Stoner
John Williams’s 1965 novel about William Stoner, the son of a poor Missouri farmer who is sent to the state university to study agriculture, encounters a Shakespeare sonnet, and stays for the rest of his life as a teacher of English. His marriage is a failure, his career is blocked by an enemy in the department, and the one love of his life is taken from him. Almost unread for forty years, the book was rediscovered after 2006 and is now widely regarded as a masterpiece of quiet devastation.
Recommended by 1 Person
Simon Winchester
This book begins in a similar way to O Pioneers!, with a hardscrabble farm in the same part of the world. It was set at the end of the 19th century and has nothing to do with being stoned. A lot of people think, "This is a novel about drugs." It is not at all! It is about a young man, William Stoner, who goes off to university at great financial cost and deprivation to his father, who is a pioneer farmer.
Interview · January 2012
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