Stoner (New York Review Books Classics)
by John Edward Williams
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
misfits, English majors
This is one of those books that I (pardon the cliche) did not want to end. It also is one of those books that forces you look back over all the other books you've rated with 5 stars and consider dropping them a notch.
This is a book about a man named William Stoner. It covers his entrance to college at the University of Missouri and ends with his death. He originally goes in to study agriculture and farming but falls in love with literature. The book follows his time in academia, but it...more
This is a book about a man named William Stoner. It covers his entrance to college at the University of Missouri and ends with his death. He originally goes in to study agriculture and farming but falls in love with literature. The book follows his time in academia, but it...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone with a pulse
A new favorite. Nothing to do with drugs, but all to do with William Stoner, a would-be American farmer turned mid-Western English professor. Good old-fashioned psychological portrait, dealing with all the messy stuff that makes life bearable, and unbearable, in the vein of Dreiser, or Sinclair Lewis.
Williams's insights are neither witty nor clever but are smart and true:
"he felt his love increased by its loss"
"an epiphany of knowing something through words that could...more
Williams's insights are neither witty nor clever but are smart and true:
"he felt his love increased by its loss"
"an epiphany of knowing something through words that could...more
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Read in August, 2007
Devastating novel of academia, unfulfilled hope, and a life not-entirely-lived. Gorgeous writing, heartbreaking plot, and if you're a fan, as I tend to be, of stories set in the dark halls of libraries and universities, this is one to read. The love story within this book is suddenly out-of-nowhere rapturous, and the marriage is brittle, delicate, insensible and perfectly done. The book feels so modern, though the bulk of the action is set in the 30's and 40's. I kept stopping to check that this...more
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Read in July, 2007
John Williams (not the composer) wrote this in 1965, and it has floated gently over the waters of high criticism in the four decades since. I say gently because the book's gorgeously harnessed tone and style match its contained popularity. Few know of it, but those who know it love it.
This book is, in essence, a fictionalized study of solitude as experienced by the title character Stoner. How loneliness occurs, how it is to be understood, and how one can live passionately despite seemin...more
This book is, in essence, a fictionalized study of solitude as experienced by the title character Stoner. How loneliness occurs, how it is to be understood, and how one can live passionately despite seemin...more
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Read in February, 2008
I bought this book a year or two ago. Every time I'd pick it up, I'd put it back down, thinking – it looks too dull and depressing. Its story's set in the early part of the last century, the somewhat defeated tale of William Stoner, an assistant professor at a quiet university in the middle of Missouri. In the second paragraph we learn that "Stoner's colleagues, who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive, speak of him rarely now; to the older ones, his name is a reminder of th...more
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Read in July, 2007
Almost unbearably sad story of a mid-Western academic, a professor of literature at a fictionalized version of the University of Missouri at Columbia who lives through the first 2/3rds of the 20th century. Raised by dirt-poor farmers who never appear to understand his pursuit of literature, he only manages intermittently to communicate his transforming love for it to anyone else, his career itself largely running aground on the shoals of academic politics. He marries badly and the marriage in tu...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2007
Stoner, a farm boy, abandons the ag school for the hallowed halls of literature and becomes an undistinguished professor of literature at the University of Missouri, before, during and after WWII. Stoner doesn't enlist. He stays his course, marries badly and endures, wanting only to convey to his students the passion of literature though he's an unlikely apostle. The scenes from the marriage ring absolutely true and tragic. Still he was not beyond passion, "he knew, and would never be. Bene...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Krista by:
Jeanne
Still debating about this book. If I could I think I'd give it a 3.5. It gets the 4 for now because it is definitely well-written and definitely compelling. I liked it - I just didn't love it.
I think the thing that stands out to me most is that I consistently wanted a little bit more from this book - detail, understanding, and just generally more. But I also feel that William Stoner was constantly wanting more from life (even if not actively), so I'm not sure yet if the book could have...more
I think the thing that stands out to me most is that I consistently wanted a little bit more from this book - detail, understanding, and just generally more. But I also feel that William Stoner was constantly wanting more from life (even if not actively), so I'm not sure yet if the book could have...more
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recommends it for:
anyone
An excellent and tender character portrait of a meek farm-boy turned English professor, who surprises himself when he gives up his agricultural studies to pursue an interest in literature. Though in summary William Stoner's life sounds far from remarkable, John William's wise and gentle portrait of his life is as gripping and emotional as anything I've read in some time. Stoner is the sort of person deserving of happiness but who's not entirely sure how to go about it, and though he finds it oft...more
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This is an unusual book. Although many novels concern territorial conflict, which is the underpinning of plot after all, "Stoner" is different in degree and aspect. Its focus on the territorial imperative, the spheres of influence humans operate within, is unremitting, and while a more typical work would involve a storyline in which the protagonist enjoyed at least some degree of success, in this novel the protagonist meets failure at every turn. Whenever he engages in a territorial...more
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This Dreiser-esque book is the most highly rated of all the books on my Goodreads shelf--not bad for a now relatively obscure 1960's novel about one man's life in earlier 20th century academia. For me it started off a little joylessly--I thought, OK, another novel that's going to embrace its bleak side and never let go. But Stoner is a fascinating character, born into Midwestern poverty to stoic parents who display only the sparest shells of humanity and emotion, and ushered into university life...more
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Sad but brilliant.
