The Collected Stories

Richard Yates

I was persuaded to read this by the introduction from Richard Russo, one of my favourite writers. And the praise heaped on Yates is very well-deserved. His stories span a broad range, from the experiences of an army man, to that of TB sufferers, or that of ordinary men and women trying to make sense of their lives. He has a knack of hooking you into the story really quickly and it's so easy to envision the scene and the characters he is describing. They just seem so familiar. His dialogue is fantastic, he really captures the flavour of the conversation and he made me feel as if I was actually listening to the conversation. Most of his stories tend to show people trying to make a go of their lives and yet not quite grasping what is needed to do so. In the hands of a lesser writer, this may sound like a depressing collection. But Yates manages to convey the isolation and disappointment in these lives without necessarily dropping you into the depths of depression. For me, some of the stories were thought-provoking and made me think about my own life and wonder whether he was writing about me or the person I could become. It also made me more aware of the importance of little kindnesses and compassion in everyday life. Truly, it was a very good collection.