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A Good School
Richard Yates, who died in 1992, is today ranked by many readers, scholars, and critics alongside such titans of modern American ficiton as Updike, Roth, Irving, Vonnegut, and Mailer.
In this work, he offers a spare and autumnal novel about a New England prep school. At once a meditation on the twilight of youth and an examination of America's entry into World War II, A Good School tells the stories of William Grove, the quiet boy who becomes an editor of the school newspaper; Jack Draper, a crippled chemistry teacher; and Edith Stone, the schoolmaster's young daughter, who falls in love with most celebrated boy in the class of 1943.
In this work, he offers a spare and autumnal novel about a New England prep school. At once a meditation on the twilight of youth and an examination of America's entry into World War II, A Good School tells the stories of William Grove, the quiet boy who becomes an editor of the school newspaper; Jack Draper, a crippled chemistry teacher; and Edith Stone, the schoolmaster's young daughter, who falls in love with most celebrated boy in the class of 1943.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Richard Yates
74 books1,831 followersRichard 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 Styron 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.
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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September 30, 2023
RITRATTO DELL’ARTISTA DA GIOVANE
Madre con velleità artistiche (scultura), padre che invece ha sicuro talento (canto, voce da tenore), ma rinuncia perché ha i piedi per terra. Siamo su terreno che Yates ci ha fatto già conoscere più che bene.
Una separazione più dolorosa delle altre, sempre presenti nelle pagine scritte da Yates (e quindi, bocconcino prelibato per gli instancabili collezionisti di aspetti autobiografici, che questa volta andranno a nozze visto che A Good School è perlopiù considerato iper-autobiografico): il figlio sente di essere il preferito della madre, alla quale assomiglia di più, mentre la sorella maggiore è la preferita del padre. Padre che al ragazzo manca molto, ma col quale non ha affatto confidenza.
La madre decide che il figlio ha bisogno di un collegio.
O meglio, di un college.
Ambientato nel nord del Connecticut, in una piccola scuola privata maschile (prep-school) di incerta qualità, nonostante nel titolo la si definisca “buona”, appartiene a quel sottogenere letterario “college novels” che si potrebbe anche intendere come un ramo del “romanzo di formazione”.
La storia si svolge negli anni della seconda guerra mondiale e colpisce l’isolamento di questi adolescenti – lo statuto della scuola proibisce perfino di partecipare a competizioni sportive interscolastiche, che è un po’ il sale dei college americani – giovani che una volta diplomati saranno (baldanzosamente) destinati all’arruolamento e al combattimento: tre di loro rimangono sul campo di battaglia.
Ma nonostante lo sfondo storico tragico, Yates elargisce ampia dose della sua usuale ironia – dispiegata quanto mai nella cura di dialoghi pressoché impareggiabili - ironia che comunque non dimentica a casa la compassione, avvolgendone ogni ritratto, anche quello in apparenza più caustico. E ci regala un piccolo mondo di “sommersi e salvati”, e uno sciame di voci e caratteri che vivono sulle pagine il loro destino di anime infelici, salve per miracolo, perse dietro a sogni ormai infranti.
Altra distinzione tra questo e gli altri di Yates è la sua struttura: breve prologo e breve epilogo, entrambi narrati in prima persona, corpus della storia invece affidato alla voce del classico narratore.
Nessun insegnante paragonabile al Robin Williams di Dead Poets Society, nessuno “attimo fuggente”, nessun “Capitano, mio capitano”, ma un bel e piacevole racconto sulla confusione dell’adolescenza, le amicizie virili, testosterone e latente omosessualità, “bomba a orologeria ormonale”, il tutto racchiuso in una bolla isolata mentre invece il mondo si sta collegando con una delle guerre più terribili di sempre.
Gemma finale: il pistolotto della vecchia benefattrice che ha fondato la scuola (perché a lei sarebbe piaciuto nascere uomo, probabilmente con preferenza vero maschiaccio) che saluta gli allievi dell’ultimo corso (ultimo perché freschi diplomati e ultimo perché la scuola chiude per sempre per problemi economici) definendo la scontro bellico come guerra di Roosevelt, che secondo lei sognerebbe una nazione di “negri e comunisti”, i primi notoriamente prolifici, e quindi pronti a riempire il paese di futuri comunisti.
È comunque una buona scuola perché il ragazzo che Yates sceglie come alter ego, nonostante imbranataggine, verginità prolungata, voti mediocri, impara proprio quello che più gli piace e servirà nella vita adulta: la scrittura.
Per me aprire un nuovo romanzo di Yates – nuovo per me, ovviamente – iniziare a leggere è un momento carico di aspettative. Mai andate deluse. Neppure questa volta. Poetico senza essere lirico, autobiografico ma corale, un bel quadro dell’adolescenza americana che debutta in società direttamente con la guerra.
La cronaca sportiva di una partita che tutti hanno giocato assieme, contro tutti, contro se stessi, per una mèta che non è da conquistare, ma da superare, come una linea d’ombra da varcare senza troppo dolore.
E, se è vero che Yates ha scritto uno solo romanzo diviso in sette parti, questo è il capitolo numero cinque della sua personale recherche.
Arrivare tanto vicino a tutto ciò che uno ha sempre desiderato nella vita e poi non riuscire a… non riuscire a ottenerlo… immagino che sia questa l’essenza della condizione umana.
Madre con velleità artistiche (scultura), padre che invece ha sicuro talento (canto, voce da tenore), ma rinuncia perché ha i piedi per terra. Siamo su terreno che Yates ci ha fatto già conoscere più che bene.
Una separazione più dolorosa delle altre, sempre presenti nelle pagine scritte da Yates (e quindi, bocconcino prelibato per gli instancabili collezionisti di aspetti autobiografici, che questa volta andranno a nozze visto che A Good School è perlopiù considerato iper-autobiografico): il figlio sente di essere il preferito della madre, alla quale assomiglia di più, mentre la sorella maggiore è la preferita del padre. Padre che al ragazzo manca molto, ma col quale non ha affatto confidenza.
La madre decide che il figlio ha bisogno di un collegio.
O meglio, di un college.
Ambientato nel nord del Connecticut, in una piccola scuola privata maschile (prep-school) di incerta qualità, nonostante nel titolo la si definisca “buona”, appartiene a quel sottogenere letterario “college novels” che si potrebbe anche intendere come un ramo del “romanzo di formazione”.
La storia si svolge negli anni della seconda guerra mondiale e colpisce l’isolamento di questi adolescenti – lo statuto della scuola proibisce perfino di partecipare a competizioni sportive interscolastiche, che è un po’ il sale dei college americani – giovani che una volta diplomati saranno (baldanzosamente) destinati all’arruolamento e al combattimento: tre di loro rimangono sul campo di battaglia.
Ma nonostante lo sfondo storico tragico, Yates elargisce ampia dose della sua usuale ironia – dispiegata quanto mai nella cura di dialoghi pressoché impareggiabili - ironia che comunque non dimentica a casa la compassione, avvolgendone ogni ritratto, anche quello in apparenza più caustico. E ci regala un piccolo mondo di “sommersi e salvati”, e uno sciame di voci e caratteri che vivono sulle pagine il loro destino di anime infelici, salve per miracolo, perse dietro a sogni ormai infranti.
Altra distinzione tra questo e gli altri di Yates è la sua struttura: breve prologo e breve epilogo, entrambi narrati in prima persona, corpus della storia invece affidato alla voce del classico narratore.
Nessun insegnante paragonabile al Robin Williams di Dead Poets Society, nessuno “attimo fuggente”, nessun “Capitano, mio capitano”, ma un bel e piacevole racconto sulla confusione dell’adolescenza, le amicizie virili, testosterone e latente omosessualità, “bomba a orologeria ormonale”, il tutto racchiuso in una bolla isolata mentre invece il mondo si sta collegando con una delle guerre più terribili di sempre.
Gemma finale: il pistolotto della vecchia benefattrice che ha fondato la scuola (perché a lei sarebbe piaciuto nascere uomo, probabilmente con preferenza vero maschiaccio) che saluta gli allievi dell’ultimo corso (ultimo perché freschi diplomati e ultimo perché la scuola chiude per sempre per problemi economici) definendo la scontro bellico come guerra di Roosevelt, che secondo lei sognerebbe una nazione di “negri e comunisti”, i primi notoriamente prolifici, e quindi pronti a riempire il paese di futuri comunisti.
È comunque una buona scuola perché il ragazzo che Yates sceglie come alter ego, nonostante imbranataggine, verginità prolungata, voti mediocri, impara proprio quello che più gli piace e servirà nella vita adulta: la scrittura.
