Stoner

so much life in 290 pages..

a seemingly impossible novel: yes, i found myself entranced by it, but at points, i stopped to wonder why i care, only to just continue anyway.

pacing was excellent, not once did i think that a scene overstayed its welcome or did i want to listen in more.

anyway, this novel is just about right in its ambition – not too wide, and not too insular. if a perfect shower temperature was a book, this would be it

🚨 SPOILERS 🚨

the mundanity of life seems to sweep the protagonist along as it goes. he first is a student, without planning, one day becomes a tenured literature professor. first a single man, then finds marriage and fatherhood thrust upon him. he finds himself content, then sickness befalls him. he does not quite go out without a fight, and his life serves as a reminder of how quickly time passes and you grow old. dont let life pass you by...

really enjoyed the portrait of edith, his wife, who has more agency than william but who nonetheless life binds to her fate. from young, she leaves home an eager girl, itching to experience life away from a domineering mother, only to become a mother who irreparably changes her daughter's life not unlike how she changes  her own through brash decision-making. there is a certain cruelty here, although if i were to take a charitable reading, she just never dealt with her own repressed traumas, and by pattern-matching and taking her daughter's life into her own hands, there was a return of the repressed. her self-declared war on her "boring" husband is also so amusing to me, like ohhhhh so this is what undersimulated women did with life in the past, before they were able to channel that energy into being girlbosses. in a way, edith's story is an alternative to gillian flynn's gone girl

in the correspondences published between his publisher and himself, they shared the view that they didnt see commercial potential in the book – i am so amused with how wrong they are, it has morphed into a cult classic in the internet age, far beyond what they couldve imagined, although it is a pity that they both did not live to witness its success

I went into 'Stoner' with high expectations, as several people had told me it was a great book and one they truly loved. Unfortunately, I struggled to connect with the story and the characters, which made the reading experience feel underwhelming.

I'm not unused to slow-paced books, but I don't think it was the right time for me to read this one. While I could understand Stoner's character to some extent, the story felt like it dragged, and I found it difficult to stay engaged.

That said, I think 'Stoner' might be worth revisiting at a different time in my life. I may give it another try in the future, as I think there is a chance I could appreciate it more with a different perspective. For now, though, it didn't resonate with me the way I hoped.

"I want to thank you all for letting me teach."

I do believe, at some point, Stoner speaks as a part of us, being not infallible, prone to negligence. In the end, Stoner managed to give voice to that life—a life that, no matter how screwed up, no matter how unforeseeable the future is, it will carry on, whether we want it or not, in the hardest way imaginable. The book takes you through soaring highs and crushing lows, and it shattered me completely by the final page. We all face failure, seek reconciliation, and stumble upon revelation. Life simply is.

Well as William Stoner did say, what did we expect?

was reading this book while watching/listening to moya mawhinney's latest youtube video and the combination of the soundtrack + the writing made me pity stoner's life and vow to make some changes to my own life

mid

a boring retelling of a man’s monotonous academic and personal life. reminds me of when you go through the motions and suddenly you’re a little older than you were some time ago with nothing exceptional to say about what you’ve done with your wasted time.

love my nothing burgers! i’m always so captivated. this book was perfect at what it set out to do.

The literary equivalent of a glass of water. Not the most strongly flavoured or fizzy or intoxicating, but thirst-quenchingly pure in ways nothing else can be.

Wow.

Really thought provoking a moving, however a little boring at time. Definitely not an easy read mentally.

Precise and plain prose endear the reader to life of a simple man who finds his version of the American dream. Born dirt poor (literally) William Stoner ends up in the halls of Academia teaching English to mainly disinterested pupils while navigating university politics as well as his own familial ones. The sum is greater than the parts here, with themes of family, education, sensuality, passion, and work along with a narrative of the rise of America in the first half of the 20th century. The synopsis sounds banal, but the straightforward writing excels at catching the intimacy and devastation of the characters.

