Angle of Repose (Contemporary American Fiction)

by Wallace Stegner

Angle of Repose (Contemporary American Fiction)

published	1992 by Penguin (Non-Classics)
first published	1971
binding	Paperback
isbn	014016930X (isbn13: 9780140169300)
pages	576
literary awards	Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1972)
description	Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery--personal, historical, and geographical. Confined to a wheelchair, retired hist...more [close] Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery--personal, historical, and geographical. Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier. But his research reveals even more about his own life than he's willing to admit. What emerges is an enthralling portrait of four generations in the life of an American family. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life. The result is a deeply moving novel that, through the prism of one family, illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past. [close]
date added	03-09-07 edit book

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Lori

Lori rated it:

07/18/08

bookshelves: lori-s-favorite-books

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

recommended to Lori by: Allegra Hakim
recommends it for: anyone

A poetic story with rich prose and thought provoking metaphors.....perfect for Book Club discussion. It's on my all time favorite book list. I was amazed at the author's attention to details with such accuracy and percision from the historical Western frontier life down to the very flowers in bloom. This book is a treasure.

The marriage between Oliver and Susan Ward was filled with adversity, love, disappointments, devotion, temptation, and tragedy. Both characters were morally exceptio...more

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Rick

Rick rated it:

(review of isbn 0141185473)

02/16/08

Read in February, 2008

I just finished a wonderful short story by Alice Munro in the most recent New Yorker. And the first adjective that occurred to me about Angle of Repose was one it shared with the Munro story, patience. There is no hurry and no waste in either work. Lyman Ward, one of two main characters in Angle of Repose, a novel rich in characters—the other main character is Ward’s grandmother Susan Burling Ward—is in late middle-age with a failing body and a distressed life. His wife is gone. One of his...more I just finished a wonderful short story by Alice Munro in the most recent New Yorker. And the first adjective that occurred to me about Angle of Repose was one it shared with the Munro story, patience. There is no hurry and no waste in either work. Lyman Ward, one of two main characters in Angle of Repose, a novel rich in characters—the other main character is Ward’s grandmother Susan Burling Ward—is in late middle-age with a failing body and a distressed life. His wife is gone. One of his legs is gone to a bone disease that has also left his head incapable of turning. A retired historian, he retreats to his ancestral home in Grass Valley, California, and begins researching his grandmother’s life. Perhaps for a book, perhaps not. As a result two parallel stories unfold, though the contemporary one (contemporary to 1970) more guardedly and briefly, his grandmother’s journey from a young, middle class New York woman dedicated to the arts and literature to the wife of a struggling engineer in the West. The novel’s setting shifts from Brooklyn, New York, to California, Colorado, Mexico, Utah in the 1870s to 1890s and Stegner handles each with the same sharp skill that he handles the various levels of characters, Susan’s husband, her friend Augusta, who you feel you know even though mostly she is seen, as is her husband Thomas Hudson, through the letters Susan sends her, Frank, the conflicted friend to Susan and her husband, Pricey, and all the others of the 19th century West, as well as Shelly, the buxom flower-child who helps Lyman with his research, Al Sutton, and Lyman's caretaker, Ada Hawkes. Lyman Ward follows the arc of his grandmother’s life and the complex relationship that is her marriage, the erosion that time and failure perform, and how the values of the times impact responses to crises. Lyman watches his grandmother’s story come together, helped by his skill as an historian and his own reconstructions, as he must deal with his own unsettled situation. It’s a beautifully wrought novel, moving, compelling, and humane. Stegner writes with a strong narrative and descriptive voice that doesn’t fuss with either but allows them the space they need to impose themselves on the reader’s imagination with conviction. The easy comparison is to Ansel Adams’s photography. “My grandparents had to live their way out of one world and into another, or into several others, making new out of old the way corals live their reef upward. I am on my grandmother’s side. I believe in Time, as they did, and in the life chronological rather than in the life existential. We live in time and through it, we build our huts in its ruins, or used to, and we cannot afford all these abandonings.” This comes in the book’s first pages. Somewhere near the end comes this: “Touch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed, and betray others.” In the end, however, even where there are betrayals, you believe that for Lyman Ward it comes down to that fact that after all is said and done we cannot afford all these abandonings. A great novel....less

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Patricia

Patricia rated it:

06/06/08

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Patricia by: Joan Clissold
recommends it for: My husband so we can talk about it at length!

