Product Description

First published in 1962, a year after "Revolutionary Road", this sublime collection of stories seems even more powerful today. Out of the lives of Manhattan office workers, a cab driver seeking immortality, frustrated would-be novelists, suburban men and their yearning, neglected women, Richard Yates creates a haunting mosaic of the 1950s, the era when the American dream was finally coming true - and just beginning to ring a little hollow.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36472 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Richard Yates was born in 1926 in New York and lived in California. His prize-winning stories began to appear in 1953 and his first novel, Revolutionary Road, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. He is the author of eight other works, including the novels A Good School, The Easter Parade, and Disturbing the Peace, and two collections of short stories, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Liars in Love. He died in 1992.

Customer Reviews

Eleven out of Ten
The first of many things to love about this book is the bold-as-you-like title. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness? Man goes into publisher's office:

Man: I've got this book of stories I want you to publish.

Publisher: Oh yeah? Let me see that.

Man: Try this one.

Publisher: [reading] Well, this is gloomy as hell, buddy, but there's something there. Maybe we can get them in with a cheery title, they won't know what hit 'em.

Man: I have a title.

Publisher: How many stories have you got for the book?

Man: Eleven.

Publisher: And what's your title?

Man: ...Eleven Kinds of Loneliness.

Publisher: Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, buddy.

And yet - it worked. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, and acclaimed, shortly after Revolutionary Road. Didn't sell, of course, but what do you expect? It is gloomy as hell - but there's most certainly something there. More than something: misery, humiliation, pity, desperation, weakness, ignorance, bullying - oh and loneliness. But despite all this, the stories are bright-eyed and pink-tongued. They shine or bristle with life, even if it's not the sort of life you would conceivably care to share in. This is the sort of thing you get, from the second story, The Best of Everything, about a couple who are about to get married without either really wanting to:

"She'd have time for a long talk with her mother that night, and the next morning, "bright and early" (her eyes stung at the thought of her mother's plain, happy face), they would start getting dressed for the wedding. Then the church and the ceremony, and then the reception (Would her father get drunk? Would Muriel Ketchel sulk about not being a bridesmaid?), and finally the train to Atlantic City, and the hotel. But from the hotel on she couldn't plan any more. A door would lock behind her and there would be a wild, fantastic silence, and nobody in all the world but Ralph to lead the way."

The pleasure in Yates's stories is not some sort of misanthopric delight in seeing the downtrodden trodden yet further down. His characters are unfortunate yet resilient (admittedly because sometimes they're unaware how unfortunate they are); they bear their fate with stoicism, and there are no culpably dramatic Perfect-Day-for-Bananafish endings. Even, in a rare moment of generosity, there is compassionate relief for a character at the end of his story (A Glutton for Punishment), albeit only in the sense that he gets to share his burden with his wife, rather than concealing it as he had intended to.

Whatever the pleasure, it's undeniable and unopposable, because the stories kept me reopening them - just one more - like some sort of anti-candy, as unsweet as can be but nonetheless addictive.

Sublime
I had never heard of Richard Yates, but I added this because Amazon linked it to purchases I'd made of people like Bukowski and Raymond Carver. I'm a massive fan of their short stories, and this is right up there with them. So if you like them, read this. Eleven stories, all set in about the 50s, and all linked by New York (in that at least one of the characters is from there). It reads beautifully, he has a marvellous turn of phrase, and each story lasts just long enough, and lingers in the memory long after. Beautifully realised characters, it's slightly depressing, but not totally so (there are good times) and it's never maudlin. I will be buying more by Richard Yates.

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
This set of short stories is poignant, well-written, a glimpse at people's post war experiences in America that was new to me and yet universal and often heart-breaking. Each one is delicate and a moment of their own.