John Williams: Stoner

[Mirabell]

From a hotspot in Saxony, here's my review of this one:


The novel is accessible and appears simple (not simplistic), yet on closer reading it unfolds and turns out to contain deposits of deliciousness, none of which weighs this enjoyable read down. It was moving, thoughtful, and Stoner?s love for books was the best description of an amorous relationship I have had the honor of reading in months. I will most certainly read his other novels. If they are as good as Stoner, I am in for a treat.

s*: Teacher Man: John Williams’ “Stoner” (http://shigekuni.blogspot.com/2008/12/teacher-man-john-williams-stoner.html)

[Mirabell]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21TJ3CV77DL._SL500_AA180_.jpg

[Eric]

Two questions, Mirabell:

1) In what decade is it set? Is it a contemporary novel set in the 1960s? Why I ask is because of the negro farm hands that are mentioned.

2) How does it compare with Coetzee, who also entertains such academic themes, or with other authors that deal with the South of the USA?

[nnyhav]

Mr. Waggish chose it as one of his books of the year over at RSB (http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=boty2008).
His take: Waggish: John Williams: Stoner (http://www.waggish.org/2008/06/07/john-williams-stoner)
My take: Stochastic Bookmark: An Open Letter to Myself (http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2007/07/open-letter-to-myself.html)

[Mirabell]

Mr. Waggish chose it as one of his books of the year over at RSB (http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=boty2008).
His take: Waggish: John Williams: Stoner (http://www.waggish.org/2008/06/07/john-williams-stoner)
My take: Stochastic Bookmark: An Open Letter to Myself (http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2007/07/open-letter-to-myself.html)

your take is interesting, esp. our differences in respect to the teaching aspect. thanks for posting.

[titania7]

Mirabell,
I'm glad you read this...and that you wrote such a darn good review of it. Last autumn this book, Stoner, arrived along with a box full of other books. Somehow, amid Junichiro's Some Prefer Nettles and Bulgakov's A Dead Man's Memoir, this unassuming novel by John Williams all but escaped my notice. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I must read it soon.

A few comments on your review:

The fact you describe Stoner as "among the least vain characters you've encountered in fiction" speaks volumes. It sounds like Williams writes artlessly, with a truth and precision that is rare.

Williams' understanding and subsequent depiction of female characters sounds remarkable. Stoner's wife does indeed sound fascinating. And the daughter they have together, Grace, must be another riveting and pivotal figure.

With my own passion for books, I cannot imagine not being deeply affected by Stoner's love for literature. You make a good point, though, about Stoner having the brain to make his passion for the books "work". Without the intellect to fully appreciate and comprehend the writing one reads, it all seems rather pointless.

I meant to comment on your review several days ago as I was so delighted to see that you had read Stoner. It's a book I've been quite curious about for some time now. Somehow I knew it would be magnificent...and it looks like I was right.

Very glad to have you back, by the way.


~Titania

[titania7]

M.,
I must go back and read your review of this, now that I've finished the book. As you know, it had a profound impact on me. Honestly, I would have to say, Stoner is one of the best 10-15 books I've ever read. It was exquisitely written, and, like you, I certainly want to read Williams' other books.

After a re-read, I will write my own review, though it shall be nearly impossible to top the one you wrote.

Yours,
Titania

[Mirabell]

After a re-read, I will write my own review, though it shall be nearly impossible to top the one you wrote.

not bloody likely since my review is crap. also, i wasn't all that bowled over by the novel so we're bound to differ quite a bit. looking forward to yours.

ta-ta.

[shaunrandol]

Here's my take on the book - published June 1, 2011 by Gently Read Literature:

John Williams’ Stoner is the story of the academic’s worst nightmare. One should suspect as much, though, for on the very first page the author sketches the life of one William Stoner, a professor of literature at the University of Missouri in the first half of the twentieth century. Despite 38 years of teaching, Stoner never rose above the rank of assistant professor. He was, apparently, an unremarkable man—few students could recall him, even after they had just taken his class.

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 the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their career.

Not exactly the way an academic wants to be remembered. While I am no professor, I do fancy myself a bit of a thinker, and occasionally fantasize about the life of a college instructor. Stoner had all the trappings of a wet dream: a poor, Missouri farmer finds his true calling and a love of literature at the university, is offered a professorship and tenure shortly after graduation, and marries a smart, beautiful woman with whom he has a smart, precocious daughter. A life of research, teaching, mentoring, and publishing lived alternatively in an ivory tower or behind a white picket fence stretches before him. Ah, the life! Add to the mix the allure of a young, sexy, sharp-as-a-tack student—naturally—and you have the makings of every thinking man’s fantasy.

