Stoner

A masterpiece of quiet introspection, "Stoner" is John William's magnum opus, and nothing short of a literary triumph. Williams' prose is beautifully understated, yet profoundly impactful. The way he captures the nuances of Stoner's life — from his passionate love for literature to the heartbreak of personal relationships — is nothing less than poetic. What struck me most about "Stoner" is its exploration of resilience in the face of adversity. As Stoner navigates the disappointments and betrayals in his life, his quiet determination becomes a source of inspiration. The novel is a poignant reminder of the beauty that can be found in a life lived authentically, even in moments of struggle. The themes of love, loss, and the pursuit of knowledge are woven seamlessly throughout the story, making it a profound meditation on what it means to truly live. Williams has created a timeless narrative that lingers long after the final page is turned. In a world that often celebrates grand gestures, "Stoner" shines a light on the significance of the ordinary and the powerful impact of a life dedicated to passion and purpose. I read this at a time in my life where it transformed me; and yes, it's my favorite novel of all time, so it had to be the first thing I logged (even though I read it a year ago.)

I knew this book was going to either make me drag my feet through it, or I'd have a good time overall. I'm glad that I fell into the latter category.

I derived enjoyment mainly because the book appealed to my existentialist side, exploring how meaningless life can be if we don't create our own meaning for it. Most of pop culture explores the explosive and dramatic importance of humans and humanity (which I don't have anything against), but I also find it refreshing to read something that's just so quietly and timidly insignificant, even though it's sad and a little horrifying to think about. Admittedly, I don't really read a lot of existentialist books so I can't say how this one stands in that subgenre but from where I am, at least, I did enjoy the whole ride and found myself going through this a lot quicker and with more engagement than I expected.

The writing had a weird effect on me. It was straightforward to the cusp of being boring, but, for some weird reason that I cannot quite name, it sucked me in and I found myself even rereading some passages so I don't miss out on what it's trying to say. That being said, I can absolutely understand people finding it boring and for that reason I wouldn't recommend this book to just about anyone.

Stoner is not a flawless character by any standard. He's pretty much just an average person who isn't deliberately malicious and doesn't aspire to much in life. He'll never be a villain, a hero, or even any other kind of sterotype, because he's so in the middle. There are, I'm sure, millions of Stoners out there in all of human history but because their lives are usually drab and unexciting (from a pop culture standpoint), it's usually never memorialized. I think this book is trying to do that.

Stoner makes good and bad decisions, he randomly experiences leaps of epiphany and seems to find a personality, only to later shrink back into himself and retreat from confrontation or making a stand. Most books might have their heroes as a Gordon Finch who enthusiastically signs up for war and achieves all these accolades in academia, so it's interesting to see things from a perspective like Stoner's, who consistently shrinks away from things. He's the sort of person no one seems to remember for very long after he's gone (like the depressing first few passages of the book), but I think what the book does is to show us the inner workings of all these nameless, faceless people who have faded into the backgrounds of society and time, and that they, like any hero or villain in life, are also trying to create some meaning for themselves if it isn't as flamboyantly or colourfully done.

This book was also just as much about Edith and Grace as it was about Stoner, because, going along with the customs of the times, as the head of the household Stoner would inevitably dictate the course of his wife's and daughter's lives, whether he wanted to or not. Edith sadly doesn't seem to have a happy childhood - the theory that her father sexually abused her is one I only read about after I was done with the book but I buy it, everything does click into place - and, in so doing, she sort of pays it forward and asphyxiates Grace's childhood. Stoner doesn't intervene. Sure, I was annoyed at him for not standing up for Grace more and it's not an excusable reason, but it's also pretty real.

In the end, this book is about an ordinary, flawed person trying to navigate an ordinary, flawed existence. He makes some good and some bad decisions along the way, accumulating some accolades but which is outweighed by a ton of regrets and missed opportunities. The beauty in it is that I think most of us are more like Stoner than we realise or than we admit to ourselves.

I cannot think of another book I've read with such a passive protagonist and relatively unremarkable narrative that I've enjoyed as much as this.

And I think that mostly comes down to the prose. I really love books in which the writing style matches the themes of the story and sets a tone through which to experience it.

William Stoner is almost just an observer to most of the events throughout his life and the sort of vague, disconnected narration emphasises this. Conversations are often described rather than transcribed. Stoner's actions and decisions are, besides a few key moments, just things he is resigned to by circumstance. Certain characters act antagonisticly towards him while he, and the reader, barely see any evidence of why they would behave that way.

