Book Review: Stoner by John Edward Williams

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Have you ever read a book that leaves you so overwhelmed you don't have words to explain why or how? For me, it's this one!

"He had wanted the singleness and the still connective passion of marriage; he had had that, too, and he had not known what to do with it, and it had died. He had wanted love; and he had had love, and had relinquished it, had let it go into the chaos of potentiality."

A simple story of a man from humble origins who pursues a career in academics. This is the story of the life of William Stoner - his early life, his days as a student, his love for English Literature, his marriage and family and his career as an English professor- a life lived with quiet dignity, with its share of ups and downs, regrets, disappointments and small triumphs. It could be anybody's story. "Unremarkable" is a word one might use when when talking about William Stoner and in fact, the beginning of the novel stresses that point but then, why does his story feel so significant?

I read Stoner by John Edward Williams slowly over a week. It will take much longer than that to frame my thoughts or maybe I'd prefer to just keep thinking about this book for as long as I can.

"And he had wanted to be a teacher, and he had become one; yet he knew, he had always known, that for most of his life he had been an indifferent one."

In short, all I can say right now is that this is a beautifully penned, insightful and thought-provoking novel that I regret not having read earlier in life. This simple, quiet story affected me on a deeply personal level. Thank you to everyone who recommended this book to me.

"He had conceived wisdom, and at the end of the long years he had found ignorance. And what else? he thought. What else?"