Stoner - review
Book review ( spoilers ahead )
It was one of those “ 10 books that you must read if…” articles that had Stoner as a recommendation. I usually read such articles to check if I have read any of the listed books ( a.k.a ego trip ). I recall I’d read none of the listed ones and made a note of all the ones I found interesting. Ended up buying Stoner and one more ( that for some other post, equally brilliant book).
What attracted me to Stoner was the words “simple” and “ordinary”. Rarity these days.
It is an account of life of an ordinary person (Stoner) who comes from humble beginnings, becomes a fascinated with literature and takes up teaching it as a profession. The novel is quite elegantly woven and takes the reader through Stoners life, before university, at university, his failed marriage, love for this daughter, his duel with a slacker student, his affair with a young student, office politics, his cancer and eventual death.
I was trying to understand why this book made such an impression on me and lots of others. For this I went a step back and researched the elements of good story writing and here is my analysis:
Primary character: The author ( John Williams ) has presented to the reader a very relatable personality. An ordinary person, nothing overtly heroic or charismatic. Not flashy, loves a few things/people, but loves them dearly. Stoner is stoic. He loves literature and his profession and cannot see it being disrespected. His sharp questioning during interview of a derelict student, jolts the reader as to how passionate Stoner was when it came to literature. Stoner avoids drama yet when office politics reaches a point of suffocation, Stoner comes with a genius and hilarious solution.
Secondary characters: The secondary characters in the book are equally strong. Stoner’s parents are the quintessential farm folks who only have known toil. They support Stoner silently and unconditionally. This is where Stoner gets his stoicism from. Stoner’s professor and friends at the university all have strong personalities, who help Stoner find his calling. Stoner’s wife is an emotionally dead doll who later on becomes almost an emancipated rebel after her father’s death. The vibrant one sided love that eventually becomes a distant lifeless mist pushes Stoner into a steamy affair. This young lady’s character is sketched as a strong giving person who had courage where Stoner could not be brave. Stoner’s daughter’s character arcs from an obedient daughter of a failed mother , to a rebel to a failed mother herself, I found her story the saddest among all. One of Stoner’s senior is someone with a physical disability and even though he is always morally upright, when it comes to defending another crippled but dishonest student, this person bends the rules and thence ensues tension between him and Stoner. Finally, there is one friend who always has Stoner’s best interest in mind and he manages people delicately, so he may seem like a nobody, but in reality he is a strong support for Stoner.
Though the novel can be distilled as a tragedy, there is no single plot to this novel. However, there are several overlapping subplots. This to me is the genius of the author. Each subplot has it’s own Freytag’s pyramid, where the resolution of the previous subplot merges with the exposition of the next. However, Stoner’s love - be it for his parents, literature, his wife, his daughter, his student, his books - is the central theme of each subplot. How he remains true to himself and the object of his love is the story of each subplot.
Three levels of drama, as told in the beautiful video below, this novel captures all three. Person vs Person : with his wife, his colleague, his rogue student. Person vs Self : when has to chose is vocation, when he has to decide whether to be true to self or society and Person vs Nature: his submission to Cancer and eventual death
It’s a third person narrative, I found it effective. Since this is an observance of a life, it suited to be an account as seen by a third person. Stoner is not a man of many words, but his words are straightforward and effective. Honest and authentic.
There are multiple strong emotions that ooze out from this book, that of love, devotion and resilience. Looking back, I believe the overarching theme here was resilience. Stoner’s life has not been without drama, however, he goes through it doing what is in his control. I may be wrong and this might not be what the author wanted the reader to take away, but this is my perspective.
In summary, it was a story that was simple enough to make a remarkable impact.