Per me aprire un nuovo romanzo di Yates – nuovo per me, ovviamente – iniziare a leggere è un momento carico di aspettative. Mai andate deluse. Neppure questa volta. Poetico senza essere lirico, autobiografico ma corale, un bel quadro dell’adolescenza americana che debutta in società direttamente con la guerra.
La cronaca sportiva di una partita che tutti hanno giocato assieme, contro tutti, contro se stessi, per una mèta che non è da conquistare, ma da superare, come una linea d’ombra da varcare senza troppo dolore.
E, se è vero che Yates ha scritto uno solo romanzo diviso in sette parti, questo è il capitolo numero cinque della sua personale recherche.
Arrivare tanto vicino a tutto ciò che uno ha sempre desiderato nella vita e poi non riuscire a… non riuscire a ottenerlo… immagino che sia questa l’essenza della condizione umana.
January 11, 2021
Why is it that when so many hated school, there seems to be an endless output of novels set in some sort of school? I'm not talking about magical Hogwarts-type schools, the appeal there is clear. I mean Decline and Fall, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Pastors and Masters, Notes on a Scandal, The Sandcastle, Concluding etc. Who reads them? I didn't hate school, and wish I'd continued my education, I'd probably have become a teacher, and since I seem to seek 'school' novels out, this year especially it seems, I can only assume that their readers are people like me. Perhaps some are curious to see if the school experiences of others resemble their own? Maybe I'm overthinking it, perhaps a school is a setting like any other.
This is a fine example of that sort of book, set at a less than prestigious American boarding school during WWII and intermixing the public and private lives of its students and teachers. I love the simple way in which he writes about sex--nobody needs a how-to guide. In this one there's lots of jerking off, and at least two of the teachers are having an affair. I'd always read that Richard Yates is underrated/underappreciated, many of his books going out of print during his lifetime and after his death, but not until recently did I realize truly what a shame this is. Read his books! He wrote more than Revolutionary Road, you know.
This is a fine example of that sort of book, set at a less than prestigious American boarding school during WWII and intermixing the public and private lives of its students and teachers. I love the simple way in which he writes about sex--nobody needs a how-to guide. In this one there's lots of jerking off, and at least two of the teachers are having an affair. I'd always read that Richard Yates is underrated/underappreciated, many of his books going out of print during his lifetime and after his death, but not until recently did I realize truly what a shame this is. Read his books! He wrote more than Revolutionary Road, you know.
April 13, 2018
A Trivial Memoir
A Good School is an autobiographical novel of adolescence. It is clearly located in the Avon Farms School (as the Dorset Academy) near Hartford, Connecticut between 1941 and 1944. Perhaps, if it had been written closer to the time rather than 35 years later, it could be considered a period piece. As it is, its language and concerns - largely adolescence and associated neuroses - don’t correspond with its time. The 1960’s created a decisive break in style and subject matter to which Yates obviously had succumbed, and with incongruous results.
Perhaps the most appropriate comparison is with Louis Auchincloss’s The Rector of Justin, written in the early 1960’s and based on his experience in The Groton School in the 1930’s. Both books treat of the culture and unique sociology of New England private schools. The class structure, bullying, teenage angst, loneliness, and homoerotic tension among the students; and the political and sexual intrigue among the teachers are common to both books. And both Yates and Auchincloss use the more or less permanent financial crises of these schools as a thread to hold the narratives together.
The principle difference between the two books is that while the The Rector of Justin has a substantial plot and moral significance beyond the details of private school existence, A Good School is at best a fictionalised memoir. This latter book has a fundamental technical flaw: there is no real central character who must grapple with a significant issue. The titles, I suppose, are telling. Auchincloss has a protagonist; Yates has a venue. Given that focus, all Yates can do is recount anecdotes, most often of minor sexual perversion, and string them together in a barely perceptible narrative progression. The book has no depth, no import as a consequence. By 1978, the world had already had its fill 0f adolescent sexual awakening with novels like Catcher in the Rye, Portnoy’s Complaint and Franny and Zooey among so many others. A Good School adds nothing to the genre, nor to an appreciation of the condition.
The comparison becomes even more unfavourable for Yates when the similar point of the stories is recognised. Yates has his primary character summarise the situation at the school when he has him say “I mean everything’s over anyway, isn’t it?” Auchincloss poses a similar question about his school’s future. But what is ‘over’ in each is very different. For Yates it is merely the life of the school - regrettable as a matter of sentiment for its students but otherwise unworthy of note. For Auchincloss what is passing is an era of old wealth, personal character and character-building institutions. A new culture is being formed that is grounded in rapaciously competitive advancement rather than individual development. It clear to me which of these is the more interesting and revealing commentary on mid-century America.
Postscript: Another novel concerned with the more recent culture of New England private schools can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Good School is an autobiographical novel of adolescence. It is clearly located in the Avon Farms School (as the Dorset Academy) near Hartford, Connecticut between 1941 and 1944. Perhaps, if it had been written closer to the time rather than 35 years later, it could be considered a period piece. As it is, its language and concerns - largely adolescence and associated neuroses - don’t correspond with its time. The 1960’s created a decisive break in style and subject matter to which Yates obviously had succumbed, and with incongruous results.
Perhaps the most appropriate comparison is with Louis Auchincloss’s The Rector of Justin, written in the early 1960’s and based on his experience in The Groton School in the 1930’s. Both books treat of the culture and unique sociology of New England private schools. The class structure, bullying, teenage angst, loneliness, and homoerotic tension among the students; and the political and sexual intrigue among the teachers are common to both books. And both Yates and Auchincloss use the more or less permanent financial crises of these schools as a thread to hold the narratives together.
The principle difference between the two books is that while the The Rector of Justin has a substantial plot and moral significance beyond the details of private school existence, A Good School is at best a fictionalised memoir. This latter book has a fundamental technical flaw: there is no real central character who must grapple with a significant issue. The titles, I suppose, are telling. Auchincloss has a protagonist; Yates has a venue. Given that focus, all Yates can do is recount anecdotes, most often of minor sexual perversion, and string them together in a barely perceptible narrative progression. The book has no depth, no import as a consequence. By 1978, the world had already had its fill 0f adolescent sexual awakening with novels like Catcher in the Rye, Portnoy’s Complaint and Franny and Zooey among so many others. A Good School adds nothing to the genre, nor to an appreciation of the condition.
The comparison becomes even more unfavourable for Yates when the similar point of the stories is recognised. Yates has his primary character summarise the situation at the school when he has him say “I mean everything’s over anyway, isn’t it?” Auchincloss poses a similar question about his school’s future. But what is ‘over’ in each is very different. For Yates it is merely the life of the school - regrettable as a matter of sentiment for its students but otherwise unworthy of note. For Auchincloss what is passing is an era of old wealth, personal character and character-building institutions. A new culture is being formed that is grounded in rapaciously competitive advancement rather than individual development. It clear to me which of these is the more interesting and revealing commentary on mid-century America.
Postscript: Another novel concerned with the more recent culture of New England private schools can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
January 3, 2019
Avrei potuto dirgli perfino – e sarebbe stata solo una leggera esagerazione –quella è stata una buona scuola
Nemico dello stratagemma, del concetto astratto e specialmente del «romanzo di idee», Yates era un Realista, per quanto di una varietà così estrema che lo si potrebbe anche definire «Romanzista», dato che nulla di quanto c’era di vero nella sua vita riuscì a evitare di essere romanzato.
Beh è un’ottima analisi, la fa Zadie Smith nella prefazione al testo. Successivamente leggendo i cenni biografici e avendo letto i suoi romanzi, ci si accorge dell’attinenza fra la sua vita e i suoi personaggi. Questa volta Yates per raccontarsi sceglie un adolescente figlio di genitori divorziati che viene iscritto ad una buona scuola (un collegio) del Connecticut. Lo fa in terza persona e ciò gli consente di allargare l’inquadratura su compagni ed insegnanti, tutti presi da un forte sentimento patriottico, tutti disposti a dare il proprio contributo all’America scesa in guerra contro il nazifascismo.
Nell’autunno seguente quelli della classe del 1944 si ritrovarono di colpo allievi del sesto anno – anziani – e la maggior parte di loro non si sentiva all’altezza del cambiamento
Non è così che succede sempre? Chi è mai veramente pronto a diventare anziano? Borghee-si.. Borghee-si.. Borghesi, Borghesi, Borghesi.. fa una delle canzoni goliardiche che Yates avrebbe potuto cantare se fosse cresciuto in Italia. Lui (più che altro il traduttore) fa cantare agli anziani ragazzi americani:
Cantiamo in glo-o-ria,
glo-o-ria,
un barile di birra
per fare baldo-o-ria..
