Revolutionary road - Confessions of a Crap Artist

I just read two books that somehow complement each other and talks about the same problem, and on the other hand are as different culturally and in world-view as can be. Both books are from USA and both books are written in the late fifties and early sixties (though one of them was first published much later.)

The first one is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates - a classic American chamber play taking place in the East coast suburbs.

The plot is simple: a progressive married couple tries to turn their marriage around in the simple way that she wants to support them economically to give him time to indulge in his creative and artistic sides. But when they try to act out the plan, the conventions of society both in their community, but even more inside themselves makes it all end in disaster.

(The book was made into a film in 2008 with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the leading roles.)

The other book is in many ways the flipside of Revolutionary Road, and it is not surprisingly written on the flipside of USA: in California. It has the quirky title, Confessions of a Crap Artist and is written by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It is not a science fiction though, and despite the fact that it was written in 1959, three years prior to Yates' book, it was first published in 1975 (the publisher only wanted his scifi).

In the book we meet another couple, and a couple that is not at all as idealistic and progressive as the one in Revolutionary Road. Actually they are rather materialistic and selfish. The only altruistic thing they do is letting the wife's mentally strange brother live with them, and mostly because they fell obliged to.

As in Revolutionary Road the marriage falls apart but the anguished couple can not end it because of the taboo of divorce. While the couple destroys each other the simpleton brother slowly, takes over the responsibilities of his sister and brother in law, especially the care of their two children.

If I was an academic I would write a beautiful little paper making a comparative analysis of these two books that seems to orbit the same sun but on opposed sides of it. I find the relationship between them almost electric...

But as I am only a simple artist, I will just invite you to read these two fine artworks.