This book is beautifully written and thought provoking... as I have come to expect from Stegner. Lyman Ward is writting a biography of his grandmother, specifically of her marriage. His grandparents' marriage parallels his own. And he is searching for the meaning of the phrase "angle of repose". However, Lyman Wards future is yet unwritten and his grandparents have long since passed on. We observe Lyman trying to learn more about himself, through his study of the past.

One major th...more This book is beautifully written and thought provoking... as I have come to expect from Stegner. Lyman Ward is writting a biography of his grandmother, specifically of her marriage. His grandparents' marriage parallels his own. And he is searching for the meaning of the phrase "angle of repose". However, Lyman Wards future is yet unwritten and his grandparents have long since passed on. We observe Lyman trying to learn more about himself, through his study of the past.

One major theme in the book is that history must be presented as it was and then seperately judged for ourselves. The theme is stated plainly several times thorughout the novel. In the meantime, Stegner presents the Story of Susan Burling Ward. He presents her with both her strengths and weaknesses. In the beginning I didn't relate to her... I found her snobbery insufferable. But as the novel pregressed and her character developed, I saw her as a survivor on the western fronteir, and I couldn't help but wish the best for her, ans I began to understand her circumstances better. While she committed many greavences in the book, her story teaches the reader about compassion and understnading. If I had judged her solely on the first 35 pages of the book, would my assesment have been fair? This is an interesting commentary on life, and raises and important question. Is it ever fair to judge another human being?

There were many thought provoking themes but what rang most clearly with me was the question of judgement. Lyman Ward loved his grandparents, how then should he react to their circumstances, and more importantly his own.

It is emotionally difficult to read about people who are ignoring life's warning signs, like the girl in the horror movie who goes into the basement alone. It is easy to echo the frustration of Lyman Ward... no matter how much we shout Susan cannot hear us. We are only left with the chance to learn from her situation.

I probably would have given it five stars except that I already read Stegners "Crossing to Safety"... so the intial awe in his writing style has warn off a bit. And I just can't bring myself to give five stars to a "fall from grace". I would write much more but my son is defacing my copy of Oscar Wildes' "Picture of Dorian Gray". ...less

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Ginnie

Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0141185473)

02/07/08

bookshelves: family, fiction

Read in January, 2007

Strange history with this book. I bought at a USC used book sale for $0.25 because it was a "classic" and it has gathered dust for more than twenty years unread. For no special reason I finally get around to taking it down. It was as though our time had finally arrived. The story of Susan Burling Ward is told through the eyes of her grandson, Lyman Ward. Lyman is a retired and disabled historian who, after achieving a measure of success and fame, decides to spend his last years turni...more Strange history with this book. I bought at a USC used book sale for $0.25 because it was a "classic" and it has gathered dust for more than twenty years unread. For no special reason I finally get around to taking it down. It was as though our time had finally arrived. The story of Susan Burling Ward is told through the eyes of her grandson, Lyman Ward. Lyman is a retired and disabled historian who, after achieving a measure of success and fame, decides to spend his last years turning his eyes to his family.

Angle of Repose is a book that starts off quietly. It was difficult for me to fully engage at first. This is largely because Lyman is such an obnoxious character. He is bitter about his wife's abandonment, angry at his son, and enraged at the new generation. As much as Susan is interesting from the start, Lyman's interest in her is suspicious. As a reader, I suspected that he turned to the past in order to run away from the present.