Tornare a Yates dopo svariati anni è come riascoltare un pezzo dei Beatles di quelli che ti rimangono in testa pur non essendo capolavori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOuu8...
L’ultimo capitolo del breve romanzo è intriso di una malinconia diversa dalla tristezza che molti lettori di solito contestano a Yates, una malinconia alla Hemingway, quella che per restare in ambito Beatles va ascoltata instrumental
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVIb...
Nemico dello stratagemma, del concetto astratto e specialmente del «romanzo di idee», Yates era un Realista, per quanto di una varietà così estrema che lo si potrebbe anche definire «Romanzista», dato che nulla di quanto c’era di vero nella sua vita riuscì a evitare di essere romanzato.
Beh è un’ottima analisi, la fa Zadie Smith nella prefazione al testo. Successivamente leggendo i cenni biografici e avendo letto i suoi romanzi, ci si accorge dell’attinenza fra la sua vita e i suoi personaggi. Questa volta Yates per raccontarsi sceglie un adolescente figlio di genitori divorziati che viene iscritto ad una buona scuola (un collegio) del Connecticut. Lo fa in terza persona e ciò gli consente di allargare l’inquadratura su compagni ed insegnanti, tutti presi da un forte sentimento patriottico, tutti disposti a dare il proprio contributo all’America scesa in guerra contro il nazifascismo.
Nell’autunno seguente quelli della classe del 1944 si ritrovarono di colpo allievi del sesto anno – anziani – e la maggior parte di loro non si sentiva all’altezza del cambiamento
Non è così che succede sempre? Chi è mai veramente pronto a diventare anziano? Borghee-si.. Borghee-si.. Borghesi, Borghesi, Borghesi.. fa una delle canzoni goliardiche che Yates avrebbe potuto cantare se fosse cresciuto in Italia. Lui (più che altro il traduttore) fa cantare agli anziani ragazzi americani:
Cantiamo in glo-o-ria,
glo-o-ria,
un barile di birra
per fare baldo-o-ria..
Tornare a Yates dopo svariati anni è come riascoltare un pezzo dei Beatles di quelli che ti rimangono in testa pur non essendo capolavori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOuu8...
L’ultimo capitolo del breve romanzo è intriso di una malinconia diversa dalla tristezza che molti lettori di solito contestano a Yates, una malinconia alla Hemingway, quella che per restare in ambito Beatles va ascoltata instrumental
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVIb...
June 6, 2013
Reading Yates’ writing is like ambling along a country road on a slow Sunday afternoon. With no set destination, you merely admire the changing, cascading fall leaves, feeling deeply a sense of loss yet at the same time enraptured in the profound beauty of life. Yates’ sentences are often long and winding, but they are, at the same time, smooth and soothing—you never get lost in them; you just travel along and enjoy them. This holds true for the novel as a whole, too. With no real plot, the pure pleasure in reading A Good School is derived from profoundly rendered characters. Yates portrays the human psyche (mainly that of the adolescent male in this book) as authentically as any author I have read. He does not shy away from subjects like sex, which happens to be on young male minds quite often, nor does he add superfluous vulgarity; rather, he captures every self-doubt, every insecurity with the utmost precision. The only unfortunate consequence of this verisimilitude is that it precludes A Good School from replacing A Separate Peace in high school curricula.
December 14, 2017
Arrivederci ragazzi
Avevo già deciso di assegnargli tre stelline, non perché non fosse scritto bene, Richard Yates in questo senso è una garanzia, quanto piuttosto perché l'ambientazione in un collegio maschile degli Stati Uniti negli anni Quaranta non era riuscita a creare alcuna sorta di empatia durante la lettura.
Da una parte però era anche vero, come spiegato anche nell'introduzione e nella bellissima premessa scritta dallo stesso Yates - leggerle dopo aver letto Bugiardi e innamorati è impressionante per la quantità di note biografiche perfettamente sovrapponibili ai personaggi e agli eventi dei racconti - che questo è un romanzo quasi completamente autobiografico e che al di là di ogni considerazione è senza dubbio interessante per meglio comprendere la formazione dell'autore e conoscere l'ambiente sociale e culturale in cui ha iniziato a muovere i primi passi.
Però, dicevo, non mi aveva emozionata né coinvolta, quindi ero del tutto intenzionata a darne una valutazione intermedia.
Finché non ho letto gli ultimi due capitoli, in cui l'autore esce completamente allo scoperto mettendo a nudo non più solo, come al solito, i suoi personaggi, personaggi nei quali mette in ognuno un po' di sé e nei quali non è difficile rintracciare gli avvenimenti salienti della sua biografia, ma finalmente se stesso.
E lo fa in maniera commovente, scrivendo delle parole bellissime per il ragazzo che è stato, per il padre che teme di non aver ringraziato abbastanza, e per le speranze, per i sogni, per i compagni di scuola e per quell'innocenza, tipicamente americana, che la seconda guerra mondiale ha spazzato via senza alcun preavviso.
Ho chiuso il libro e mi sono detta E no, questa non me la dovevi fare! E adesso che ne facciamo di questo romanzo? Di questo miscuglio tra L'attimo fuggente e Arrivederci ragazzi, di questa storia vista al cinema mille volte (che noi italiani, non avendo i college, non riusciremo mai a fare veramente nostra e a comprendere fino in fondo, e per la quale io pago persino lo scotto di essere femmina e quindi capire ancora meno cameratismo, riti d'iniziazione, atteggiamenti di nonnismo e prepotenze varie), di questi luoghi dove anche un ragazzino timido e impacciato poteva diventare il direttore del giornale della scuola e iniziare a diventare il Richard Yates di domani?
Be', ne facciamo che se non sempre due capitoli possono "salvare" un libro intero, questa volta invece lo salvano eccome: perché Richard Yates scrive così bene che in quel college sembra di esserci stati veramente, perché questa volta, scrivendo di se stesso, di persone con le quali ha trascorso gli anni della sua adolescenza, forse non è stata una cosa così semplice e allora voglio essere generosa, perché da questo romanzo, da eccezionale fotografo qual era Yates, sarebbe possibile girarne immediatamente un film e rappresentare così, in un attimo, un'epoca che ha cambiato il mondo, attraverso la storia di quei ragazzi, pieni di sogni e speranze che un giorno, con il diploma in tasca, sono partiti per la vita.
Avevo già deciso di assegnargli tre stelline, non perché non fosse scritto bene, Richard Yates in questo senso è una garanzia, quanto piuttosto perché l'ambientazione in un collegio maschile degli Stati Uniti negli anni Quaranta non era riuscita a creare alcuna sorta di empatia durante la lettura.
Da una parte però era anche vero, come spiegato anche nell'introduzione e nella bellissima premessa scritta dallo stesso Yates - leggerle dopo aver letto Bugiardi e innamorati è impressionante per la quantità di note biografiche perfettamente sovrapponibili ai personaggi e agli eventi dei racconti - che questo è un romanzo quasi completamente autobiografico e che al di là di ogni considerazione è senza dubbio interessante per meglio comprendere la formazione dell'autore e conoscere l'ambiente sociale e culturale in cui ha iniziato a muovere i primi passi.
Però, dicevo, non mi aveva emozionata né coinvolta, quindi ero del tutto intenzionata a darne una valutazione intermedia.
Finché non ho letto gli ultimi due capitoli, in cui l'autore esce completamente allo scoperto mettendo a nudo non più solo, come al solito, i suoi personaggi, personaggi nei quali mette in ognuno un po' di sé e nei quali non è difficile rintracciare gli avvenimenti salienti della sua biografia, ma finalmente se stesso.
E lo fa in maniera commovente, scrivendo delle parole bellissime per il ragazzo che è stato, per il padre che teme di non aver ringraziato abbastanza, e per le speranze, per i sogni, per i compagni di scuola e per quell'innocenza, tipicamente americana, che la seconda guerra mondiale ha spazzato via senza alcun preavviso.
Ho chiuso il libro e mi sono detta E no, questa non me la dovevi fare! E adesso che ne facciamo di questo romanzo? Di questo miscuglio tra L'attimo fuggente e Arrivederci ragazzi, di questa storia vista al cinema mille volte (che noi italiani, non avendo i college, non riusciremo mai a fare veramente nostra e a comprendere fino in fondo, e per la quale io pago persino lo scotto di essere femmina e quindi capire ancora meno cameratismo, riti d'iniziazione, atteggiamenti di nonnismo e prepotenze varie), di questi luoghi dove anche un ragazzino timido e impacciato poteva diventare il direttore del giornale della scuola e iniziare a diventare il Richard Yates di domani?