I cannot believe I never heard of this masterpiece until this past year. I do not usually like books that are this sad, but "Stoner" grabbed me from the first page and never let go. The writing is unadorned yet elegant and the story, although sad, is so compelling and real.
Stoner is a man who never achieved much in life, with a failed marriage and not much success as a faculty member at the university. But he never gave up on life. He worked hard at his teach...more
I cannot believe I never heard of this masterpiece until this past year. I do not usually like books that are this sad, but "Stoner" grabbed me from the first page and never let go. The writing is unadorned yet elegant and the story, although sad, is so compelling and real.
Stoner is a man who never achieved much in life, with a failed marriage and not much success as a faculty member at the university. But he never gave up on life. He worked hard at his teach...more
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fantastic book. steve almond suggested this. it reminds me very much of D.H.'s "Sons and Lovers" and the reason being is that the prose is superb--beautiful! It's a straight forward story about a student-turned professor. it has nothing to do with getting stoned. there's a heart-wrenching line in it that is as follows:
"He took a grim and ironic pleasure from the possibility that what little learning he had managed to acquire had led him to this knowledge: that in the long run...more
"He took a grim and ironic pleasure from the possibility that what little learning he had managed to acquire had led him to this knowledge: that in the long run...more
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Read in June, 2006
A reprint of a wonderful novel from 1965. I read it in one sitting and found it beautiful and intensely moving. It is a story bursting with heart and intelligence expertly written. A young man from a poor farming family is sent to university by his father in the early 20th century to learn new agricultural science. Knowing what a hardship it was for his family to scrape up the tuition as well as lose their only farmhand, he dutifully tries to apply himself. Somewhere along the way he discovers l...more
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recommends it for:
human beings
This book is some sort of masterpiece. When I think of it, I can't help but compare it to Laxness' 'Independent People.' I wrung my hands all through both books waiting and waiting for any of these people to catch a goddamned break.
The final pages of the novel are both the most beauteous death scene I've ever read, as well as the most singularly moving pages I've ever read.
And, it was really masterful how the main character's constant weed-smoking was very obviously alluded to throughout...more
The final pages of the novel are both the most beauteous death scene I've ever read, as well as the most singularly moving pages I've ever read.
And, it was really masterful how the main character's constant weed-smoking was very obviously alluded to throughout...more
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Read in June, 2007
This book kind of sneaks up on you. A friend said it reminded him of Madame Bovary, and I agree in the sense that my experience of reading the two books was similar. It took me a while to get into the story--a sad one, about an academic who lives an ordinary life that offers only small moments of joy--but once I did, I was hooked. The main character is of the old guys you see lurking around departments, the one who got tenure but was never promoted beyond that. If you work in an English Depa...more
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Read in June, 2008
I didn't find this as sad or sorrowful as it’s often said to be. For me it’s about how the inner life redeems the outer, how a satisfying life of the mind makes the rest of life bearable. In that way, despite all the protagonist’s misfortune, I found Stoner an affirmative and even uplifting book.
May I add what an incredibly handsome paperback it is? The cover portrait by Thomas Eakins is gorgeous and perfect.
I should give it five stars. Tomorrow I will probably come back and do tha...more
May I add what an incredibly handsome paperback it is? The cover portrait by Thomas Eakins is gorgeous and perfect.
I should give it five stars. Tomorrow I will probably come back and do tha...more
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2 comments
I've been vacillating between a four- and five-star rating for this book: a patient, careful, and moving depiction of a quietly passionate man who finds purpose and, at times, real happiness as a professor of medieval literature. Williams' prose is modest and clear, and yet there are moments when it shimmers - quite unpretentiously - to mirror the even-keeled Stoner's brief moments of joy in the midst of a generally cold and affection-less life. Very good.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
anybody who loves books about the university and the academic life....
I love books about professors and about academia, and this is one of the best of the bunch.
Published in the 1960s and written in 3rd person omniscient narration. Late 20th century novels written in a similar narrative mode typically reek of irony & distance to the point of nausea. However, Williams' prose achieves a sincerity unlike most.... A great refreshing read with characters that are comical, tragic, yet genuine.
Published in the 1960s and written in 3rd person omniscient narration. Late 20th century novels written in a similar narrative mode typically reek of irony & distance to the point of nausea. However, Williams' prose achieves a sincerity unlike most.... A great refreshing read with characters that are comical, tragic, yet genuine.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Micah by:
The Believerrecommends it for: Anyone who likes fiction
This book is awesome!! I read about it in The Believer's lists of best books of the best years as recommended by author's. This was Stephen Dixon's submission. It's about a man's life and from what I've read, it's a fictionalized account of the writer's life himself. The writing is excellent technically and full of passion too. It can be looked at as a very sad story or an uplifting one. A unique book to say the least.
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