I'm A Glutton For Punishment

Punishment by art anyway. I reread Richard Yates' 'Revolutionary Road' over the weekend, and then rewatched the film adaptation the other night. Both landed their hits like a prizefighter the first go-around, and for some reason I was drawn back to take them on again. The film is excellent, no doubt, but my god that book has bite. Yates was second to none in his ability to strip characters down to their dark, soft centers. The words he got them to say are some of the most acidic and devastating I've ever read in American literature. It's a shame that those words came from the author's own distressed soul, and the poor guy didn't even sell until after he was dead. That's a painter's fate. Great writers deserve better. At least he did.