Young Hearts Crying

Young Hearts Crying  

1st edition
Author(s) Richard Yates
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Delacorte Press
Publication date 1984
Preceded by Liars in Love
Followed by Cold Spring Harbor

Young Hearts Crying is the penultimate novel of American writer Richard Yates. After Revolutionary Road, it is generally considered to be his best work.

The novel tells the story of struggling poet and artist Michael Davenport, who spurns his heiress wife's offer of financial assistance, choosing instead to make abortive attempts at achieving artistic success on his own terms.[1] The novel, Yates' first in over six years, was generally well received, with Associated Press book reviewer Phil Thomas calling it "absorbing" and "superb"[1] and New York Times reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt terming the work "absorbing" and "beguilingly vivid" despite complaining that characters' lack of self-awareness became "ultimately tiresome."[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Phil Thomas (Associated Press). "Novel is 'superb'," Roswell Daily Record (Roswell, NM), December 31, 1984, page 11.
  2. ^ Christopher Lehmann-Haupt. "Richard Yates' novel vivid but irksome," Pacific Stars and Stripes (Tokyo, Japan; reprinted from The New York Times), February 3, 1985, page 16, "Pacific Sunday" section.