Yet life was not so rosy for Stoner. One can argue that, all things considered, Stoner did alright for himself. In fact, as far as the destinies of destitute, Dust Bowl-era farmers are concerned, he did exceedingly well. Nevertheless, Stoner ends up living a life of intellectual stagnation, marital ineptitude, bitter loneliness, and professorial obscurity, never to rise above the level of mediocrity in all realms of life. Oh, the horror!
Stoner may be a melancholic read, but it is not dull. This elegant novel is a fine, intimate portrait of a man with terrific—but never realized—potential. His life at the university begins with much promise, but that time, unfortunately, is nearly the peak of the intellect’s career. His marriage to a woman who never truly loved him quickly dissolves into an emotional prison-state, and nearly almost spirals into a War of the Roses-type battle for psychological supremacy. More disheartening are the machinations of the Chair of the literary department in which Stoner resides who conspires to keep Stoner at the level of a lowly, associate professor, even while younger professors slowly climb the ranks. Stoner takes all of his lumps with a resigned dignity, but he closes in on himself until he becomes the sole constituent of his world:

Stoner had to admit that he had become, in the regard of the young instructors and the older students, who seemed to come and go before he could firmly attach names to their faces, an almost mythic figure, however shifting and various the function of that figure was.
And as the years pass by, his classroom behavior becomes more eccentric, more erratic, more absent, and, in front of his students, more intense,

He began his lectures and discussions fumblingly and awkwardly, yet very quickly became so immersed in his subject that he seemed unaware of anything or anyone around him.
We know from the very beginning that the end of the novel brings death to the protagonist—a somber pall drapes every page. It is Williams’ ability to paint such precise, brutally honest portraits of the characters, however, that keeps one reading. The characters are so real they seem to come alive on the page. We know that things cannot end well, but the appeal remains in finding out how the individuals, namely Stoner, cope with the sad circumstances of their lives. Every character is a sad sack, incapable of overcoming their stifling mediocrity. Stoner’s life and death is emblematic of the academic’s worst nightmare: great potential never realized.

Permalink: http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/an-unremarkable-man-shaun-randol-on-john-williamss-stoner/

[DB Cooper]

Stoner is a great book. Not GREAT but still deserving of praise. Actually I prefer Butcher's Crossing.

[Mirabell]

I love Stoner so much! I bought Butcher's Crossing afterwards but haven't read it yet,

[Stevie B]

I'd rate Stoner as one of the best novels I've read in the past several years though its descriptions of a marriage-from-hell were extremely depressing. Somehow good ole Stoner just kept plugging away.

[Liam]

...its descriptions of a marriage-from-hell were extremely depressing.Was it really worse than the unholy union in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[Stevie B]

Was it really worse than the unholy union in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Better in that there were fewer nasty blow-out fights, but worse in that the fighting was so one-sided. Half of me felt truly sorry for Stoner who was constantly belittled. The other half, though, was frustrated by Stoner's passiveness. He rarely fought back. As a reader, I wanted to shout, "Are you really going to take that?"

[DB Cooper]

I love Stoner so much! I bought Butcher's Crossing afterwards but haven't read it yet,

Oh wow you should really get to that soon, well worth the time. Have you read Augustus?

[Mirabell]

Oh wow you should really get to that soon, well worth the time. Have you read Augustus?

No. After a binge as a teenager, I've become wary of Rome-centric novels. It takes a lot to convince me to pick one up. My current delight in Vidal's essays (a book that I have always on my desk but not cracked open for awhile) led me to want to read Vidal's Rome novel though.

[Remora]

Just got started on this. And wow, sometimes a plain, unadorned style can do astronomically more than the most elaborately wrought poetic prose.

[Cleanthess]

While reading Stoner, a book about a literature professor, I was expecting to read more about literature than is actually in the book, but the many bits included were very good.

For example, the poem that awakens Stoner to literature's power is the best thing Shakespeare ever wrote, his crypto-catholic lament:

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 see'st the twilight of such day.

I was also impressed by the following observation made by Stoner in the book: there is a stark contrast between the happy outlook on life of the Roman pagan poets, who didn't believe in an afterlife, and the dour and sorrowful bitterness of the early Latin medieval christian poets who should have been blissful with the hope of heaven, but weren't. We could explain the contrast by pointing out that the material conditions of Roman life and medieval life were very different. You could live a happy, rich life in Roman times, not so much during the early middle ages.

This troubles me, since it would seem, based on Japan's lead and example of living on a quasi-depressed economy, that we are about to enter a period where the lives of a big chunk of our population are going to be considerably impoverished. Employment will become precarious, wages stagnant or falling, prospects for the young, dismal. In that kind of economy cultural life suffers, because people stop materially supporting the artists and artisans, they stop purchasing cultural objects to signal their belonging to the group of the cool and beautiful ones.

The brilliant writers at Neojaponisme have been explaining that phenomenon as it has been affecting Japan for a while now; their postings on the subject, plus the comment threads that follow them, are extremely useful to see what an austere future may look like from a cultural point of view.

Anyhoo, back to Stoner. About one quarter into the book, a seismic shift happens, signaled by the seemingly innocuous sentence: 'I'll try to be a good wife to you'. And poor Stoner starts his stoic sojourn with Hecate. At least, we get to see what would have happened if George Constanza had finally married Susan, 'nuff said.

I've stopped reading the book for a while now, it was too painful to see the orange being crushed, repeatedly. But I can certainly see what others have found so appealing about Stoner.

[marvyn1982]

I read this book in College and it was pretty good. Its about life on an indian reservation in the 70s I think and it has tons of alcohol and peyote and cussing in it...

[Cleanthess]

I read this book in College and it was pretty good. Its about life on an indian reservation in the 70s I think and it has tons of alcohol and peyote and cussing in it...

marvyn, good one:
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4559817315124196&pid=1.7&w=50&h=50&c=7&rs=1http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4732311772923658&pid=1.7&w=76&h=77&c=7&rs=1http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4559817315124196&pid=1.7&w=50&h=50&c=7&rs=1