Gradually and invisibly, the book grew on me. The first 100 pages or so went very slowly. By the end of the book, I had started reading compulsively without even realizing it. Of course, Lyman Ward's interest in and narration of his grandmother is suspicious. All the more so when you learn more about the parallels between his own personal history and her life. That small hint of unreliability makes the narration somehow that much more poignant.

The best part of the book, for me, was the way that Stegner describes and narrates the young American West. In a remark to a journalist in 1981, Stegner said: "The West does not need to explore its myths much further; it has already relied on them too long." This book does its own bit towards deconstructing those myths. The West was not cowboys and outlaws, but miners and claim jumpers instead. It is a quiet look at our country-- oddly calm. I really appreciated it, and believed in the picture that he drew.

Angle of Repose may not have been one of my favorite books that I read in 2007. Still, it was a quiet and smart book-- well worth the effort that it took to read....less

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Kristin

Kristin rated it:

02/28/08

Read in February, 2007

The next review is for Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. This was our latest book club read for the month of February. It is a beautifully written, eloquent, descriptive book. It has been highly, highly recommended to me by several people...readers who I respect. Most of them have said that it was the best book they have ever read. Wow! That is saying a lot. This book is a very long and epic tale of a husband and wife who move to the west in the late 1800's to settle. This was good news to me....more

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Annalisa

Annalisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0141185473)

10/13/07

Read in June, 2007

recommended to Annalisa by: Jordan

When I started this book, I was drawn in by the poetic writing style, but not Lyman's story. But once the tale weaved into the grandma's, I was hooked. I didn't worry about where the story was taking me or why, I just jumped into Susan's life and mind. I related so much because Oliver's personality is so much like Brett's: hard-working, good to the core to the point of vulnerability, stubborn, and clam-like in confrontation. I call it the puppy dog effect where you are upset about a misdeed, but...more

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Candice

Candice rated it:

09/19/07

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Jamie, Ellen

This is the second time I read this novel. Our book club will be discussing it today, and I want it to be fresh in my mind. I love Wallace Stegner's descriptions! It makes me want to visit the west and just look, listen and experience the landscape. I liked the way he intermingled the narrator's story with that of his grandmother. Hers was an interesting story. She was not the "typical" pioneer wife as she used her talents to help to support her family. And I have to admit I fel...more

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Sylvia

Sylvia rated it:

04/20/08

Read in August, 1998

I listened on audiotape to this book about ten years ago and it remains in my memory one of the classics of literature. For now, I hope you will look up Rick's review on this site for a beautiful analysis. I really can't improve on his writing.

"It’s a beautifully wrought novel, moving, compelling, and humane. Stegner writes with a strong narrative and descriptive voice that doesn’t fuss with either but allows them the space they need to impose themselves on the reader’s imaginati...more

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Julie

Julie rated it:

02/10/08

Read in February, 2008

Wow, I really enjoyed reading this book! It was such a sad, sad story and just when you think it couldn't get worse, it did - maybe I enjoy unhappy endings... Nevertheless, Stegner is so deliciously descriptive and Lyman's narration was sometimes amusing and (very) frank.
In some ways I sympathized with Susan and understood how she may have felt leaving a life she loved behind and braving the unknown. I think that's what marriage is in general. (It also helped that she mentioned places like Po...more

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Mary

Mary rated it:

04/05/08

This was Stegner's Pulitzer Prize winner and a marvelous book. His ability to surprise you with unexpected characters in even more unexpected settings is alway remarkable. This one, with its two story lines, one current and one half a century preceding, is full of beautiful, ugly, inventive, sturdy characters, and is always involving.

Like many of his books, his lead characters are crusty old men placed in situations that place them entirely outside their comfort zone. But the power to con...more

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Teresa

Teresa rated it:

(review of isbn 0141185473)

03/26/08

Read in March, 2008

Such a complex (though readable) novel with so many themes that it's hard to know where to start. The wheelchair-bound narrator tells us this is a story of a marriage (that of his grandparents whom he knew until their deaths at advanced ages), but it's also the story of his wondering at his own (failed) marriage and why his wife left him when she did. Is he escaping into his grandmother's life to escape his own, or is he doing so to figure his own life out? The path to his insights is long (a...more

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Beth

Beth rated it:

04/09/08

Read in April, 2000

I have read this book twice so far. The first time, I was a single college student. The second time, I had been married about five years. I'm sure I will read it again a few more times. And I'm sure that the more years of marriage I've logged, the more I will get out of this book.

