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meemawreads 's review for:
Stoner
by John Williams
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-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
When someone says their favorite book of all time is a novel about an unremarkable man published in 1965, I'm interested. Despite it being recommended by a man, written by a man, and about a man, I was still interested! Spoilers ahead because you've had 60 years to read this.
William Stoner gets taken from his farmhand life in the 19-teens and sent to college. He falls in love with literature, gets multiple degrees and starts teaching at his Alma mater. The rest of this book is about him never fighting for another thing he wants ever again. Seriously. He went out on a limb to get his degree in English instead of agriculture, then - with maybe the exception of asking his awful future wife on their first date - lets anything else good or promising slip through his fingers. His wife hates sex and gradually everything else about him, he never leaves her. He raises his daughter mostly alone until his wife comes around and basically alienates them from each other. He lets it happen. He makes an accidental enemy of a fellow professor who will go on to become his boss. He lets it fester. He falls in love with a coworker and this enemy professor breaks them up out of pure malice. He lets it happen. He does nothing as he's handed shitty schedules and held back from teaching what he's passionate about, lets his basically estranged daughter move away and doesn't intervene when it becomes clear she's an alcoholic and an absentee mother. He dies basically alone with his one, unremarkable book in his hands.
And I think the powerful thing is: it doesn't. bother. him. He doesn't lay there dying bemoaning what he didn't do and who he let go. He has no regrets and that's so different from how your 2025 ass expects it to go. This book was well written (albeit with some boring sections that could've been cut) and I think if you're early in your "I didn't ask to be born, I'm not trying to be exceptional anymore" millennial burnout this might strike a chord with you. 3 taters 🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
William Stoner gets taken from his farmhand life in the 19-teens and sent to college. He falls in love with literature, gets multiple degrees and starts teaching at his Alma mater. The rest of this book is about him never fighting for another thing he wants ever again. Seriously. He went out on a limb to get his degree in English instead of agriculture, then - with maybe the exception of asking his awful future wife on their first date - lets anything else good or promising slip through his fingers. His wife hates sex and gradually everything else about him, he never leaves her. He raises his daughter mostly alone until his wife comes around and basically alienates them from each other. He lets it happen. He makes an accidental enemy of a fellow professor who will go on to become his boss. He lets it fester. He falls in love with a coworker and this enemy professor breaks them up out of pure malice. He lets it happen. He does nothing as he's handed shitty schedules and held back from teaching what he's passionate about, lets his basically estranged daughter move away and doesn't intervene when it becomes clear she's an alcoholic and an absentee mother. He dies basically alone with his one, unremarkable book in his hands.
And I think the powerful thing is: it doesn't. bother. him. He doesn't lay there dying bemoaning what he didn't do and who he let go. He has no regrets and that's so different from how your 2025 ass expects it to go. This book was well written (albeit with some boring sections that could've been cut) and I think if you're early in your "I didn't ask to be born, I'm not trying to be exceptional anymore" millennial burnout this might strike a chord with you. 3 taters 🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