I'm a literary snob, I suppose.

I began reading Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates not prompted by the fact that a film is just been made out of it, but because many people I respect regard it as one of the best American novels of the 20th century (first published 1961). For example, Tennesse Williams - a great playright and a hero of mine - described Revolutionary Road as "intensely and brillianly alive... a masterpiece."

I quote from the back cover of the latest edition. On the front cover, though, there is a picture of Kate Winslet staring into the eyes of Leonardo de Caprio.

Well, I'm not going to see the movie, I decide, ever... or at least until I have finished reading the book.

And it's a very well written, readable book, its descriptions of a failing marriage wincingly authentic. The kind of book I find I'm turning into a film as I read - only partly because I know it's already been done by a director (I wonder why not 45 years ago?). The style is ... the characters think and feel like actors, putting on and sometimes taking off emotional masks.

What is strange, though - although I can imagine de Caprio in the male lead, I keep "casting" a younger Meryl Streep in the female role. I like Kate Winslet's acting, I'd love her to be there - but Streep delivers the lines so well. Her irony, her flights of fancy.

My Revolutionary Road is a great movie. You should come and see it my head some time.