| The Easter Parade | |
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Cover to the first edition |
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| Author(s) | Richard Yates |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence |
| Publication date | 1976 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 229 (Hardback first edition) |
| ISBN | 0385282362 |
The Easter Parade is a novel by American writer Richard Yates. First published in 1976, Yates' fifth book concerns the tragic lives of two sisters. Some consider the book, along with Revolutionary Road, to be Yates' finest work.[1]
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The famous opening line of the novel warns of the bleak narrative to follow, "Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents’ divorce." Emily and Sarah Grimes are sisters who share little in terms of character but much in terms of disappointment with their lives. Emily, the more intellectual and cosmopolitan of the two, seeks love in numerous disappointing affairs and short-term relationships while Sarah, the prettier and more conventional sister, marries young and bears children to an uncouth and abusive husband. Their troubled, rootless mother, Pookie, like many Yatesian matriarchs, is likely modeled on his own mother, who was nicknamed "Dookie". The novel, beginning in the 1930s when the sisters are children and ending in the 1970s with Sarah's death, primarily revolves around Emily as the book's central character, though the book employs Yates' characteristic and seamless shifts of consciousness throughout.
As Stewart O'Nan notes "The Easter Parade signaled the resurgence of Richard Yates. A year after the critically panned Disturbing the Peace, critics hailed him as an American master. They spoke now of his body of work and raved over the effortless elegance of his prose and the depth of his tragic vision."[2] The publication of The Easter Parade marked the beginning of a relatively stable and productive period for Yates and the book has been championed by the likes of Joan Didion, David Sedaris, Kurt Vonnegut, Larry McMurtry, and Tao Lin, among others.
Caroline Kaplan acquired the rights to the novel for a film adaptation in 2007.[3]
The novel is mentioned in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. The character Lee (Barbara Hershey), one of the sisters of the title, thanks her brother-in-law Eliot (Michael Caine) for lending her the book. Lee tells Eliot (who is secretly in love with her) that she "loved" the book and that he was right, "it had very special meaning" for her.
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