Though that leads to why this wasn't quite a home run for me. It feels “true to life” to not completely understand the actions of some of the other characters, and the same can be said for events that cause a disruption in Stoner's life and are then quickly moved on from, but that isn't the most satisfying story to read (though that could certainly be the intent of the author).

This was a great book club pick though because I can see from our Goodreads reviews that opinions of it are all over the place, haha.

This is a book that perhaps, if time allows, one might as well go through the context again for multiple times.

It was written in a morose tone, and it was about nothing exquisite, heroic, or you might call it a book of the defeated, who are unable to summon the right life-a friendship with great depth and proximity, a marriage of mutual respect, not founded on love, as Stoner stumbled his way towards the end-where cancer paved the path and death awaited before him.

It was a life of no significance, as brought up at the very first of the book. Stoner was no much of a hero, his presence meant little to the field he was deeply rooted and found a profound love for. To his daughter and wife, he was just a man who supported their living and lived in their household. To Lomax, he was a target for his utter of hatred, as his stubbornness prohibited them to get along well due to a talented student.

Academically, the book serves a purpose for all literature lovers as it connected the contexts of different proses, works, arts written by famous writers like Shakespeare, Shelley, etc. Despite that facet of the book it reigned, to me, the emphasis was more about the life Stoner led himself into-for sure he couldn't lead all of it. The melancholy he experienced each time was heartfelt, as the words brought me along with him. And how it was to be, after all, numb by all the events one had gone through in his life. It was to no uncertainty that I found myself resonating with every single word used to describe Stoner's internal feelings without difficulty. It was so smooth, so realistic, so beautifully written.

And I believe as well, that we might all find little parts of ourselves in the book, whenever we felt aloof, distracted by people, or due to that long-bore loneliness that we carried within ourselves since the date we met the earth. It was with great pleasure I had found in reading the piece of work, despite its contextual remorse.

If you can, don't just give it a read, but serveral.

In the foreword, Williams' describes his book as an "escape into reality". His portrayal of one mans ordinary life features no heroes and no villains and is simply the chronicle of a mundane life. The sparse and melancholic prose tells the story of John Stoner from age 19 through to his death. We see his humble beginnings in desperate poverty with his parents who toil on their farm and only ever know hardship and hunger and endurance and pain. Stoner is sent to university to study new agricultural techniques, and he subsequently falls in love with the English language and decides to become a scholar. He settles in at the university, gets married, has a child, and deals with adversity. In the mundane flow of his existence, there are moments of true love, a fulfilling career, and a quiet legacy left in his writings.

Stoners decision to become a scholar is perhaps the only decisive moment in his entire life. He drifts through life with a stoic passivity that's almost painful to witness. At every confrontation with life’s pivotal moments, Stoner capitulates to inaction. This might sound frustrating to witness, but his story is so lovingly and tenderly written that it is easy to enjoy the ride, and almost impossible to not relate.

The final few chapters examine the questions of what it means to live a successful life. Stoner is by all regards very very average. His stoicism borders on self-sabotage, especially evident as he watches his wife undermine his relationship with his daughter, offering no resistance. Stoner is not an innocent victim though, the repeated sexual assaults on his wife and neglect of his daughter, even as she descends into alcoholism and hopelessness paint a complicated picture of a man deeply flawed and complicit in the suffering of those around him.

Perhaps this is a novel about the inherent beauty and tragedy in just living, just being. Or perhaps it is a warning about passivity and the dangers of just 'going with the flow'. Stoner's life story leaves us pondering the fine line between resignation and acceptance, and the quiet yet profound impact of the choices we make or fail to make.

This was an oddly compelling read about an unremarkable guy and his flawed life. I don't have a huge love of classics, and I likely would never have read this book if not for my book club friends reading it this month, but I'm actually glad I read this one.

Stoner could be anyone you come across, and you'd never know. He grew up dirt poor, went to college woefully unprepared, and managed to stumble on something he enjoyed much better than his family's farm in the process. Neither farmers nor scholars of that time period are known for their emotional development, so when he's confronted with the intense emotions that an infatuation can bring on a person, he conflates that with love, and mistakes are made. Stoner experiences low points, manages to make his way out of those low points, and finally manages to make his stumbling way towards the end of a life that, to anyone else may look unremarkable and boring, but to him he managed to find some contentment and peace(?) at the end.

