Life first

Richard Yates' novel Life at First (1961) focuses on a young American couple living in suburban New York in the 1950s, an era of post-war prosperity and limited self-indulgence that engulfed society at the time. With deep insight, the author depicts the degradation and disintegration of the "American dream", the illusions possessed by each of the heroes, their delusions of independence and freedom. But the novel is not only about that distant time - and today literally everyone can recognize themselves in the thoughts and actions of the heroes of the novel. It is uncomfortable, very disturbing, sometimes painful reading, but this was the writer's intention - and he achieved his goal.