Be', ne facciamo che se non sempre due capitoli possono "salvare" un libro intero, questa volta invece lo salvano eccome: perché Richard Yates scrive così bene che in quel college sembra di esserci stati veramente, perché questa volta, scrivendo di se stesso, di persone con le quali ha trascorso gli anni della sua adolescenza, forse non è stata una cosa così semplice e allora voglio essere generosa, perché da questo romanzo, da eccezionale fotografo qual era Yates, sarebbe possibile girarne immediatamente un film e rappresentare così, in un attimo, un'epoca che ha cambiato il mondo, attraverso la storia di quei ragazzi, pieni di sogni e speranze che un giorno, con il diploma in tasca, sono partiti per la vita.
February 18, 2020
my heart
the way he writes really gets me idk. It ebbs & flows with his lyricisms and he short, matter of fact moments. “in the privacy of my heart” fuck just some moments in these last few pages really got me because of how objectively he presents them *spoilers* particularly the Jack Drapers attempt to take his life & Driscoll’s truck ride back with the boys singing, realising they’re children going to war
the way he writes really gets me idk. It ebbs & flows with his lyricisms and he short, matter of fact moments. “in the privacy of my heart” fuck just some moments in these last few pages really got me because of how objectively he presents them *spoilers* particularly the Jack Drapers attempt to take his life & Driscoll’s truck ride back with the boys singing, realising they’re children going to war
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2010
Sadly, the weakest Yates I have read, though it was written roughly in the middle of his writing career.
This is more overtly autobiographical than his others (though all are heavily based on aspects of his life): it is the story of an awkward, not very academic 15 year old boy joining a prep school and it is topped and tailed by the boy "Grove" (i.e. Yates) explaining why he went there and what happened afterwards. In fact, the introduction was the best section: quirky, personal, poignant and with real insight ("an unspoken agreement between us that, in the dividing process of the divorce, I had been given over to my mother").
The cast of this enclosed and rather odd school community of 125 boys is large, but comprises too many stereotypes: the outsider who's a victim; the popular sporty types; boys who are rich and one or two who are poor; teachers who are loved and teachers who are not; an alcoholic, a nervous breakdown and an adulterer (it is by Yates, after all); a mad old lady; a sleazy salesman; a sexy girl or two; a communist; a runaway and so on.
Characters are introduced, then forgotten until a short burst of significant story, before returning to obscurity. It is fragmentary, often lacking in focus and largely short of narrative drive: people get older and things happen, but it's oddly incidental.
In places it almost reads like Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers with the angst of growing up ("suddenly sixth-formers... and most of them didn't feel up to it"); friendships ("the quandary of having two friends who didn't much like each other" contrasted when one is away, leading to "an easing of the pressure in his life. There was no one to admire, no one to please, no one to fear"); the comic potential of practising smoking ("how to inhale without coughing; how to will his senses to accept drugged dizziness as pleasure rather than incipient nausea. Then came the subtler lessons in aesthetics..."); dorm-sharing etc. Life there is never exactly charmed, but American joining the war narrows the boys' immediate prospects and changes things for ever.
Although the setting can be claustrophobic, exacerbated by the fact that the staff and their families live on campus and the boys never play other schools at sports, the importance of silence is an subtle thread through the book: "a dramatic silence, giving every sign of wanting to call attention to itself" and "when you're talking... the important thing is knowing when to stop. Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence." The boy who doesn't know that and "made the mistake of talking too much, and... about boring things" has to struggle for acceptance.
I wonder if the book had been longer, whether Yates would have managed to make it hang together better. It's not a bad book, but if it was the first Yates I read, I don't think I would rush to read others.
This is more overtly autobiographical than his others (though all are heavily based on aspects of his life): it is the story of an awkward, not very academic 15 year old boy joining a prep school and it is topped and tailed by the boy "Grove" (i.e. Yates) explaining why he went there and what happened afterwards. In fact, the introduction was the best section: quirky, personal, poignant and with real insight ("an unspoken agreement between us that, in the dividing process of the divorce, I had been given over to my mother").
The cast of this enclosed and rather odd school community of 125 boys is large, but comprises too many stereotypes: the outsider who's a victim; the popular sporty types; boys who are rich and one or two who are poor; teachers who are loved and teachers who are not; an alcoholic, a nervous breakdown and an adulterer (it is by Yates, after all); a mad old lady; a sleazy salesman; a sexy girl or two; a communist; a runaway and so on.
Characters are introduced, then forgotten until a short burst of significant story, before returning to obscurity. It is fragmentary, often lacking in focus and largely short of narrative drive: people get older and things happen, but it's oddly incidental.
In places it almost reads like Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers with the angst of growing up ("suddenly sixth-formers... and most of them didn't feel up to it"); friendships ("the quandary of having two friends who didn't much like each other" contrasted when one is away, leading to "an easing of the pressure in his life. There was no one to admire, no one to please, no one to fear"); the comic potential of practising smoking ("how to inhale without coughing; how to will his senses to accept drugged dizziness as pleasure rather than incipient nausea. Then came the subtler lessons in aesthetics..."); dorm-sharing etc. Life there is never exactly charmed, but American joining the war narrows the boys' immediate prospects and changes things for ever.
Although the setting can be claustrophobic, exacerbated by the fact that the staff and their families live on campus and the boys never play other schools at sports, the importance of silence is an subtle thread through the book: "a dramatic silence, giving every sign of wanting to call attention to itself" and "when you're talking... the important thing is knowing when to stop. Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence." The boy who doesn't know that and "made the mistake of talking too much, and... about boring things" has to struggle for acceptance.
I wonder if the book had been longer, whether Yates would have managed to make it hang together better. It's not a bad book, but if it was the first Yates I read, I don't think I would rush to read others.
January 3, 2015
Una buona scuola è una scuola che ti prepara alla vita, alle lotte, ai sacrifici, alle sconfitte, ai colpi vietati e alle cadute che troverai più in là, quando verrai catapultato fuori. La Dorset Academy è una buona scuola: tra le sue mura gli studenti , un microcosmo fatto di cameratismo e di solidarietà ma anche di esaltazione dell’individualismo, con conseguente spirito di rivalsa e di emulazione, affrontano l’adolescenza con il caos emotivo che la caratterizza e si preparano alle vicende dolorose della vita, all’amore, al sesso, alla morte, alla guerra (la seconda guerra mondiale è alle porte), al tradimento, alla gelosia, all’invidia. Anche gli insegnanti fanno parte del microcosmo del college, ed anche per loro le quattro mura in cui lavorano sono testimoni di dolori, di sofferenze fisiche e psichiche che si esprimono in dipendenze alcooliche, fino ad arrivare al problema della disoccupazione a causa della chiusura della scuola, destinata a ricovero per veterani ciechi dell’esercito, con un simbolico cambio di guardia: giovani pieni di vita pronti a partire per il fronte, preparati, come scrive William Grove –alter ego dello scrittore- nel giornale scolastico, ad entrare nel loro “periodo di cecità, se non nel senso fisico, sicuramente in quello spirituale della parola”.
Non è un capolavoro come Revolutionary road, ma il sapore drammatico delle vicende narrate, il carico di fallimenti e delusioni ci sono anche qua, così come le note autobiografiche che si trovano in Easter Parade, che in questo romanzo sono evidenti all’inizio e alla fine, nello struggente ricordo di un padre che sognava di diventare tenore e si è trovato ad essere vicedirettore commerciale della Mazda.
Non è un capolavoro come Revolutionary road, ma il sapore drammatico delle vicende narrate, il carico di fallimenti e delusioni ci sono anche qua, così come le note autobiografiche che si trovano in Easter Parade, che in questo romanzo sono evidenti all’inizio e alla fine, nello struggente ricordo di un padre che sognava di diventare tenore e si è trovato ad essere vicedirettore commerciale della Mazda.
May 22, 2018
First published in 1978, A Good School is perhaps the most autobiographical of Richard Yates’ novels. The setting is Dorset Academy, a private, all-male prep school in northern Connecticut – a somewhat odd yet well-intentioned institution which, unbeknownst to the parents who send their boys there, turns out to be on the brink of financial collapse. It soon becomes clear that there is something a little funny about Dorset; while the head likes to think of it as ‘a good school’, there is something decidedly off or second-rate here, a notion that is typified by the following quote.
Dorset Academy had a wide reputation for accepting boys who, for any number of reasons, no other school would touch. (p. 5)
To read my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2018...
