"it's about work"--sent for alice...a too-literal list of 10 novels about work

[David Morris]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:39 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Novelists never seem to give their characters dreary-sounding jobs

I haven't read this (yet), but it resonates with your comment above:

http://conversationalreading.com/stoner

I've been on a bit of a Stoner crusade since I read this book back in
October. It really is that good, and given that it was out of print
for a good 30 years until NYRB published their edition in 2006, I
figured it must be fairly overlooked.

Well, looks like it may not be quite as overlooked as I thought. In
addition to my own appreciation for it at The Millions' Year in
Reading, we find two other partisans.

Edan Lepucki:

Stoner by John Williams is not about a dude who smokes blunts all day.
It’s about a man named William Stoner, and the book tells his life
story in a mere 278 pages. The prose is unadorned and crisp, and it
captures the true essence of its protagonist, a man who grew up on a
farm, and then studied, and went onto teach, English literature at the
University of Missouri. In other words, a person who isn’t
particularly noteworthy in the broader scheme of things. This is a
heartbreaking and beautiful novel, one of the best I have ever read,
or will have the privilege to read, in my life.

And Patrick Brown:

Stoner, by John Williams, is not only the best novel I read this year,
but it’s among the best I’ve ever read. It is also, I think, the sort
of book that people aren’t writing right now. It’s a life, from the
moment when its protagonist Bill Stoner really comes alive in a
sophomore English class at the University of Missouri through his
career as a professor of English there. About halfway through the
novel is one of the best scenes I’ve ever encountered in a book. I
don’t want to describe it too much here, as discovering it is one of
the pleasures of the book, but I think they should teach it in writing
classes everywhere, as it really is a perfect scene. In fact, Stoner
is a perfect novel.