Take a photo of a barcode or cover
miascupoftea 's review for:
Stoner
by John Williams
and what did you expect?
a story about the beauty in a life filled of quiet disappointment. and about the transcendence of art- literature to be specific. this was the perfect book to read right before going back to college as an english major. i found it so interesting that there were so many plot points that seem kind of regressive, but because the perspective is distant yet empathetic, it really doesn’t come off that way. yes on paper, some of the books major conflicts are about the main character repeatedly sexually assaulting his wife, who never was educated in sex and clearly fears it (at one point the text literally says he “violated” her, if anyone thinks i’m reading too much into this), and how a physically disabled student purposefully tries to set a tenured professor up and wrongly accuses him of ableism, and the love story of a teacher-student relationship, in which there are no interpersonal issues with the power dynamics- instead the only issues is when other people project that imbalance onto their relationship and see it as a scandal. especially when these three major plot points are laid out together, the book seems cruel, or at the very best, extremely careless. but… something about their portrayal doesn’t make it really feel like that? specifically with edith. i think that because the narrative voice is pretty distant from stoner’s own internal monologue and daily life, i think that the audience is supposed to notice his mistakes and not completely identify with him. the book spends more time detailing edith’s upbringing, feelings, and behaviors than any other side character. its interesting because most stories where a main character’s flaws and mistakes are a central part of the story have some major moment where they confront their own issues and see themselves clearly, but because this story is meant to be like someone’s real life, it doesn’t need to have some great big moment like that. “what did you expect?”. just a quiet acceptance, a shift in dynamics. i liked seeing stoner and edith’s relationship change over the years- i especially like the peace that they found with eachother in the end. that felt a lot more human and real, than some big conversation where they are suddenly vulnerable about the ways in which they’ve hurt each other throughout the years, and come to some compromise. no- they don’t just decide to let things go, they just start taking care of each other again. and isn’t that so much more realistic?
“he dimly recalled that he had been thinking of failure, as if it mattered. it seemed to him now that such thoughts were mean, unworthy of what his life had been”.
a story about the beauty in a life filled of quiet disappointment. and about the transcendence of art- literature to be specific. this was the perfect book to read right before going back to college as an english major. i found it so interesting that there were so many plot points that seem kind of regressive, but because the perspective is distant yet empathetic, it really doesn’t come off that way. yes on paper, some of the books major conflicts are about
“he dimly recalled that he had been thinking of failure, as if it mattered. it seemed to him now that such thoughts were mean, unworthy of what his life had been”.