Dorset Academy had a wide reputation for accepting boys who, for any number of reasons, no other school would touch. (p. 5)
To read my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2018...
July 13, 2015
Sometimes it seemed that he couldn’t really consider Britt a friend – how could anything as warm and sloppy as friendship apply to an ice-cold perfectionist like Britt? – but he had to acknowledge that Britt was still the one person in the world whose approval he wanted most. And there were signs that he might soon win it, if he watched his step and didn’t fall into dumb stuff like asking if The Brothers Karamazov was any good.
***
Or take Lear, whose rich English accent, when he was called upon to read aloud from The Merchant of Venice (“Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold . . .”) had suddenly brought the whole fucking play alive for a roomful of slobs who only minutes before had been in unanimous, grumbling agreement that Shakespeare was impossible to understand.
***
There was a great stirring of tweed and flannel as five or six boys got to their feet; there were bashful smiles and a ragged chorus of “Hi, Edith” – and there he was, looking older and more manly than any of the others, his head made golden in the afternoon light: Larry Gaines.
***
It was just another banal portrayal of cruel vs sweet boys in a prestigious prep school, until it wasn't. Once it swerved off the dormitory-tricks-in-the-dark path, it turned into a beautiful if fragmental story of friendship, companionship, and real life — about to begin, but please, not just yet.
***
Or take Lear, whose rich English accent, when he was called upon to read aloud from The Merchant of Venice (“Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold . . .”) had suddenly brought the whole fucking play alive for a roomful of slobs who only minutes before had been in unanimous, grumbling agreement that Shakespeare was impossible to understand.
***
There was a great stirring of tweed and flannel as five or six boys got to their feet; there were bashful smiles and a ragged chorus of “Hi, Edith” – and there he was, looking older and more manly than any of the others, his head made golden in the afternoon light: Larry Gaines.
***
It was just another banal portrayal of cruel vs sweet boys in a prestigious prep school, until it wasn't. Once it swerved off the dormitory-tricks-in-the-dark path, it turned into a beautiful if fragmental story of friendship, companionship, and real life — about to begin, but please, not just yet.
Read
May 14, 2021Welp, I did it -- I've read all of Yates' stories and novels.
If you read even a little Richard Yates, it's hard to escape the conclusion that he probably had a pretty rough time in school growing up, and I imagine it was something like the plot of A Good School -- I imagine the third-rate prep school, the desperate attempts to remain at the upper end of the middle class.
And while the schoolboy coming-of-age novel is often a grotesque cliche, A Good School has a fair amount of Yates' trademark heartbreak, although without the pain he is able to evoke so well. It wasn't at all bad, but compared to his first four novels -- all of them masterpieces -- it doesn't quite hold up.
If you read even a little Richard Yates, it's hard to escape the conclusion that he probably had a pretty rough time in school growing up, and I imagine it was something like the plot of A Good School -- I imagine the third-rate prep school, the desperate attempts to remain at the upper end of the middle class.
And while the schoolboy coming-of-age novel is often a grotesque cliche, A Good School has a fair amount of Yates' trademark heartbreak, although without the pain he is able to evoke so well. It wasn't at all bad, but compared to his first four novels -- all of them masterpieces -- it doesn't quite hold up.
August 12, 2011
A Good School, Dorset Academy in Connecticut, is the setting for this very short novel -- just 178 pages and seven chapters long. The school is an all male prep school on the brink of financial disaster. The story takes place around the time World War II began. From what I've read about the author, Richard Yates, this novel seems to be the most autobiographical of those I've read: Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade and Disturbing the Peace.
The first person narrator, we learn as we read, is William Grove (Yates??) who had been teased, hazed and repeatedly humiliated . Grove's grades slip, he takes up smoking to try and fit in, and eventually finds his niche at the school while working on the student newspaper, and becoming editor-in-chief. Like Grove, many of the boys at this school were sent o this school simply because their family had exhausted other options, and wanted their sons to be away from home.
The novel does not have a terribly exciting plot, but rather focuses on typical schoolboy dramas like: rowdiness, teasing, sexual antics, and many of the boys, just seeing what they could get away with, without getting caught. The are also inappropriate relationships going on behind the scenes between teachers and spouses of teachers, as well as office politics and infighting that you might find in just about any organization today. The reader gets a good feel for what is going on with several of the students and staff, as Yates is extremely skilled in peeling away the layers of the characters he creates. Even the flawed characters, seemed to have something about them that made them feel so real -- so very human.
Although this was not my favorite Yates novel to date, it is still a worthy read, reminding me somewhat of A Separate Peace, back from my early days in school. Young men just entering adulthood, with little or no preparation for war, be called to serve their country, and the once free-spirited days of youth and innocence become all but a memory. Recommended
Like William Grove, Richard Yates came from a dysfunctional family. A child of divorce, he too was sent off to a boarding school in Connecticut, at about the time this novel takes place. He also worked on the school newspaper, which is how he became interested in writing. After graduating, Yates joined the army and went off to war. I still have not grown tired of this author, and look forward to trying his biography and a few more works of fiction.
The first person narrator, we learn as we read, is William Grove (Yates??) who had been teased, hazed and repeatedly humiliated . Grove's grades slip, he takes up smoking to try and fit in, and eventually finds his niche at the school while working on the student newspaper, and becoming editor-in-chief. Like Grove, many of the boys at this school were sent o this school simply because their family had exhausted other options, and wanted their sons to be away from home.
The novel does not have a terribly exciting plot, but rather focuses on typical schoolboy dramas like: rowdiness, teasing, sexual antics, and many of the boys, just seeing what they could get away with, without getting caught. The are also inappropriate relationships going on behind the scenes between teachers and spouses of teachers, as well as office politics and infighting that you might find in just about any organization today. The reader gets a good feel for what is going on with several of the students and staff, as Yates is extremely skilled in peeling away the layers of the characters he creates. Even the flawed characters, seemed to have something about them that made them feel so real -- so very human.
Although this was not my favorite Yates novel to date, it is still a worthy read, reminding me somewhat of A Separate Peace, back from my early days in school. Young men just entering adulthood, with little or no preparation for war, be called to serve their country, and the once free-spirited days of youth and innocence become all but a memory. Recommended
Like William Grove, Richard Yates came from a dysfunctional family. A child of divorce, he too was sent off to a boarding school in Connecticut, at about the time this novel takes place. He also worked on the school newspaper, which is how he became interested in writing. After graduating, Yates joined the army and went off to war. I still have not grown tired of this author, and look forward to trying his biography and a few more works of fiction.
October 6, 2015
Richard Yates' fifth novel (his first is the well-known Revolutionary Road) is an anchronistic work of staunch realism written during the turbulent era of the post-modernistic late 1970s. He writes defiantly against those newer authors in this nevertheless slight work of nostalgic fictionalized autobiography. It makes no great impression on the reader, flitting into his mind easily and departing quickly. Yates uses a large cast of teenage characters, uncomfortably and stereotypically differentiated by body type, intelligence, and sociability, to catalog a typical boarding school with its clichéd academic, social, and sexual conflicts. The usual authority figures are there, too: the clueless headmaster, bullying disciplinarians, underemployed teachers, a lower-class filthy staff.
Yates presents all this in short, tightly interwoven threads of objective realism, without any synthesis into a larger message. The prose lies flat on the page, crying for the reader to pick it up and make it live. The problem is, we're bored with it; we've seen all this before in other more interesting college and boarding school novels, such as John Knowles' A Separate Peace, Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, and even John Horne Burns' unfairly reviled Lucifer with a Book. This genre is overstuffed with fictions, memoirs, and exposés, into which Yates' novel adds little beyond a sense of wistful anti-modernism.
Yates presents all this in short, tightly interwoven threads of objective realism, without any synthesis into a larger message. The prose lies flat on the page, crying for the reader to pick it up and make it live. The problem is, we're bored with it; we've seen all this before in other more interesting college and boarding school novels, such as John Knowles' A Separate Peace, Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, and even John Horne Burns' unfairly reviled Lucifer with a Book. This genre is overstuffed with fictions, memoirs, and exposés, into which Yates' novel adds little beyond a sense of wistful anti-modernism.
July 5, 2017
Yates is one of those infamous writers you hear about in little bookish nooks and crannies but that's about it.
Ok, so Revolutionary Road is quite famous, apparently, but I'd only found out about any titles of his recently.
Also, Yates is easily confused with Yeats (pointing fingers right back at moi), which makes him seem even more accomplished.
So obviously, due to all things shouting "Ah! Literary!" when I spotted a little collection of Yates at the new library I go to, I had to choose one to take home.