Marriage, and what it takes -- and takes out of you -- to make it work is the main theme of this book. Stegner has some profound things to say about it. But even before I could personally relate to the story's main...more

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Mia

Mia rated it:

07/06/08

Read in July, 2007

I read this book about two years ago ,and am going to read it again over this next week. It is a book both about history ,and fictional characters .These people are deeply drawn and you the reader are in their world and heads from the first page. This book is not just a look back but also about contemporary America ,family ,and the struggles we face when we face dependency.It can be confusing at times when the author moves from the distant past into the now it begins with ,but you quickly...more

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Olya

Olya rated it:

01/30/08

Stegner is a great writer. His prose is lovely and flowing. This book, however, has an overwhelming sense of finality to it. Still lovely but extremely depressing. Here's a good passage to explain what I am trying to say:

"For several weeks now I have had the sense of something about to come to an end-that old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air. But different now. Then, durin...more

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Linda

Linda rated it:

03/09/08

Read in January, 2005

recommended to Linda by: Pulitzer Prize Novels List
recommends it for: History Lovers who seek depression

Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1972 for this book. Goes to show you that you should disregard my reviews! Absolutely no taste, whatsoever. This book took me over two months to read because I kept putting it down. Down being the operative word here. It was not only a "downer", but lacked the skill of a good editor. In today's publishing world, Stegner wouldn't have gotten away with such a ponderous, heavy book. This was written in the "old way," with the author ...more

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John

John rated it:

09/08/07

Read in January, 2006

recommends it for: everyone

Starts off slow but gets into a compelling rhythm that links the present (an aging, wheelchair confined writer), his boyhood and the ordeals that his ancestors faced in moving West.

The plot jumps around a bit between past and present, but the threads all come together. Stegner is the consummate storyteller with a keen vision of the Old West and the obstacles that earlier generations faced as the moved across the plains and the Sierras.

Another hallmark of Stegner's novels (of which I hav...more

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Gail

Gail rated it:

06/25/08

bookshelves: 2008, classic-american

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: anyone

This is a wonderful novel about a marriage in the late 1800S. The wife's career, and indeed her entire life is--surprise!--subordinated to her husband's. These two people couldn't be more unlike: she very "refined" from a cultured eastern background, a writer and an artist; the husband an extrememly talented but impractical engineer who has great difficulty expressing his feelings or innermost thoughts. Although I don't usually like books with a western setting, "Angle of Repose&q...more

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kkf

kkf rated it:

06/22/07

Read in January, 1996

This may be my all-time favorite book. In the interest of full disclosure...it took me several chapters to get into it on my first read.

IT IS ABOUT...Two interweaving plots. The first is a first-person account by an older, disabled historian living in his grandparents' home and researching his grandmother's biography. The second is the story he uncovers about his grandmother, a complex and intriguing intellectual and artist who marries a mining engineer in the late 19th century. She...more

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Casandria

Casandria rated it:

02/07/08

Read in January, 2002

I read this book for a book club and I will be forever grateful to the person who introduced it to me. This is also one of the top 3 books I have ever read.

Angle of Repose follows Lyman Ward's historical research into the lives of his great-grandparents. His great-grandmother had been an educated, genteel Eastern woman and his great-grandfather a rough engineer, who brings her out to build up the American West in the 1800's. The descriptions of the places they lived and what they had to...more

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Kelly

Kelly rated it:

03/12/08

Read in February, 2008

Pulitzer Schmulitzer. What started out as a tantalizing epic saga ended kinda bland and disappointing. I kept waiting for the big reveal. When it finally came, all Stegner gives is the fallout. I understand what Stegner was trying to do--the point of