You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
”And though he looked upon them with apparent impasivity, he was aware of the times in which he lived. During that decade when many men's faces found a permanent hardness and bleakness, as if they looked upon an abyss, William Stoner, to whom that expression was as familiar as the air he walked in, saw the signs of a general despair he had known since he was a boy. He saw good men go down into a slow decline of hopelessness, broken as their vision of a decent life was broken; he saw them walking aimlessly upon the streets, their eyes empty like shards of broken glass; he saw them walk up to back doors, with the bitter pride of men who go to their executions.”
This is a book which, to my mind, successfully captures the depths of the human condition. It introduces us to William Stoner, an ordinary man, with an ordinary life, which is troubled in ways that many human lives are. He finds his passion, his work, he marries, has a family, a great love and rivalry. He is a man unremembered and uncelebrated. But he is just that - a man. A person. His experiences are an unrecorded part of our history, the ordinary life which seeps with meaning to the person living it, but amounts to little upon their departure from this world. It’s a novel that permeates sadness throughout, but it is a numb and dull sort of sadness, that one encounters in their life too. It is about finding the extraordinary, in terms of feelings, experiences and thoughts, in the most ordinary of places.
The era which this novel spans is dark, encompassing both world wars, and unrelentingly cruel not just to Stoner, but most especially to women who are villainised through their “hysteria” or “promiscuity” and to people of colour, who do not get the privilege of this so-called ordinary life.
Generally though, this is a classic that is for everyone and that everyone can find a piece of their mind in. It’s a kind of existentialism put into practice - accepting that life is meaningless, unless we prescribe meaning to it ourselves and find purpose in
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I came under the assumption that this story would be about weed but stayed for the drama of university professors.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
[audiobook] BOTY; I can't begin to understand how this is as affecting as it is, so I won't try. A book of nothing, from which, miraculously, masterfully, comes absolutely everything, and feels somehow like a holy text
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ve witnessed an entire life and it hurts
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Beautiful, heartbreaking, thoroughly humanistic and nihilistic. Written in 1965 but reads as a modern novel.