I also loved this book and was so surprised I did because there's nothing about it that you can point at to figure out why it's so good. Yet it holds you, even now it has that effect on me when I just think about it, and it's probably a year ago when I read it. I'm the kind of person that would re-read it to figure out how the writer did that, but I don't want to know, because I don't want to ruin the spell of it by dissecting it. It's enough that it did whatever it is that it did. I'm satisfied it exists and I participated in it.
I was finishing the last pages of Stoner in a Taiwan cafe as I was waiting for my date to show up, and whatever first impression I made by raving to her shiny-eyed about how moving the book was failed to win me a second meeting. I can't even remember what she looked like, except that I vaguely noticed she beautiful.
Man, that book. It captures an ordinary life, like ours, and makes it art.
I'm not sure I have a great one, honestly. My sense of Sloane was that he was even more attached to the university than Stoner, to the extent that it was perhaps his *only* passion (no family; no/few friends). So to see many of its students and professors dragged into war just broke him.
When WWII comes around and Stoner is watching his young colleagues make the same decision he had to make in WWI, he feels a bit like Sloane, but a bit further removed:
"As Archer Sloane had done, he realized the futility and waste of committing one's self wholly to the irrational and dark forces that impelled the world toward its unknown end; as Archer Sloane had not done, Stoner withdrew a little distance to pity and love, so that he was not caught in the rushing that he observed. And as in other moments of crisis and despair, he looked again to the cautious faith that was embodied in the institution of the University. He told himself that it was not much; but he knew that it was all he had."
But I'm not sure any of this explains why Sloane seemed to break at the end of the war, rather than at any other time. Do you have a take?
I don't have a particular good one also. I asked because I remember being a bit puzzled and curious with the scene when I read it.
But I mostly agree with your reading. I read the book a few year ago, so my memory is not so sharp, but at the time I remember thinking that he saw the university as the embodiment of an ideal world in some sense. A world where curiosity and free inquiry trumped binary and absolute thinking. The war destroys this possibility by both killing young people and by changing their mentality forever, imposing brutal tribalism on the remaining ones. Even after the war ends, he senses that things cannot go back and something was lost in the process. This seems to go along well with your interpretation.
"A world where curiosity and free inquiry trumped binary and absolute thinking. The war destroys this possibility by both killing young people and by changing their mentality forever, imposing brutal tribalism on the remaining ones."
Confession: I totally stole that front-loading technique from Stoner's opening paragraphs to use in my own novel, which is also about the life and failures of an ordinary professor living a quiet life in Vermont. I'm a big fan of anything following in the tradition of the Death of Ivan Ilyich, anything that tries to uncover the meaning behind the ordinary.
If you haven't already read it, you might like "The Fortnight in September" by R.C. Sheriff. Don't judge it by the back cover description, though, because it will sound like the dullest book imaginable: Happy wholesome middle-class British family goes on the same beach vacation they always take each year.
I also loved this book and was so surprised I did because there's nothing about it that you can point at to figure out why it's so good. Yet it holds you, even now it has that effect on me when I just think about it, and it's probably a year ago when I read it. I'm the kind of person that would re-read it to figure out how the writer did that, but I don't want to know, because I don't want to ruin the spell of it by dissecting it. It's enough that it did whatever it is that it did. I'm satisfied it exists and I participated in it.
I wouldn't be too nervous to reread it! I think the magic will still be there
Wonderful review.. Thanks
John Williams is a genius... his very few books are all almost perfect...
Haven’t read Augustus yet, but I felt Stoner was an obvious step up from Butcher’s Crossing. How do you rate the three?
“Once he has chosen his battles, he is unwilling to cave, even in the face of immense pressure.”
I was finishing the last pages of Stoner in a Taiwan cafe as I was waiting for my date to show up, and whatever first impression I made by raving to her shiny-eyed about how moving the book was failed to win me a second meeting. I can't even remember what she looked like, except that I vaguely noticed she beautiful.
Man, that book. It captures an ordinary life, like ours, and makes it art.
This is both hilarious and tragic haha
Nice review. What’s your take on Archer Sloane crying alone at his office after the war?
I'm not sure I have a great one, honestly. My sense of Sloane was that he was even more attached to the university than Stoner, to the extent that it was perhaps his *only* passion (no family; no/few friends). So to see many of its students and professors dragged into war just broke him.
When WWII comes around and Stoner is watching his young colleagues make the same decision he had to make in WWI, he feels a bit like Sloane, but a bit further removed:
"As Archer Sloane had done, he realized the futility and waste of committing one's self wholly to the irrational and dark forces that impelled the world toward its unknown end; as Archer Sloane had not done, Stoner withdrew a little distance to pity and love, so that he was not caught in the rushing that he observed. And as in other moments of crisis and despair, he looked again to the cautious faith that was embodied in the institution of the University. He told himself that it was not much; but he knew that it was all he had."
But I'm not sure any of this explains why Sloane seemed to break at the end of the war, rather than at any other time. Do you have a take?
I don't have a particular good one also. I asked because I remember being a bit puzzled and curious with the scene when I read it.
But I mostly agree with your reading. I read the book a few year ago, so my memory is not so sharp, but at the time I remember thinking that he saw the university as the embodiment of an ideal world in some sense. A world where curiosity and free inquiry trumped binary and absolute thinking. The war destroys this possibility by both killing young people and by changing their mentality forever, imposing brutal tribalism on the remaining ones. Even after the war ends, he senses that things cannot go back and something was lost in the process. This seems to go along well with your interpretation.
"A world where curiosity and free inquiry trumped binary and absolute thinking. The war destroys this possibility by both killing young people and by changing their mentality forever, imposing brutal tribalism on the remaining ones."
Yeah very nice, I like that a lot.
Confession: I totally stole that front-loading technique from Stoner's opening paragraphs to use in my own novel, which is also about the life and failures of an ordinary professor living a quiet life in Vermont. I'm a big fan of anything following in the tradition of the Death of Ivan Ilyich, anything that tries to uncover the meaning behind the ordinary.
If you haven't already read it, you might like "The Fortnight in September" by R.C. Sheriff. Don't judge it by the back cover description, though, because it will sound like the dullest book imaginable: Happy wholesome middle-class British family goes on the same beach vacation they always take each year.
Great rec! Just ordered both "The Fortnight in September" and your novel.
Oh wow, my novel too? Thank you! I'm honored. I hope you won't compare mine to these great books, though! Mine is a bit silly by comparison. :)
There’s a hint of Mr. Chipping from Goodbye Mr Chips I think