A Good School

This is a SWEET book, something you could not say about Rev Road and Easter Parade (the other Yates' books that I have read). From what I gather (from reading about all of Yates' books), this is as Hollywood as Yates gets. But this book still contains the trademark Yates' sensitivity and sparse, transparent writing. This 'coming of age at a boarding school' story has been told many times before in books and movies, but it is real neat to see Yates' take on the genre. Everything just rings true to me here. Yates is considerate of the motivations and anxieties of the main characters. And for the 'only happy when it rains' crowd, this book is still Yates to the core: everything is not 'happy, happy' here. Also, you get Yates' opinion (well placed within the story) on the value of the 'well rounded education'. Yates is not a fan of the 'well rounded education', preferring a more specialized approach to education. I say AMEN to that.

This rites of passage tale set in a failing prep school is so subtly written that its 160 pages engage and engross you so fully with its interwoven threads that it is as satisfying as an epic. Yates inspires a genuine feeling for all the characters from the awkward Grove through to Teacher Driscoll, and even Mrs Hoopers 'cameo' appearence in the book isn't wasted and plays wonderfully. In short, this is a very good book.

The late Richard Yates seems to have fallen through the cracks of 20th-century literature, but if you haven't read him, you owe yourself a look. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is considered his masterpiece, but A GOOD SCHOOL is an accessible introduction to his oeuvre as well, especially if you are a fan of prep school books in the tradition of A SEPARATE PEACE and THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. That said, readers should know that Yates' book is much more graphic than either Knowles' or Salinger's. No, it's not over-the-top or anything like that (being written in 1978), but it does have its "boys-will-be-disgusting-boys" moments, with the protagonist, William Grove, being one of the victims early in its pages. The book is set in northern Connecticut -- a typical prep school milieu -- only it's the war years (1941-44) and this school is for boys that most prestigious private schools won't touch. Grove, of course, is perceived as a loser by the other boys and has to make a name for himself as he best can. Meanwhile, Yates treats us to a wide array of characters, from the teachers to the boys to a certain teacher's daughter, and somehow holds it together. We are treated to the usual issues of young love and lust -- as well as to the equally-usual issues of middle-aged love and lust. We also watch Groves as he finds a calling on the school newspaper while trying to fit in with the other boys. Yates has a straight-forward style and understands the subtleties of the heart. He shows how desperate these boys are for friendship and recognition in the tumultuous "pecking order" of everyday life, and how awkward some of these pleas for friendship become. It's the little things that add up in this book, such as when we watch Groves and other boys trying to be casual as they ask another boy to room with them next year and when we see how crushed and hurt they are by rejection. More than once, he notes how similar the boys' desire for male friendship and acceptance comes to their longing for a girl and love. He is in that strange and sometimes dark terrain we know as the human heart. I heartily recommend adding Yates to your reading résumé. This "good" school is tuition-free (for you) and will definitely pay off, hopefully leading you to other works by this fine writer.

Richard Yates is one of the few truly great masters of 20th century fiction. His novels and short stories are populated with people who fiercely strive for what is just beyond their grasp, and who must - often quite painfully - suffer the consequences of their hopes and ambitions. The beauty of watching as these lives savagely unfold is the compassion Yates so delicately weaves into his depictions. First we feel a kind of condescending pity for these characters, then we find we are overwhelmed with their plight and their grief. And then finally the line between fiction and reality blurs, and we realize that these characters are not merely so much like us, they are us - with their denial and their fantasy and their unfounded hope in the future - and we grieve for them as we grieve for ourselves. His short coming-of-age "A Good School" is something of a departure from the typical Yatesian heartbreak and squalor. In fact, the tone here, despite some shockingly grim and disturbing moments, is mostly upbeat. We follow the adolescent adventures of a boy named William Grove, a man with no real father figure (his parents are divorced) who tries to make a man out of himself after he is shipped to a boarding school designed for "individual" children who don't fit in elsewhere. Left to his own devices, without any real encouragement from the school or at home, and after several difficult missteps that nearly cement him as a permanent outcast, Grove slowly and unknowingly begins to make a name for himself by throwing himself into the only small door he is ever offered - the offices of the school paper. The cast of the book is rounded out by in intriguing hodge-podge of boarding school characters, equally flailing around in their quest to become men. Even though their stories are unfolding off to the side, Yates somehow manages to tell each of their stories with a richness and intensity that belies their sparseness. This is ground that has been covered before. One cannot help but think of other prep school novels (like Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and Hesse's "Beneath the Wheel") but even in familiar territory, Yates stakes out a claim all his own. This is a short, spare book filled with dozens of stories that build and develop throughout the novel. Old Yates fans will be pleased with this surprising detour into the world of adolescence, the unusual lightness of his tone, and the freshness of his view from this familiar literary perch. For new readers, I would definitely suggest reading the novel "Revolutionary Road," or some of the short stories first. But all in all, a must-read for everyone. I recommend it highly.

Yates dedicated this novel to his father, and rightly so. Men dominate this novel -- young men, old men, crippled men. In keeping with his trademark, Yates' characters are the losers of losers, yet you can't help but to feel for them. Even when Yates is describing one horribly embarrassing scene after another (and some are so painful that you almost have to look away from the page), his compassion for his people is ever vigilent.This novel reminded me a lot of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Like the George Willard in that quasi-novel, we have Will Grove, dipping in and out of the lives of various characters. The town of Winesburg was the center of that novel, and here it's Dorset Academy, the ultimate school for losers (what else would it be?). Although Winesburg was structurally a related collection of short stories while this is more of a novel, you still get that vignette-ish feeling as you read through A Good School, the way Yates joins quick scenes together. It works splendidly.The book is framed by first-person narration that adds a very gentle touch. Yates always had a soft spot for the first-person narrator -- check out his short stories "Builders," "Jody Rolled the Bones," and "Oh Joseph, I'm So Tired" for further evidence. This novel doesn't nearly have the sheer driving force of Revolutionary Road or the expert precision of Easter Parade, but it's not supposed to. It's a tender, coming-of-age tale, and it's done with a great deal of heart and love.