I just finished Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. The book is haunting and I'll tell you why - and in this process you'll find out what I mean by haunting. Yates is an amazing writer, the kind where not a single word is spared. I sort of felt safe reading the book. I knew he wasn't going to disappoint, that he was a master. And this is his first novel. I finished it sitting on a rock in the middle of the natural slides at Ohiopyle among friends. I didn't know what to think of the book other than it was well written and sad. Very sad. I started another book that night, which I am almost finished with and is almost just as sad. But the entire time I'm reading this other book (Richard Ford's The Sportswriter) what am I doing? I'm thinking about Frank and April Wheeler, the main characters in Revolutionary Road. It really stuck with me. And I didn't realize it until later. That's haunting, right? Anyway, it is to me and I recommend it with eyebrows raised and cheeks dimpled.

So why Titanic you ask? I typed in Revolutionary Road on Yahoo, looking for an image of the book. But I don't get book cover shots, nor author head shots. I get pictures of Leo and Kate. Why you ask? Because they're making a movie of Rev Road, and so Leo and Kate are reunited again. This time not on a doomed ship in the Atlantic, or whatever Ocean it was, but on a doomed marriage in mid-century Connecticut. Or as James would say, Connec-a-ticut. Sorry James.