Stoner in Reading with Style

Jul 12, 2013 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads, from-friends, mid-20th-century

This NYRB edition includes an introduction by John McGahern. I suspected it might be spoiler filled and waited until after I'd finished the novel to read it. It is, indeed, spoiler filled, but I'm glad to have read it. In it, Williams, who in real life was a university professor of English literature, is quoted as saying "My God, to read without joy is stupid." His title character, Professor William Stoner, surely lived believing the same.

It seems quite extraordinary that Stoner, outwardly quiet ...more

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Dec 02, 2010 Juniper rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, 2013-books

there will likely be spoilers here, so consider yourself warned.

last night, when i finished reading this novel…i just lay there for a long time thinking about the book and its characters. and i am still thinking about it all now. there is a lot to admire about williams' writing, and stoner is an interesting book. at moments, i loved the story. at other moments, i was very frustrated by the story. i have landed on a 4-star rating, but i feel like this might change. whether it goes up or down…tha there will likely be spoilers here, so consider yourself warned.

last night, when i finished reading this novel…i just lay there for a long time thinking about the book and its characters. and i am still thinking about it all now. there is a lot to admire about williams' writing, and stoner is an interesting book. at moments, i loved the story. at other moments, i was very frustrated by the story. i have landed on a 4-star rating, but i feel like this might change. whether it goes up or down…that i don't know. this is what this novel has done to me. heh.

things i loved:
* the style of the writing - simple, but not simplistic; evocative
* the sheer literariness of the book - the study of english lit., university setting, pleasure & joy in books, literary references
* dave masters - vibrant
* shakespeare's sonnet 73

things i had trouble with:
* edith stoner - we are given so little about edith that i was left questioning her purpose and actions. why was she so awful? was it solely an issue of being a woman at this time in history and being limited in options? or did she suffer from depression or postpartum depression?
* charles walker & hollis lomax - why must both adversaries be disfigured?
* grace stoner - what a doomed child
* katherine driscoll - i found her very interesting, but found her departure to be the easy path taken

tim kreider, who wrote about stoner in the new yorker, said he felt that he was in "the presence of wisdom….[with] someone who knows life, who maybe even understands it." i get what he is saying here and i felt these things too, while i was reading. stoner i very much liked that this was a realist story about a regular man living an ordinary-ish life.

in several reviews i have read today, i noticed a constant refrain - one that is pulled from the text - stoner is about a man going about his duties as best he can. and i think this is where things fall apart for me a little bit with the novel.

was this really the best stoner could do? what if he made different choices? was he so constrained by the times and expectations as to feel without choice? i just don't know. there seems such an effort in the book for stoner to not be allowed any sustained happiness - his marriage is miserable and volatile, he has, initially, a wonderful connection and relationship with his daughter, but loses that, his career doesn't really flourish and his affair with katherine driscoll…cannot turn into a life of happiness with a stable and loving partnership.

i sometimes have a really hard time expressing how i feel about a book or, more generally, how books make me feel. it's tough to put that into words a lot of the time. i liked that williams addresses this in his novel. at the end though…i felt a bit of a disconnect from it all. stoner (and williams) are so affected by literature but it's hard to articulate. and that maybe that was the point…but i would have loved to been more emotionally invested in this novel. i am wondering about a re-read at a later time?

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
 This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
 To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
 –William Shakespeare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_73

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Oct 30, 2013 Chinook rated it it was amazing

Shelves: america, 1-kindle

Stoner was fascinating. I'm startled that I loved something so much that six months ago I'd not so much as heard of.

I loved the first third of the novel - it was so quiet and contemplative. I found the characters easy to empathize with. I thought the exploration of the urbanization of America illustrated well in Stoner. The marital and university conflicts were interesting, especially that the reader was left to try and guess what made Edith do the things she does and how Stoner can't see that L ...more

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Mar 06, 2018 ilona rated it it was amazing

Jednostavno, pročitajte Stonera.

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Mar 13, 2024 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: rws-2024-spring, 2024-read, audio-hoopla, bookclub-erica

This was a reread for me, though the first time in audio format. The last time I read this, I didn't live in Columbia, Missouri, so it had a whole new layer of personal connection for me now that I am familiar with a lot of the buildings and places.

This is an excellent book. One of the original books to capture academic politics. And it's a simple story about one guy--as the book itself says, a guy no one much even remembers. But there's so much heart in the story, that I just love this novel. I ...more

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Dec 01, 2024 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: culture, love, literary, classic, reviewed, identity, parents-affecting-children, friendship

A frustrating read, in the sense that as a reader we can see the problems that real communication could solve and the life traps that characters are falling into, and the ways that giving in one moment leads to years of unhappiness. But the author is frustratingly true to his characters' flaws - Stoner, especially.

Stoner grows and changes in his life only as much as a real person who doesn't really care about growing and changing does. The things he experiences force change or action upon him, ...more

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Nov 23, 2016 Devin Murphy rated it it was amazing

I was told this was the 'perfect novel.' it is not for everyone, but I agree. It is a subtle story of the life an academic, but was so honest and raw it haunted me. ...more

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