“Yates’s determinism, like Flaubert’s, was a matter of knowing his characters well enough to know their fates, and making the reader see this, too. Just as one never expects Emma to repent of her infidelity and embrace provincial life, one… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Fitzgerald's work was almost entirely out of print when 'The Lost Weekend' was published in 1944—even 'Gatsby' seemed well on its way to being… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I myself am consummately middle class. We grew up in upper-middle-class suburbs in Oklahoma City, and thats very much the same ethos as what… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
The funniest novel you've never read. . . . Afternoon Men is a revelation to sophisticated readers of every stripe, but especially to a… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I'm a huge fan of 'The Lost Weekend.' I have this dog-eared copy of the 1963 Time Reading Program edition, which was a series… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Largely to spare his feelings, she’d spoken in rather vague terms about wanting to “find herself,” and Yates concluded that she’d become a “womens’-libbing… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Repeatedly Yates went berserk—raging over grievances old and new, hurling furniture at phantoms out of his past. The nurses who lived upstairs complained about… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
My father was a golden boy from a very small town. He won a very prestigious law scholarship to NYU Law School, and there… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“As Monica Yates pointed out, “Dad didn’t notice other people. He picked up on asshole people, he could figure people out in general, but… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“ The Lost Weekend was the only book, out of five books, that I wrote sober, without stimulus or sedative.” — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I keep three framed photographs on my desk: the latest school picture of my daughter; a photo of my wife getting her diploma from… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“But what ultimately made Yates the scourge of copy editors was his simple aversion to criticism; any emendation in his manuscript, be it a… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