And since a A Good School tickled my interest, A Good School it was.
Plus it's pretty short, so that is a lovely thing at times...times when bookstacks of the unread sort tend to overtake every corner of your room, ya feel me?
Boarding school settings are no-brainers for me. I read them.
Blame Enid Blyton if you will, but they are my guilty pleasure sans the guilty.
Even better if it's got a slice of Americana all throughout.
And this was just that, not really gripping in any particular way as there was an absence of a plot and I believe more autobiographical in character anyway, a good old boarding school novel.
I could have read this in my childhood/early teens too, if you leave out all the sexual content, so it was really rather a cozy read.
I'm not blown away, but I had a good time with A Good School.
(If I don't have at least one horrible pun in my review, you'd all be disappointed, am I right?)
Ok, so Revolutionary Road is quite famous, apparently, but I'd only found out about any titles of his recently.
Also, Yates is easily confused with Yeats (pointing fingers right back at moi), which makes him seem even more accomplished.
So obviously, due to all things shouting "Ah! Literary!" when I spotted a little collection of Yates at the new library I go to, I had to choose one to take home.
And since a A Good School tickled my interest, A Good School it was.
Plus it's pretty short, so that is a lovely thing at times...times when bookstacks of the unread sort tend to overtake every corner of your room, ya feel me?
Boarding school settings are no-brainers for me. I read them.
Blame Enid Blyton if you will, but they are my guilty pleasure sans the guilty.
Even better if it's got a slice of Americana all throughout.
And this was just that, not really gripping in any particular way as there was an absence of a plot and I believe more autobiographical in character anyway, a good old boarding school novel.
I could have read this in my childhood/early teens too, if you leave out all the sexual content, so it was really rather a cozy read.
I'm not blown away, but I had a good time with A Good School.
(If I don't have at least one horrible pun in my review, you'd all be disappointed, am I right?)
February 21, 2010
I was hovering between 3 and 4 stars with this one. 3 because I thought, simply, the book was a little too short. There are so many interesting characters in these pages: an alcoholic cuckold with polio, a lonely prep school newspaper editor, a womanizing french teacher, a lone pretty teenage girl on an all-boys campus. And the list goes on. They all get their moments, but I could have read some meatier chapters about all of them.
That said, this book had a slow burning power over me. It seems, in the beginning, like light fare for Yates, but as WWII looms closer and closer and all these boys learn that they're all headed into the army, their lives are charged with something vital and frightening. The trivial characteristics of their days are suddenly imbued with meaning. They are literally counting down the days until the end of their innocence, and Yates never overplays this. It's just a realization that slowly dawns on the boys at the same time it does the reader. And of course, they're bewildered and unsure of what the world will have to offer them.
On a final technical note, I've never seen a writer switch between multiple third person perspectives with such ease. It felt, in its best moments, like we were inside the entire consciousness of this "funny" little prep school. From the headmaster's daughter to the lowly school outcasts.
That said, this book had a slow burning power over me. It seems, in the beginning, like light fare for Yates, but as WWII looms closer and closer and all these boys learn that they're all headed into the army, their lives are charged with something vital and frightening. The trivial characteristics of their days are suddenly imbued with meaning. They are literally counting down the days until the end of their innocence, and Yates never overplays this. It's just a realization that slowly dawns on the boys at the same time it does the reader. And of course, they're bewildered and unsure of what the world will have to offer them.
On a final technical note, I've never seen a writer switch between multiple third person perspectives with such ease. It felt, in its best moments, like we were inside the entire consciousness of this "funny" little prep school. From the headmaster's daughter to the lowly school outcasts.
February 22, 2023
Fra tutti i romanzi di Yates che ho letto allo stato attuale (ovvero, tutti meno uno), "Una buona scuola" è l'unico di cui conservo il ricordo più opaco, nonchè l'unico che trovo un po' sottotono, non tanto per stile, quanto per gusto personale...forse perchè qui Yates si spoglia della sua veste di narratore amaro e minimalista e si cimenta in un racconto di formazione, qualcosa a mio avviso di diverso rispetto a ciò che ha sempre scritto. La vicenda è infatti ambientata in un collegio maschile americano degli anni '40, nel quale si snodano le disavventaure dei vari personaggi adolescenti, tra cui l'impacciato William Grove (alter ego di Yates stesso), deciso ad affermarsi come reporter nel giornalino scolastico. Un romanzo dal sapore adolescenziale, narrato tuttavia con un sottile tono nostalgico, ma anche un racconto sulla giovinezza, sull'amicizia, sull'amore, sulla maturazione. E anche sulla storia...perchè sullo sfondo incombe lo spettro della seconda guerra mondiale, che arriverà come un uragano, spazzando la sicurezza e l'ingenuità di molti dei personaggi. Preferisco lo Yates più crudo e amaro, ma non ho comunque disdegnato questo romanzo.
February 9, 2016
A.A.A. tranquilli che il titolo del libro in questione non ha nulla a che vedere con quello squallido piano governativo renziANO di qualche anno fa.
La verità è che, quando ti imbatti e ti innamori di uno scrittore e di una scrittura potente come quella di Richard Yates, non vorresti abbandonarlo per nulla al mondo e dunque: nuova lettura, nuova recensione, di un libro che in molti ritengono come "il più fiacco dell'intera produzione yatesiana" ma che invece a me è piaciuto abbastanza, a tal punto da farmi rimpiangere persino tutte le mie ore sprecate dietro i banchi di scuola.
http://www.librofilia.it/richard-yate...
La verità è che, quando ti imbatti e ti innamori di uno scrittore e di una scrittura potente come quella di Richard Yates, non vorresti abbandonarlo per nulla al mondo e dunque: nuova lettura, nuova recensione, di un libro che in molti ritengono come "il più fiacco dell'intera produzione yatesiana" ma che invece a me è piaciuto abbastanza, a tal punto da farmi rimpiangere persino tutte le mie ore sprecate dietro i banchi di scuola.
http://www.librofilia.it/richard-yate...
June 5, 2010
A good school. What do such inane statements mean? Yates explores exactly what goes on behind the facade of such places, from gang masturbatory attacks to failed suicides. All of his trademarks are here; jumping from third person omniscient to third person limited, sometimes within the same sentence, focusing on subjective inequalities and anxieties. A generation of men, unwittingly bred for war. It's all beautifully bleak and at the same time so reassuring. When I read yates I know that someone understands. The reflective power of the novel was never in such good hands.
January 22, 2010
"Positive" Yates. I am a sucker for 'coming of age' stores and I really like Yates, so this book was in my wheelhouse. I was rooting hard for the main character and many of the other characters in this book. This is a "rooting for the characters" kind of book. And Yates kept me from rooting against the 'bad guys' (which is a heck of a writing skill considering that most writers have you 'hating' the bad guys). And everything (as usual with Yates) rings so true to me.
January 14, 2014
3 out of 4 stars, purely because although I really enjoyed it, his other books are better and I know you're avidly looking at my ratings to inform what you should read and I would hate for you to opt for this as your gateway as opposed to say Eleven Kinds of Loneliness which I would pretty much give 9 billion stars to if I could. A galaxy.
October 24, 2023
Zeker niet het beste boek van Yates, doet vaag denken aan Stoner van John Williams maar bij hem zijn de karakters veel beter neergezet.
Read
March 11, 2015
De boog van Yates staat niet altijd gespannen
Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers komt opnieuw met een boek van de herontdekte Amerikaanse schrijver Richard Yates. Zijn grotendeels autobiografische romans worden gekenmerkt door een dramatische psychologische ontwikkeling tussen personages in ontwrichte verhoudingen. In Een goede school doet hij dat minder nadrukkelijk.
De vertaling van Revolutionary Road in 2003 zette Richard Yates (1926-1992) definitief op de Nederlandse kaart. De daaropvolgende verfilming met Kate Winslet en Leonardo DiCaprio zorgde voor wereldwijde bekendheid die de schrijver tijdens zijn leven nooit heeft mogen meemaken. Met Cold Spring Harbor en Een geval van ordeverstoring kwamen opnieuw twee prachtige boeken onze kant op, terwijl we met Een goede school duidelijk bij de laatste, en minder interessante kruimels van Yates' werk zijn aanbeland.
