A review by booktalkwithkarla
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Lyman Ward for many reasons is writing a biography of his grandmother. This is a story from both timelines, one hundred years apart. I loved both stories and how they were told together. The writing is stunning. I had already read work from Wallace Stegner and was not surprised. The detailed writing, organization, and plot/character balance was perfectly crafted by Stegner. This book definitely warrants the Pulitzer Prize and accolades from readers. 

One of my favorite lines is this one.

“As I detach myself and turn, I can see the study door and the windows in line with it, the pines stirring beyond the windows, the desk waiting with its piles of books and folders of papers and photographs – home of a kind, life of a kind, purpose of a kind.”

Can’t you just see it? I don’t always have a vibrant imagination and Stegner enhances what I do have. I felt like I was every place Susan lived and also back in Grass Valley sorting through the past. Bravo! This is a novel about marriage, dreams, expectations, love, trust, betrayal, life, and death. At its essence Angle of Repose is a call to action - to live fully in our relationships and communications with other humans before it’s too late.