I am immensely drawn to the passive character of William Stoner, but I found myself plagued by a bittersweet melancholy that he let life happen to him without making any effort to pursue life as he craved it. The relationships and life Stoner lived made me uncomfortable and sad. It’s easy to feel happiness from a book, but to feel truly sad is a hard task to accomplish crafting the sympathy one can find through a written work.

Everything everyone says about this book is true. It’s boring. It’s mundane. But it’s an addicting read. The equivalent of a drive in the country you don’t want to end.

picked up at a random cause of the goofy name, will trust my intuition more often. Ordinary, depressing but beautiful, man with integrity and do things right by the book only to be wronged by circumstances 99% of our lives mine included, sad glimpse at the end of the tunnel fr

a truly inspiring story of a very normal, not so greater than life individual. Nothing about the story, or the characters is extraordinary. Nothing in its existence actually stands out. Some may find it underwhelming at times. But never before has a story made me feel more human. This is one of those stories you remember long after the last page has been turned. The acceptance of what you have been handed in life and everything it entails, all of it truly makes the story of William Stoner an absolution of your own blue existence.

Made me think of an Andrew Wyeth painting… loved…

Oof. This one snuck up on me. It's mostly the story of an unexceptional life, but it's also about the things that transcend the mundane (loving people, books, etc.). It's effortlessly and deeply emotional. It will stick with me. Williams is a favorite.

Most perfect book ever

One must admit to herself that she is not a literary fiction girl. This book was fine. This book was depressing. I do not care for this book. Nicely written, but almost in a pretentious way, like, maybe it’s just me, but I would never want to be in a graduate school environment lmaooo the absolute egos and political nature of academia. I guess the author was a professor himself? If so, it shows. I do not like these characters, lol. Is mediocre a defining feature of characters in literary fiction? I think Finch is the only one I liked. I fucking hate Edith. Lomax, I actually get, like any arrogant MF desperate for power and influence, no matter how ruthless the means. My dislike for him actually eased up when I realized why he was the way he was. But Edith? A vile human. I do not care what her upbringing was like in whatever time period. ANYONE can always choose to be better and she chose to be worse. She can choke. One thing I will say is that I really enjoyed the relationship Stoner had with Grace in her early years. It was hopeful, his life was better, he was happy. That little girl LOVED him. Even though they didn’t really talk to each other, she preferred to be there with him, and honestly, sometimes just existing together is enough. But for him, it wasn’t enough, and he destroyed his own daughter. I’m just going to say it. It is just as much his fault as it is Edith’s for making her into the person she became. Imagine if he fought for her as much as he did to keep his side piece? And this is who people are calling a hero? Yikes. Yet despite my thoughts, I still ate it all up. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

** spoiler alert ** It seems Stoner’s life was miserable or sad but I felt that he was happy with how the choices he made affected his life. He had a job that he loved and he was able to work on it for 40 years. In the end he was able to get some “comfort” with how his life went. Even with his wife and daughter. He had two close friends. One died and the other always had his back and was always there for him even when life got in the way. Stoner had a life that was better than most people’s and I really liked reading about it!

i don’t have any strong feelings, i guess i was both expecting something else and in the mood for something a bit more hopeful and less realistic? that being said, i think the characters were written really well, the writing had a very clear, vivid tone to it.

This is a pretty straightforward novel. I would say it's deceptively straightforward, but that's not really true. The narrative is linear, there are no metaphors, the prose is spartan, and the plot is simple. It's about the life of a very unremarkable man who lives a boring life. And yet the book manages to tell us a lot about the human condition. You don't have to read between the lines here, but the lines themselves are fantastic. The book is just about that boring life, which still contains all that really matters in all lives in the end: passions of the mind, heart and loins; friendship and animosity; life and death. There are so many great passages in this book – for me, the ones that captured my own romantic view on academia were the most memorable – that left me thinking about the beauty of life. If that sounds pretentious to you, then this book might not capture you like it did me, but Stoner is not actually as pretentious as any review of it is bound to be. The one word that best describes this novel to me is poignant.

Beautiful story and an exploration on the ambiguity of happiness. What is it and should you chase happiness at the cost of others?