The Easter Parade : A Novel

In The Easter Parade, first published in 1976, we meet sisters Sarah and Emily Grimes when they are still the children of divorced parents. We observe the sisters over four decades, watching them grow into two very different women. Sarah is stable and stalwart, settling into an unhappy marriage. Emily is precocious and independent, struggling with one unsatisfactory love affair after another. Richard Yates's classic novel is about how both women struggle to overcome their tarnished family's past, and how both finally reach for some semblance of renewal.

“Yates writes powerfully and enters completely and effortlessly into the lives of his characters . . . A spare yet wrenching tale.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An elegant, moving novel, quietly poignant.” —Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post

“Invigorating and even gripping. The dialogue is artful enough to sound natural. In his descriptive prose every word works quietly to inspire the illusion that things are happening by themselves . . . A literary achievement.” —Paul Gray, Time

“Exact, indisputable, and moving.” —Richard Todd, The Atlantic

“Extraordinarily good . . . Written with the force and simplicity of absolute truth.” —The San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

“The effect is at once cruel and sweet, heartbreaking and brutal . . . The Easter Parade has an astonishing sweep and weight.” —Stuart O'Nan, The Boston Book Review