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cheyene_218's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jdylanhughes's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
samging's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
On the first page of this incredible book, Williams tells you exactly what is going to happen.
In just under a paragraph he tells you exactly the twists and turns this man's life will take, and were it ends.
He then dedicates the next 287 pages to exploring deeply what those twists and turns where. The facts remain the same, but the context behind them, the life behind the facts, start to take shape.
William Stoner is one of the greatest protagonists I have ever read.
He is human, he feels so real.
To explain my love for this book I have to go on a slight tangent.
When I was younger i could only do half days at school. As a result my dad felt it was his responsibility to make sure that I, already a voracious reader, was still consuming new media.
It was here that he introduced me to Robertson Davies. He had written 3 trilogies with a 4th forever incomplete. He started me on the second one called the Deptford trilogy, the first of which was called Fifth business.
It followed from birth a man's life, and every book after followed a similar If sometimes twisted formula.
Usually these books held their focus on academia, the characters that populated the pages were lecturers or doctors, deep import was placed on their university years.
William stoner, Holly Lomax, Gordon Finch and Dave masters feel like characters that could have come from those books.
It's hard to describe how a story where so little happens, is so earth shattering. But it is the mere fact that so little happens that makes it so.
It makes you take a look at your own life, and maybe in the end, whether the results are favourable or not, no matter your regrets, makes you come to the realisation that no matter how you feel about it, despite all seeming, failures and slights. By mere virtue of it being your life, It is beautiful and huge and terrible and complete and incomplete and happy and sad .
But it's so much more than that too.
In just under a paragraph he tells you exactly the twists and turns this man's life will take, and were it ends.
He then dedicates the next 287 pages to exploring deeply what those twists and turns where. The facts remain the same, but the context behind them, the life behind the facts, start to take shape.
William Stoner is one of the greatest protagonists I have ever read.
He is human, he feels so real.
To explain my love for this book I have to go on a slight tangent.
When I was younger i could only do half days at school. As a result my dad felt it was his responsibility to make sure that I, already a voracious reader, was still consuming new media.
It was here that he introduced me to Robertson Davies. He had written 3 trilogies with a 4th forever incomplete. He started me on the second one called the Deptford trilogy, the first of which was called Fifth business.
It followed from birth a man's life, and every book after followed a similar If sometimes twisted formula.
Usually these books held their focus on academia, the characters that populated the pages were lecturers or doctors, deep import was placed on their university years.
William stoner, Holly Lomax, Gordon Finch and Dave masters feel like characters that could have come from those books.
It's hard to describe how a story where so little happens, is so earth shattering. But it is the mere fact that so little happens that makes it so.
It makes you take a look at your own life, and maybe in the end, whether the results are favourable or not, no matter your regrets, makes you come to the realisation that no matter how you feel about it, despite all seeming, failures and slights. By mere virtue of it being your life, It is beautiful and huge and terrible and complete and incomplete and happy and sad .
But it's so much more than that too.
aleks_png's review against another edition
4.0
damn the ending got me
(read this while writing my final uni essay so I probably would it enjoy it more at a different time)
(read this while writing my final uni essay so I probably would it enjoy it more at a different time)
zemroner's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-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
4.0
ooooo's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Amazing book, the start is a bit slow but once you get inside the story it is truly great. I got very emotional and cried.
danielrch's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
5.0
From a completely unremarkable life, Williams draws tragedy, triumph, and beauty. The prose is incredible and he has a talent for drawing out universal lessons from an individual’s story. It’s a book about life and love, told through the lens of an English teacher at a local University.