Pispaal
Richard Yates reist af naar zijn eigen verleden als kostschoolleerling aan Dorset Academy in New England. In de persoon van de impopulaire William Grove begint hij zijn opleiding, terwijl de Tweede Wereldoorlog op grote afstand de wereld in haar greep houdt. Grove probeert intensief aansluiting te vinden bij zijn jaargenoten maar verwordt, mede door zijn wat minderwaardige afkomst, al snel tot pispaal in de seksistische pesterijen van de populaire jongens. Als hij later redacteur van de schoolkrant wordt en daarmee wat meer aanzien verwerft, staat hij steviger in zijn schoenen.
En dat is het zo'n beetje. Yates schept een atmosfeer van het internaat door naast William Grove nog een paar andere personen op te voeren in de kleine biotoop achter de kostschoolpoort. Maar hij graaft nergens dieper en dus blijft het een wat oppervlakkige en verhalende beschrijving. Hij fladdert heen en weer tussen de verschillende personages en geeft hun gemeenschappelijke problemen en onderlinge gedoetjes weer, maar laat het daar verder bij.
Zuigend proza
Dat zijn we anders gewend van Richard Yates. De manier waarop hij in Revolutionary Road diep wegkruipt in de ziel van de hoofdpersonen om zodoende de verstoorde verstandhouding haarscherp op papier te krijgen is hier ver te zoeken. Juist in die vorm wordt de lezer volledig meegenomen in de verwikkelingen die door de fraaie schetsen van de schrijver uit de doeken worden gedaan. Het zuigende proza komt tot bloei en draagt het verloop van de geschiedenis op handen. Niets van dat alles in Een goede school, hier wordt een tamelijk richtingloos verhaal verteld dat op diverse golfslagen wegdrijft.
De meelijwekkende toestand van William Grove wordt afgewisseld met de kinderlijke gevoelswereld van leraarsdochter Edith Stone die verliefd is op de knapste student van de Academy. Ook is er aandacht voor de invalide docent Jack Draper die weet dat zijn aantrekkelijke vrouw het bed deelt met docent Franse taal Jean-Paul La Prade. De zwaarmoedigheid van een en ander is het enige stokpaard dat Yates als vanouds weet te berijden.
Bravoure
Toch is duidelijk waar de schrijver heen wil met deze roman: na de deprimerende kostschoolperiode wordt van de leerlingen van de hoogste klassen verwacht dat ze zullen deelnemen aan de oorlog. Hij bouwt een aardig contrast op tussen de afgeschermde schooltijd en de gewelddadige wereld die de jongens te wachten staat. Met de verwachtingsvolle bravoure van het jeugdige testosteron wordt aan het eind van de roman korte metten gemaakt door een nuchtere opsomming van de inmiddels gesneuvelde kameraden.
Dit onderdeel had Een goede school uit het gezapige kostschoolgenre kunnen trekken als Richard Yates het op waarde geschat en voldoende uitgediept had. Dat is niet gebeurd en zo zijn we met deze middelmatige roman bij een vrijwel zeker einde van een heruitgegeven schrijversoeuvre aangekomen.
http://www.8weekly.nl/artikel/12200/r...
@8WEEKLY/André van Dijk
Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers komt opnieuw met een boek van de herontdekte Amerikaanse schrijver Richard Yates. Zijn grotendeels autobiografische romans worden gekenmerkt door een dramatische psychologische ontwikkeling tussen personages in ontwrichte verhoudingen. In Een goede school doet hij dat minder nadrukkelijk.
De vertaling van Revolutionary Road in 2003 zette Richard Yates (1926-1992) definitief op de Nederlandse kaart. De daaropvolgende verfilming met Kate Winslet en Leonardo DiCaprio zorgde voor wereldwijde bekendheid die de schrijver tijdens zijn leven nooit heeft mogen meemaken. Met Cold Spring Harbor en Een geval van ordeverstoring kwamen opnieuw twee prachtige boeken onze kant op, terwijl we met Een goede school duidelijk bij de laatste, en minder interessante kruimels van Yates' werk zijn aanbeland.
Pispaal
Richard Yates reist af naar zijn eigen verleden als kostschoolleerling aan Dorset Academy in New England. In de persoon van de impopulaire William Grove begint hij zijn opleiding, terwijl de Tweede Wereldoorlog op grote afstand de wereld in haar greep houdt. Grove probeert intensief aansluiting te vinden bij zijn jaargenoten maar verwordt, mede door zijn wat minderwaardige afkomst, al snel tot pispaal in de seksistische pesterijen van de populaire jongens. Als hij later redacteur van de schoolkrant wordt en daarmee wat meer aanzien verwerft, staat hij steviger in zijn schoenen.
En dat is het zo'n beetje. Yates schept een atmosfeer van het internaat door naast William Grove nog een paar andere personen op te voeren in de kleine biotoop achter de kostschoolpoort. Maar hij graaft nergens dieper en dus blijft het een wat oppervlakkige en verhalende beschrijving. Hij fladdert heen en weer tussen de verschillende personages en geeft hun gemeenschappelijke problemen en onderlinge gedoetjes weer, maar laat het daar verder bij.
Zuigend proza
Dat zijn we anders gewend van Richard Yates. De manier waarop hij in Revolutionary Road diep wegkruipt in de ziel van de hoofdpersonen om zodoende de verstoorde verstandhouding haarscherp op papier te krijgen is hier ver te zoeken. Juist in die vorm wordt de lezer volledig meegenomen in de verwikkelingen die door de fraaie schetsen van de schrijver uit de doeken worden gedaan. Het zuigende proza komt tot bloei en draagt het verloop van de geschiedenis op handen. Niets van dat alles in Een goede school, hier wordt een tamelijk richtingloos verhaal verteld dat op diverse golfslagen wegdrijft.
De meelijwekkende toestand van William Grove wordt afgewisseld met de kinderlijke gevoelswereld van leraarsdochter Edith Stone die verliefd is op de knapste student van de Academy. Ook is er aandacht voor de invalide docent Jack Draper die weet dat zijn aantrekkelijke vrouw het bed deelt met docent Franse taal Jean-Paul La Prade. De zwaarmoedigheid van een en ander is het enige stokpaard dat Yates als vanouds weet te berijden.
Bravoure
Toch is duidelijk waar de schrijver heen wil met deze roman: na de deprimerende kostschoolperiode wordt van de leerlingen van de hoogste klassen verwacht dat ze zullen deelnemen aan de oorlog. Hij bouwt een aardig contrast op tussen de afgeschermde schooltijd en de gewelddadige wereld die de jongens te wachten staat. Met de verwachtingsvolle bravoure van het jeugdige testosteron wordt aan het eind van de roman korte metten gemaakt door een nuchtere opsomming van de inmiddels gesneuvelde kameraden.
Dit onderdeel had Een goede school uit het gezapige kostschoolgenre kunnen trekken als Richard Yates het op waarde geschat en voldoende uitgediept had. Dat is niet gebeurd en zo zijn we met deze middelmatige roman bij een vrijwel zeker einde van een heruitgegeven schrijversoeuvre aangekomen.
http://www.8weekly.nl/artikel/12200/r...
@8WEEKLY/André van Dijk
March 17, 2018
A semi-autobiographical account of Richard Yates' years at Dorset, a boarding school for boys. Extremely well written, descriptive, and touching.
September 8, 2016
When I reviewed Richard Yates' novel Revolutionary Road I wrote that it was "a perfectly-written book" and "a modern classic in the true sense of the word." In his novel A Good School, published seventeen years later, I found a classic of a different sort in that I believe in this later work he captured a certain spirit of place and time perfectly. Even though the book did not seem to me as being perfect in writing style, the economy of Yates' prose still impressed me. Even more striking was his ability to convey the feeling of a certain time in the lives of a few representative boys while, at the same time, creating a pervasive feeling of an historic setting and place. The description of the school made clear it was unique among the prep schools of New England and that the small select group of boys that called it their home were just as unique in their own way. The awkward and nervous boy who becomes editor of the school newspaper is just one example of the different students that shared their school years at this good, if not unflawed, school. The awakening of character and the changes in the boys lives seemed to lead inexorably to an ending that made this novel and the titular school memorable.
Yates used vignettes about the boys' social interactions, some of which seemed mundane, but which collectively demonstrate the growth and change in their young lives. The drama of the real world with World War II always in the shadows is always impinging on the action and sometimes bursts in to interrupt it. Thus the small world of the Dorset School seems to be sheltered from the world without until events of the world around it overwhelm the adolescent angst within it.
The result of reading this novel reminded me that I must read more of Yates oeuvre as the experience is exhilarating.
Yates used vignettes about the boys' social interactions, some of which seemed mundane, but which collectively demonstrate the growth and change in their young lives. The drama of the real world with World War II always in the shadows is always impinging on the action and sometimes bursts in to interrupt it. Thus the small world of the Dorset School seems to be sheltered from the world without until events of the world around it overwhelm the adolescent angst within it.
