and another half star for good measure because, without a doubt, richard yates is one of the best prose writers america has seen in the last 50 years. however, "a good school" is a testament to the debilitating power of alcoholism. with "revolutionary road" and "eleven kinds of loneliness", yates had produced the prerequisite great novel, in tandem with the piercing short stories, that is required to be considered for canonical status. yet, yates had trouble with the alcohol, and this - in turn - turned him into a writer's writer. because, when you look at it, his best work is as good as cheever's or updike's, yet yates is only now beginning to get any sort of mainstream recognition. and with novels like this you can see why. "a good school" contains all of yates' distinctive writing ticks (hypothetical conversations, dialogue given parenthetically, and flawles punctuation), yet it lacks the searing theme and deeper meaning of his earlier work. yates never lost his ability to write great prose; but what alcohol took from him was his reason for writing it. he began writing as a calling, a siren sound that couldn't be ignored. he used this to take apart post-war america and expose some of the cracks that had been built over in the glee of 50's surburbia. but he didn't stop there - and this would be where a lesser writer would have stopped - he looked past what was wrong with society and looked at what was wrong with the individual. it wasn't the false perfection of a picture window that ruined the wheeler's lives, it was their inability to be honest with themselves and accept that their problems stemmed from their fear of the terror that is artistic pursuit and, moreover, their fear of accepting an identity. these were the themes that yates brought to light in such brutal - and sometimes humorous - manner. yet, with this novel, those similar themes seem a world away. the novel consists of a group of boys, and their teachers, at a prep school in it's last years. the novel is framed with some almost token musings on the abandonment of an artistic calling, as grove's father gave up his dream of being a concert tenor. however the feeling is more akin to a singer playing his hit song for the millionth time than a writer illuminating the darker corners of the human psyche. you get the feeling that yates felt that the only redemptive thing about his life was his writing, but the only thing he really cared for, outside of that, was his drinking (and cigaretttes, of course). the novel follws the boys through some typical prep school scenes: masturbatorial hazing, pecking order type teasing, flirting with the the teacher's daughter, anxiously shuffling at the dance. yates writes these scenes with his usual immaculate prose, with not a word out of place. and in addition to the student's worries and fears, there is also an affair between a disabled teacher's wife and another faculty member, as well as teacher's disappointment in the ignominy of obesity that his son endures. then there is the headmaster, whom (as per custom) none of the students take seriously, and gets tagged with the nickname "bottle-ass". behind all this is the spectre of world war 2, which - thematically - works nicely with the school shutting down, this done for financial reasons. many of the boys slip into a roguish manliness as they prepare to be shipped out to war. in the end the novel really reads more like short stories that were very tightly woven together, as the novel never stops to focus on one character for very long; and, at 170 pgs., there really isn't much space to create novelistic characters. but, yates is such a great writer that even with all these weakness's the novel was still harmless enough. his line for line prose is just mind bogglingly perfect and he has a way of making his dialogue sound as if it was a real overheard conversation. however, if i was going to recommend a yates book to someone, it wouldn't be "a good school". start with the early works and if yates is your kind of writer, read the later ones just for the sheer joy of reading words that were put together with that much care by someone who is that much capable. and after finishing his later work, let that be a lesson to any artist who thinks that alcohol or drugs are a nessecity to be a great creator. because unfortunately, richard yates left about three of four great novels sitting right there at the bottom of an empty whiskey bottle, just blurry enough that no one will ever know how good they could have been.
De boog van Yates staat niet altijd gespannenUitgeverij 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.PispaalRichard 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 prozaDat 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.BravoureToch 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
What do You think about A Good School (2001)?
Un Yates in apparenza meno cinico, quasi sentimentale, ripercorre gli anni dell’adolescenza in una scuola pseudo alternativa scelta dalla “solita” madre in cerca di riscatto sociale. Gli anni sono quelli della seconda guerra mondiale, presenza incombente nel romanzo che narra le vicende di un gruppo di ragazzi in un college americano di provincia, con i suoi riti di appartenenza e i piccoli/grandi drammi di ogni adolescenza; attorno a loro il mondo accademico con le sue piccinerie, le crisi di coppia etc, in puro stile Yates.Dicevo in apparenza meno cinico perché qui e là mi è venuto il dubbio che ci sia una certa dose di sarcasmo ancorché amaro, una sorta di “come tu mi vuoi” dell’autore. I campanelli che mi hanno instillato il tarlo sono questi:“Beh, immagino che cose di questo genere possano commuovere alla tua età”, aveva detto suo padre in quel tono asciutto, tollerante, esasperante che minava tutte le conversazioni che avevano mai avuto a proposito di libri. “Ma col tempo vedrai che comincerai a provare una certa insofferenza nei riguardi del sentimentalismo; capita alla maggior parte delle persone intelligenti”.“Oh guarda, che carino”, disse Margie quando furono all’ufficio postale. “Ti è arrivata una lettera di Jean-Paul”.“Ah sì”, rispose Alice con voce piatta. “Leggerla sarà un vero piacere, no? Un po’ di luce nella mia vita”.E Margie si sentì.. beh, irritata. Alice che faceva la cinica a proposito di Jean-Paul? Non era più rimasto niente su cui non fosse cinica? Si poteva davvero essere cinici su tutto e tutti e aspettarsi ancora di avere degli amici?Per finire con quel pezzo di sarcasmo puro che è il fallito suicidio con finale pirotecnico.
—Karenina
It's well written, but lacks any plot. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens over the time of a few years at a boarding school for boys. I feel like it just wasn't for me, that if i were a boy, it would be more entertaining?... I have the same weird feeling about this book, that I had about "The Virgin Suicides". These books are nothing alike, but i can't get a handle on both of them. With this one and "TVS" i thought: "oh, that's it? that's the book? was it supposed to mean something, did i miss anything, what's the point of it?" Just meh.
—Alicja Kawecka
"Io non voglio soldi, voglio lettori"(Richard Yates) Inizierei dicendo che Yates ha appena conquistato una nuova lettrice. I temi di "Una buona scuola" sono quelli che io amo di più, l'adolescenza, il percorso di crescita di un giovane uomo e la presa di coscienza di quelle passioni che dureranno una vita intera. E fin qui ci siamo. Eppure non sarebbe bastato senza questa scrittura così realistica e appuntita, che mi ha raccontato una scuola vera, con persone terribilmente imperfette, a volte disgustose e a volte commoventi. Si sente in ogni riga che questo romanzo è autobiografico, in ogni disperata descrizione della Dorset, dei suoi studenti e dei suoi insegnanti. Credo che sia proprio il racconto di una buona scuola quello che ha scritto Yates, dove anche i muri, in un certo qual senso, erano amati. Il finale è straziante e bellissimo, si sente più che mai il dramma incombente della guerra in un ultimo sprazzo di spensieratezza di quei giovani destinati ad affrontare fin troppo presto la vita.
—Sara
