about "A Special Providence" by Richard Yates

A Special Providence folds the rite-of-passage experiences of young infantry solder Robert Prentice between scenes from his anxiety-sprained youth.

Alice Prentice drags her son, Bobby, through her unstable life. They survive mostly on alimony as she chases artistic success she can never have.

After high school, Robert enlists and finds himself overseas during the last days of World War II. He makes a pitiful soldier, getting sick on the line and overwhelmed with confusion when fighting starts.

The novel's end made an impression on me. Spoiler: Alice starts drinking a lot and pins all hope on Robert returning and working so she can start sculpting again. But Robert decides not to return to America. He sends her a little money and wishes her luck.

The novel is no comedy, but I laughed at Yates's telling of some of Robert's struggles in the war. I related to his attempts, all vain and hopeless, not to look foolish. I laughed on a crowded train when I read this part—Robert struggles to follow his platoon and make sense of the action around him:

They were in a plowed field: the ridged, uneven earth gave like sponge beneath their feet. Prentice followed the sounds of voices into the darkness, running again, while the shells rushed overhead to explode well behind him, back on the other side of the canal. And it was there in the field, slightly behind him and to the right, that he heard Sam Rand’s voice:

“Prentice? That you?”

“Sam! Jesus, where’ve you—”

“Where the hell you been?”

“Where’ve I been? My God, I’ve been looking all over hell for you!”

It was still bad, but Robert had felt a little less confused in this firefight. So when his platoon leader inevitably reprimands him, Robert fires back. But doing so only makes matters worse.

This book has so many golden moments. The prose—every humiliation, whether in the chaos of the battlefield or during a childhood encounter with neighborhood kids—swells with sensitivity.

Several years ago I read a Yates short story collection and The Easter Parade. I knew he was special, but I guess I waited a few years before reading everything else he wrote. I knew he was my favorite author probably after reading this or Revolutionary Road.

Notes: A Special Providence, published in 1969, is Yates' third book. The cover image chosen for this Vintage Books/Random House edition does not fit the books contents or themes.