The result of reading this novel reminded me that I must read more of Yates oeuvre as the experience is exhilarating.
February 10, 2018
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Une Bonne École ?
"Il y a tellement d'auteurs qui sont classés dans notre esprit comme valant la peine d'être lu qu'il est bien sûr impossible de tous les connaître. Mais lorsque l'occasion se présente, il ne faut pas hésiter."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Chronique d'une "bonne" école du Connecticut au début des années quarante, de ses élèves, de ses professeurs, de leurs rêves et des leurs espoirs..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous?
"La quatrième de couverture nous parle du regard attendri de l'auteur sur ses années de jeunesse, sur les petites et les grandes humiliations de l'adolescence. Si lui a eu le temps de prendre du recul, le lecteur lui, est projeté directement dans cet univers difficile pour les plus faibles. Pas que ce soit vraiment nouveau pour nous. Si ça l'était peut-être à l'époque, la télé et le cinéma se sont chargés depuis de nous dépeindre maintes fois ces univers en huis clos. Le harcèlement scolaire est également un sujet plus que d'actualité aujourd'hui mais plonger au coeur de cet univers cruel, avec ces professeurs, au mieux, indifférents, n'est pas très agréable et je ne peux pas dire que j'ai pris grand plaisir à cette lecture. Le sentiment qui domine en fait est plutôt la confusion et ne pas connaître non plus la limite entre la part autobiographique et romancée nous déroute un peu plus."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini?
"Ce qui attend ces jeunes après le pensionnat, c'est la guerre. À la fin du livre, l'auteur fait le bilan de ceux qu'il a revu par la suite et de ceux, nombreux, qui n'en sont pas revenus. Comme le reste du livre, c'est un peu brusque, un peu sec.
"http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
"Il y a tellement d'auteurs qui sont classés dans notre esprit comme valant la peine d'être lu qu'il est bien sûr impossible de tous les connaître. Mais lorsque l'occasion se présente, il ne faut pas hésiter."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Chronique d'une "bonne" école du Connecticut au début des années quarante, de ses élèves, de ses professeurs, de leurs rêves et des leurs espoirs..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous?
"La quatrième de couverture nous parle du regard attendri de l'auteur sur ses années de jeunesse, sur les petites et les grandes humiliations de l'adolescence. Si lui a eu le temps de prendre du recul, le lecteur lui, est projeté directement dans cet univers difficile pour les plus faibles. Pas que ce soit vraiment nouveau pour nous. Si ça l'était peut-être à l'époque, la télé et le cinéma se sont chargés depuis de nous dépeindre maintes fois ces univers en huis clos. Le harcèlement scolaire est également un sujet plus que d'actualité aujourd'hui mais plonger au coeur de cet univers cruel, avec ces professeurs, au mieux, indifférents, n'est pas très agréable et je ne peux pas dire que j'ai pris grand plaisir à cette lecture. Le sentiment qui domine en fait est plutôt la confusion et ne pas connaître non plus la limite entre la part autobiographique et romancée nous déroute un peu plus."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini?
"Ce qui attend ces jeunes après le pensionnat, c'est la guerre. À la fin du livre, l'auteur fait le bilan de ceux qu'il a revu par la suite et de ceux, nombreux, qui n'en sont pas revenus. Comme le reste du livre, c'est un peu brusque, un peu sec.
"http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
November 5, 2017
Ho pensato fosse un romanzo "lento a decollare"; ho sbirciato le pagine più avanti per "dai che ora arriva il colpo di scena"; ho letto l'ultima pagina aspettandomi la bomba che mi avrebbe fatto cambiare completamente idea sul romanzo ma.. niente: non solo non è scattata mai la scintilla, ma mi ha lasciato terribilmente insoddisfatta, con la sensazione alla gola di arsura e il pensiero che "alla fine dei conti avrei potuto anche leggere altro, nel frattempo".
Un romanzo sterile, arido, con tanti personaggi che non riescono mai a fare breccia ma rimangono macchiette sullo sfondo, anche perché sembrano stare tutti insieme in un vortice in modo confuso per passare poi - per pochi attimi - nell'occhio del ciclone con una vicenda che li riguarda: è questo forse che mi ha disturbato di più, la mancanza di una qualsivoglia continuità della storia, ma una serie di episodi random.. non sono riuscita a collegare i nomi presentati con i personaggi, li ho confusi mille volte l'uno con l'altro!
Le parti più belle sono l'introduzione e l'epilogo, narrati in prima persona da quello che avrebbe dovuto essere il protagonista della vicenda ma che, a ben vedere, non riesce mai veramente a spiccare.
La quarta di copertina è un'opera d'arte: la storia è veramente tutta lì, riassumibile in quelle poco righe.
Un romanzo sterile, arido, con tanti personaggi che non riescono mai a fare breccia ma rimangono macchiette sullo sfondo, anche perché sembrano stare tutti insieme in un vortice in modo confuso per passare poi - per pochi attimi - nell'occhio del ciclone con una vicenda che li riguarda: è questo forse che mi ha disturbato di più, la mancanza di una qualsivoglia continuità della storia, ma una serie di episodi random.. non sono riuscita a collegare i nomi presentati con i personaggi, li ho confusi mille volte l'uno con l'altro!
Le parti più belle sono l'introduzione e l'epilogo, narrati in prima persona da quello che avrebbe dovuto essere il protagonista della vicenda ma che, a ben vedere, non riesce mai veramente a spiccare.
La quarta di copertina è un'opera d'arte: la storia è veramente tutta lì, riassumibile in quelle poco righe.
Read
February 12, 2017Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are two of the best novels I've ever read, and A Good School can't match those two, primarily because of the decision to make this an ensemble cast of ten or so characters (you get close third on one character for a few pages, then the narrative jumps to the next), rather than focusing on one or two primary characters, as Yates does in Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade. The result is what comes across as a lighter work, with less memorable characters, and I wonder if the book would've been stronger if it just focused on William Grove, the awkward, unpopular boy who is the victim of a pretty horrendous sexual prank at the book's outset only to become the editor of the school's newspaper. I'd recommend Tobias Wolff's Old School over this if you're looking for a novel set at a boys boarding school. Nevertheless, because this is Richard Yates, the writing is strong throughout, and there are some startlingly excellent passages, capped off by a Yates trademark: the heartbreaking ending.
August 10, 2015
An unfocused novella with a brilliant epigraph: "Draw your chair up close / To the edge of the precipice / And I'll tell you a story" (F Scott Fitzgerald)
Kicking off with a Foreword featuring a version of a character familiar from many other Richard Yates books - based on the author's own mother - it then moves on to a boarding school, where we are stutteringly introduced to a cast of characters far too large for a story of just 169 pages. It is, as usual, a thinly disguised autobiography, and many of the incidents are engagingly and honestly described. But as a whole, it lacks direction. Students and teachers are introduced then quickly forgotten, so it becomes hard I know where to invest your attention. A good job, then, that Richard Yates writes prose so slick that you can't help but keep reading.
Kicking off with a Foreword featuring a version of a character familiar from many other Richard Yates books - based on the author's own mother - it then moves on to a boarding school, where we are stutteringly introduced to a cast of characters far too large for a story of just 169 pages. It is, as usual, a thinly disguised autobiography, and many of the incidents are engagingly and honestly described. But as a whole, it lacks direction. Students and teachers are introduced then quickly forgotten, so it becomes hard I know where to invest your attention. A good job, then, that Richard Yates writes prose so slick that you can't help but keep reading.
August 26, 2010
Remember the loneliness; the awkward social status jockeying of your teenage years? Remember when your world was simultaneously fascinating, mortifying, and beautiful? Remember when every adult seemed like an odd character from a B-movie? Remember your teenage body? Remember the awkward attempts at connecting with others?
A Good School is a private prep school, boys coming-of-age story that takes place during the early 1940s in northern Connecticut at the fictional Dorset Academy; a less than prestigious school on the verge of financial collapse. Everything in A Good School verges on collapse. And like every good Yeats story, reading A Good School is akin to viewing car crash footage in balletic slow motion. If you like that sort of stuff this is your book. Enjoy.
A Good School is a private prep school, boys coming-of-age story that takes place during the early 1940s in northern Connecticut at the fictional Dorset Academy; a less than prestigious school on the verge of financial collapse. Everything in A Good School verges on collapse. And like every good Yeats story, reading A Good School is akin to viewing car crash footage in balletic slow motion. If you like that sort of stuff this is your book. Enjoy.
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