underside of the american dream, but he strays too far from these strengths in A Special Providence.

Half the novel takes place in a war setting, and frankly, Yates' war-writing is some of the least memorable I've ever read. Try Mailer or Herr or Heller if that's what you're looking for. Another annoying tidbit is the repetitiveness of the narrative.

Anyway, it's a pretty good read, but nothing "great". Yates is better when he stays closer to home. This story is not as tightly wound as Rev Road, and we don't care about the characters nearly as much. Okay, that's my two cents.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe his second best novel
Review: Richard Yates is underappreciated. The general reading public doesn't know him. He had all but faded into literary history after his death until a recent short story collection revived interest in his work. But discerning readers of modern fiction have always placed him in the same literary class as John Cheever, John Updike and the other better-known modernists of the second half of the 20th century. His best-selling and arguably best novel was his first, Revolutionary Road, which captured 1950s suburban angst about as well as anybody. His second novel, which was published fully eight years later, is A Special Providence. It is not well known but it, too, is an excellent work. It tells the story of a mother and her son. It focuses partly on the mother's constant and fruitless search for artistic respect and financial security as well as on the son's experiences during World War II. Unlike some Yates novels, A Special Providence holds together from beginning to end. But it is especially strong in describing the son's relatively brief and unfulfilling war experiences in the European theater. Yates certainly isn't known as an adventure writer, but A Special Providence reveals his ability to create a compelling, fast-paced narrative when the story calls for it. In fact, Yates is at his best when he is in the midst of a strong bit of narrative. Some of his other novels ultimately failed, and failed to draw readers, because they descended for prolonged periods into plodding narrative and excessive introspection. This doesn't happen much in A Special Providence, and that's why it's at least his second best novel.