Scan barcode
A review by pratyush
Stoner by John Williams
medium-paced
4.0
I wonder how people waste their whole lives just to sustain and feed to their ego, and keep the burden of carrying their fatally wounded scars. Baffled me to the levels of how this book made me feel existential to an extent of dread.
While I wholly sympathise with Edith for her inner (even invisible to herself) battle and her strict upbringing, and the relationship with her parents; especially to her father, which reminds me of Sylvia Plath's ‘Daddy’. She never comes to terms with it, and I genuinely am very appalled to see her never reaching out for solace. And goes on to affect people around her with it. Or Hollis Lomax who was just a clear-cut example of an egoistic narcissist who force power just to satiate themselves in this world.
Other than that I am unable not to feel deep remorse for Stoner who never stood up for himself or for his daughter per se. He never unfortunately learned how to do so and became a mere shadow of his parents. But in the end he is what he is. He kept on doing what he loved the most; teaching and loving literature.
And the tumor at the end might be symbolising the burdened hardship and guilt he has endured for all his life which in its climax ended him.
While I wholly sympathise with Edith for her inner (even invisible to herself) battle and her strict upbringing, and the relationship with her parents; especially to her father, which reminds me of Sylvia Plath's ‘Daddy’. She never comes to terms with it, and I genuinely am very appalled to see her never reaching out for solace. And goes on to affect people around her with it. Or Hollis Lomax who was just a clear-cut example of an egoistic narcissist who force power just to satiate themselves in this world.
Other than that I am unable not to feel deep remorse for Stoner who never stood up for himself or for his daughter per se. He never unfortunately learned how to do so and became a mere shadow of his parents. But in the end he is what he is. He kept on doing what he loved the most; teaching and loving literature.
And the tumor at the end might be symbolising the burdened hardship and guilt he has endured for all his life which in its climax ended him.