Stoner: A Novel (MOST RED)

by John Williams

John McGahern (Introduction)

Read the greatest rediscovered classic of recent years

'A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life' Ian McEwan

William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely.

Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life.

'A brilliant, beautiful, inexorably sad, wise and elegant novel' Nick Hornby

‘A terrific novel of echoing sadness’ Julian Barnes

• ISBN10: 0099561549
• ISBN13: 9780099561545
• Publish Date: 5 July 2012 (first published 24 April 1973)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Vintage Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mercy]

Tengo sentimientos encontrados hacia este libro. No sé qué puntuación ponerle, me siento tan confundida. Por un lado, creo que fácilmente podría ponerle 4 estrellas, incluso 5, John Williams escribe de una manera tan hermosa y me encontré leyendo la historia de Stoner con ansia y quería que le fuese bien y me encariñé con él un poco y sufrí tanto cuando le iba mal, además hay varios momentos de reflexión que me llegaron al alma.
Por el otro, si examino la historia de manera objetiva, estoy segura que le encontraría muchos problemas, había momentos en que no sabía si enojarme con el protagonista por ser tan tonto y no tener la valentía de levantarse y luchar por lo que quería y no buscar una mejor vida para él y su esposa. O bien, no sabía si enojarme con Edith, la esposa, por ser mala con Stoner, por su apatía, por no expresar sus deseos, etc. Y finalmente, no sabía si dirigir mi enojo hacia el autor por ser tan malo para escribir personajes femeninos, creo que éste fue mi mayor problema, los personajes femeninos son demasiado insulsos, casi nunca hablan o sólo expresan sus pensamientos a medias. Hay una chica que es más o menos mejor desarrollada pero me parece que sólo para demostrar un punto en favor del protagonista masculino y eso de verdad que me molestó muchísimo mientras leía.

Me parece que voy a pensar más en el asunto y quizá escribir una reseña desarrollando mi punto de vista sobre los problemas que encontré y así sabré que puntuación colocarle :___

[gmcgregor]

John Williams' Stoner chronicles a life that most would write off as mediocre. William Stoner is born to subsistence farmers in Missouri, and when he grows up, his parents send him to college to learn about agriculture. Stoner is a decent but unspectacular student until he takes a required English course and he's seized by the love of learning. He abandons his original plan to return home for the academic life, continuing his education and becoming a professor. Along the way he marries Edith, a lovely young woman who turns out to not be a very good wife, they have a daughter, and Stoner gets caught up in academic politics. He writes and publishes one book, and dies without much more in the way of accomplishments.

It's a "small" life: Stoner never really leaves Colombia once he gets there, and never rises to any sort of prominence. He opts out of World War I, his book never makes any waves, his marriage is a disaster (not only do they never love one another, she frequently goes out of her way to spite him and destroy any small measure of contentment he feels), his adored daughter is turned against him and grows up to become an alcoholic, and he permanently alienates the head of his department (preventing any sort of advancement) when he refuses to give his approval to allow a clever but shallow student to progress towards a doctorate. He has one short period of true happiness, an affair with a graduate student, but it doesn't last. He dies in pain, separated from those he loves.

It sounds like a massive downer. It should be a massive downer. But Williams' writing, particularly his characterization of Stoner, creates a portrait that's melancholic but in a way that's poignant rather than outright sad. Stoner has the stoicism that one might expect from a boy born to taciturn farmers...when you grow up expecting to eke a living out of the soil from which your parents struggled to do the same, you don't expect greatness or wild happiness from life. Fundamentally decent and essentially passive, Stoner accepts most of what his life brings with grace. Even his biggest fight, his determination to fail the unworthy student, is more of a refusal to back down from doing what he genuinely believes he should do than an active campaign against the student in question. Stoner is a very rare example of a literary protagonist who is almost entirely reactive rather than proactive.

It's Williams' beautiful characterization of Stoner that makes the novel's one significant flaw (for me, anyways, you might have more) so glaring: Edith is so one-dimensionally villainous. She's given some sympathy at the beginning, when she's no more prepared for the realities of marriage than her young husband. But she gradually progresses to be a vindictive antagonist without any real indication given as to why. When every other character is rendered with emotional honesty, it stands out that Edith is not, and as she is the most significant female character in the book, it's troubling. But not nearly enough to outweigh the merits of Stoner as a whole: it's deftly and elegantly told, in prose that's resonant without ever being flowery, and gives dignity to a kind of person and life that's usually brushed aside without much thought. I really loved this book, and completely understand why it's been rediscovered and celebrated as of late. I'd recommend it to anyone.