Product Description

Yates spare and autumnal tale of a New England prep school is at once a meditation on the twilight of youth and an examination America's entry into World War II.A GOOD SCHOOL tells the stories of William Grove, the nervous boy who becomes an editor of the school paper, Jack Draper the crippled chemistry teacher, and Edith Stone, the schoolmaster's young daughter, who falls in love with most celebrated boy in the class of 1943.AUTHORBIO: Richard Yates was the author of the novels REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE, DISTURBING THE PEACE, THE EASTER PARADE, A GOOD SCHOOL, YOUNG HEARTS CRYING, and COLD SPRING HARBOR, as well as the story collections ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS, LIARS IN LOVE, and THE COLLECTED STORIES OF RICHARD YATES.He died in 1992.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181471 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312420390
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"A first class work of the imagination marked by an interest in real history . . . [A Good School] is enriched with many fine touches."—Julian Moynehan, The New York Times Book Review

"[Yates] is an expert . . . This [novel] is acute and poignant."—John Skow, Time

"A graceful and articulate narrative . . . affectionate, witty, and wry."—The New Yorker

"Distinguished by fine writing and convincing adolescent angst."—The Atlantic Monthly

"[Yates's] small-scale tapestry is rich in intricate detail—much of it wonderfully droll."—Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek
-- Review

Review

About the Author
Richard Yates, who died in 1992, was the author of seven novels, including Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade, and A Special Providence, as well as two story collections. The Collected Stories of Richard Yates was first published in May 2001.

Customer Reviews

The other "school" book
A lot's been made of the fine "A Separate Peace," but "A Good School" brings Yates' eye -- which was one of the best, most unheralded of 20th century American writers -- to the twists of coming of age in a prep school. Nobody captured the shades and shadows of dialog like Yates, and few have made characters of any age so vivid in their grappling with pain and yearning. Anyone who's ever been a teenager will devour this novel.

That Richard Yates never made the gears of New York turn for him is an error of the publishing industry that's impossible to calculate; that "A Good School" is not mandatory reading for anyone interested in young people is a loss to every reader of the genre.

A Good Novel
Richard Yates is one of the few truly great masters of 20th century fiction. His novels and short stories are populated with people who fiercely strive for what is just beyond their grasp, and who must - often quite painfully - suffer the consequences of their hopes and ambitions. The beauty of watching as these lives savagely unfold is the compassion Yates so delicately weaves into his depictions. First we feel a kind of condescending pity for these characters, then we find we are overwhelmed with their plight and their grief. And then finally the line between fiction and reality blurs, and we realize that these characters are not merely so much like us, they are us - with their denial and their fantasy and their unfounded hope in the future - and we grieve for them as we grieve for ourselves.
His short coming-of-age "A Good School" is something of a departure from the typical Yatesian heartbreak and squalor. In fact, the tone here, despite some shockingly grim and disturbing moments, is mostly upbeat. We follow the adolescent adventures of a boy named William Grove, a man with no real father figure (his parents are divorced) who tries to make a man out of himself after he is shipped to a boarding school designed for "individual" children who don't fit in elsewhere. Left to his own devices, without any real encouragement from the school or at home, and after several difficult missteps that nearly cement him as a permanent outcast, Grove slowly and unknowingly begins to make a name for himself by throwing himself into the only small door he is ever offered - the offices of the school paper.
The cast of the book is rounded out by in intriguing hodge-podge of boarding school characters, equally flailing around in their quest to become men. Even though their stories are unfolding off to the side, Yates somehow manages to tell each of their stories with a richness and intensity that belies their sparseness.
This is ground that has been covered before. One cannot help but think of other prep school novels (like Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and Hesse's "Beneath the Wheel") but even in familiar territory, Yates stakes out a claim all his own. This is a short, spare book filled with dozens of stories that build and develop throughout the novel. Old Yates fans will be pleased with this surprising detour into the world of adolescence, the unusual lightness of his tone, and the freshness of his view from this familiar literary perch. For new readers, I would definitely suggest reading the novel "Revolutionary Road," or some of the short stories first. But all in all, a must-read for everyone. I recommend it highly.

For His Father
Yates dedicated this novel to his father, and rightly so. Men dominate this novel -- young men, old men, crippled men. In keeping with his trademark, Yates' characters are the losers of losers, yet you can't help but to feel for them. Even when Yates is describing one horribly embarrassing scene after another (and some are so painful that you almost have to look away from the page), his compassion for his people is ever vigilent.

This novel reminded me a lot of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Like the George Willard in that quasi-novel, we have Will Grove, dipping in and out of the lives of various characters. The town of Winesburg was the center of that novel, and here it's Dorset Academy, the ultimate school for losers (what else would it be?). Although Winesburg was structurally a related collection of short stories while this is more of a novel, you still get that vignette-ish feeling as you read through A Good School, the way Yates joins quick scenes together. It works splendidly.

The book is framed by first-person narration that adds a very gentle touch. Yates always had a soft spot for the first-person narrator -- check out his short stories "Builders," "Jody Rolled the Bones," and "Oh Joseph, I'm So Tired" for further evidence. This novel doesn't nearly have the sheer driving force of Revolutionary Road or the expert precision of Easter Parade, but it's not supposed to. It's a tender, coming-of-age tale, and it's done with a great deal of heart and love.