I really like the idea that you don't have to lead a spectacular life to find a measure of contentment at the end. Maybe it wasn't a well-lived life and Stoner does experience regrets, but that's true of any one of us. Would I recommend this book to anyone and everyone? Maybe not, but I still greatly enjoyed it for what it made me think about.

Misternie opowiedziana i z tak subtelną narracją, która z łatwością ukazuje życie zwykłego człowieka w niezwykłym czasie w Ameryce. To może być historia zmieniającego się kraju lub tylko nieheroiczna relacja ze zwykłej egzystencji.
Ale to jej prostota sprawia, że jest nieziemsko piękna, nostalgiczna i poruszająca.
Początek XX wieku, Missouri, William Stoner pochodzi ze skromnej rodziny rolników, jego ojciec wysyła go na uniwersytet stanowy, aby studiował rolnictwo. Jednak zamiast tego zakochuje się w literaturze angielskiej i dzięki pewnemu profesorowi sam zostaje nauczycielem, oddalając się od swojej rodziny.
Śledzimy jego życie przez 40 lat nauczania, zmiażdżone złudzenia i gorzkie rozczarowania z powodu nieudanego małżeństwa z niewłaściwą kobietą, rzadkie ulotne błogie chwile w raczej ponurej egzystencji w samotności, życie poświęcone nauczaniu, w którym znajduje jedyne ukojenie.
Wraz z upływem lat głos w powieści zyskiwał na sile, a Stoner stawał się osobą, którą zawsze miał być. Jego pozornie oderwana relacja z lat między dwiema wielkimi wojnami światowymi, jego rosnące wyobcowanie najpierw od rodziny, a później od własnej żony i córki, jego walka o idealistyczną koncepcję tego, jacy powinni być nauczyciele akademiccy. Wszystkie te kwestie powodują wielkie cierpienie tego człowieka, który nie robiąc wiele w swoim życiu, a może robiąc więcej niż większość, daje stoickie świadectwo minionych czasów, które stworzyły podstawy tego, czym jesteśmy teraz.
Arcydzieło nie docenione tak, jakby na to zasługiwało, może dlatego, że tę książkę czyta się jak prawdziwe życie, a nie jak bestsellerową historię o bohaterze z happy-endem.

“- Pożądanie i książki - powiedziała kiedyś Katherine. - Tylko one istnieją naprawdę, nie sądzisz?”

Isn't life disappointing?

In Orson Welles' movie Citizen Kane, it opens up with a broad overview of the central main character Charles Foster Kane and the grandiose life that he lived - from birth to death, he lived in a mansion, with a life of notable achievements that has cemented his place in history. This entire sequence spoils all the events of the story, giving a broad overview of the events of a man we have yet to meet with only the knowledge that the “public” would already know. Yet, the movie soon jumps backwards in time - ready to give the same information again, but this time with tender nuance that now paints that information in a different light. What once seemed to be a great life, now becomes something that's lonely and pitiable once we truly see it for a second time. It's not the broad accomplishments in a man's life that defines his greatness - it is the tiny details that now turn his life into a tragedy.

John Williams' novel Stoner is perhaps the opposite of this - opening up describing William Stoner, a man who left no tangible mark on the world after his death and no notable accomplishments to remember him with, whose students did not hold him in high regard and who the faculty seldom spoke of. He never rose above the rank of assistant professor and wrote a singular book - perhaps forgotten by now by the many others, lost in the annals of time. Perhaps many would say his life was a failure - and perhaps many would ask, why is this our protagonist? He is not a man with a sad backstory that contrasts and humbles him, nor is he a man of great figure that we want to become. He is simply a man; a man who aspired for very little, but failed in the end; a man who stayed in one place his whole life until his death. There is very little distinguishing this man from any other man I would pass on a street and not give a second thought to. Perhaps, that is Stoner's greatest strength: it lies within the fact that it is a true reflection of life, without deluding itself into something grander, and not despairing itself into something less. Stoner is a love letter to an unremarkable, boring life - one that is as rich as any life can be.

Despite its dedication to reflecting life, it does not compromise its readability; is able to ride the fine line between verisimilitude and entertainment, somehow making the most mundane of events and observations feel almost like an epic. It achieves this through such excellent prose that does not beg to be looked at; it is bereft of fancy vocabulary and instead opts to make these sentences flow in such long sentences, with such natural rhythm. Beautiful in a way that is invisible - like a guiding hand that turns your head to see something you otherwise would have missed - and devastating in the way that there is a constant through line of tragedy that is never mentioned.

Despite tragedy striking, life simply goes on. Throughout Stoner, there is a sense of cautious optimism in the face of unplaced grief and melancholy. It is never unrelenting to the point it is overly depressing, but it is just real enough that it is never truly resolved. Just as it is in life, sometimes it is best to move on. It may not be fair or right, but it is just how the world is: a series of events, apathetic to how one might feel in the end. It captures so many of the tiny little hurts and disappointments of life, with the sparse moments of happiness that are perhaps fleeting. Never have I read a book that captures what it's like to be flirting with the idea of suicide that comes from mundanity or the realization of their replaceability without entering the realm of clinical depression. It is a pain that is relatable because it is a thought that enters everyone's minds. But it also makes the beauty in this book that more profound, juxtaposed with the quiet misery. Life is a balance of both - an entirely human experience, grounded in one man.

William Stoner is deceptively a simple character - one that may be passive and just a vessel to see through the world. He is instead a man of quiet resilience and stoicism that he becomes almost heroic in spite of tragedy. He has his faults and consistently makes mistakes that are of naivety or impulsivity, but above all he maintains his identity, never letting the world around him strip him of his identity and passions. He is a good man - full of love that is mishandled and thwarted - who lives in a world that is concerned with grander things. Equally fascinating is the troubled marriage between him and Edith - an unstated, passively crumbling nature that causes them both much strife. There is an unspoken tragedy of circumstance as to how it happens. Is it a relationship carried on by apathy and unstopped inertia? Or perhaps it is the many successful blows of unrequited actions that culminate in lost love? Many of the other characters are brought to life with so few words - each given an entire implicit backstory, full of depth that has yet to be explored. Even the antagonists feel so real - they are not evil, just people that do not like Stoner for relatable reasons. Just like life.

This is the kind of book that has to be read to be experienced - there is no way I could sell someone on the premise that this incredibly niche genre and setting could be something so profound where not much of note happens, but Stoner is beautiful, able to weave the words to make something that feels almost life-changing in how authentic it is. It is one of those times where I wish a book was longer; it is not often that I read a passage and scramble for a highlighter after re-reading it many times over just to make sure what I was reading was as great as I thought it was, only for it to be actually that good. It somehow makes the mundanity of life so thrilling - keeping me on the edge of my seat for petty disagreements- and so well paced that so many pages go by that I really didn't know how much time has passed. Even though it does not provide the answer as to what the true meaning of life is, it makes me appreciate what life could be.


My only gripe is that it uses the phrase “had had” and “that that” almost as if Williams goes out of his way to do so. >:(

I enjoyed this and found the writing compulsively readable but I can't agree with the reading of Stoner as some sort of saint. He essentially rapes his wife (which likely contributes to the resentment she feels towards him) and doesn't do much to help his daughter who is both abused and neglected by his wife. While his quiet suffering is admirable in sections (I think his steadfastness to his principles in regards to the whole Lomax thing is quite honorable), much of Stoners suffering seems to be a result of him refusing to stand up for himself. I also think that Lomax and Edith can come across as almost cartoonishly villainous at times, to the point that they feel as if they are only there to provide painful situations for Stoner to manage.

Rating: 2.6 leaves out of 5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
Story: 2.5/5
Writing: 3/5
Genre: Classic
Type: Audio
Worth?: No

TW: (suggested) Rape/Sexual assault Her husband basically has sex with her when she was asleep, kinda outta of it. He didn't know if she protested for him to stop or not. Then there is suggested quotes from the book that Edith was sexually assaulted by her father.

This read was for this month's book club and honestly, pretty happy to have it as a book club book because I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise.

For those who RAVED about this book and gave it a 5 stars... what the legit hell is going on in your mind. I honestly have not a damn clue how you are going to read this and think this is some damn good ass fiction. I don't know, I just can't see it. I made sure to read this in one night. I knew if I put this down I wasn't going to be picking this book back up.

Stoner is a dull man who has shitty taste in women and life just wasn't really on his side. You get the story from his early years till the end. This wasn't a memorable book. It didn't teach me a damn thing. It was just... a story about a man and his life that wasn't remarkable.