Stoner

By: John Williams

Narrated by: Robin Field

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

William Stoner is born at the end of the 19th century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, far different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a "proper" family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.

John Williams's luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.

©1965 John Williams (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, it takes your breath away." (Morris Dickstein, New York Times Book Review )

“A masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man.” ( New Yorker)

“An exquisite study, bleak as Hopper, of a hopelessly honest academic at a meretricious Midwestern university. I had not known…that the kind of unsparing portrait of failed marriage shown in Stoner existed before John Cheever.” ( Los Angeles Times)

Remarkable in its simplicity

This is, simply, a story of life. Most people go about their daily lives, touching others in ways they do not understand or remember. That is Stoner's life, the story of most men.

Magnificent

True literature, this book took me on a journey I was not anticipating, and provided nourishment for a hunger I didn’t know I had either. Wow. I want to get the print edition now. Thanks to my friend that recommended it.

Amazing

It wasn’t what I expected but it was, indeed, the perfect novel. Wow.

It was like a memoir of someone I didn’t know from a time a wasn’t familiar with. I didn’t know what to make of it at first but I was gradually drawn into it in a way that I was not used to.

I’m thinking about life right now in a way that I’d never before.

Absorbing.

This book about an ordinary (mediocre?) college professor is mesmerizing for reasons I can’t explain. Is he to be admired, pitied, dismissed or held in contempt? I can’t decide but that is what makes the story so absorbing.

Quietly Captivating

So many if the other positive reviews were dead on, each sentence was precisely needed and from the literary stand point (of just a casual reader) it seemed perfectly written. Nothing about this story would typically appeal to my interests or peak my curiosity, but the story and the narrator had an i breaking hold on my attention. I found myself never wanting to miss a sentence, rewinding at times and turning it off if I could not give it my full attention. With some audiobooks there are missed parts that I personally will push on through without concern for what was missed, but I was very drawn to this story and the protagonist.

A Sad Story

Where does Stoner rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Well, do you want a number? In which case, i have no idea. Depressing, but compelling enough that I kept listening and had empathy (extreme) for the protagonist.

Would you be willing to try another book from John Williams? Why or why not?

Yes. The writing was very good and the depiction of emotions was right-on. I didn't realize at the outset that this was written in the '60s. Don't know why that should matter, but I was surprised. I didn't encounter any clues that this was written 50 or so years ago since most of it involved introspection and rang true in any time.

Have you listened to any of Robin Field’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not, but I thought his performance was perfect.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

A depressing but compelling book. It engendered so much empathy for this "every man."

This started slow but grew on me.

Despite both my mother and husband recommending this book, for the first hour or so I thought it was dull. It never is exciting but it has a ring of truth to it. There are situations and feelings very well portrayed by the author. If you are looking for action and adventure this book is not for you. If you are interested in a familiar quiet life of sadness you may enjoy this book.

Loved this book!

This is the life story of a shy and unassuming man. It’s set in the early to mid 1900s and reflects the values and societal norms of that time. He was of my parent’s generation and It provided much insight into their thoughts and attitudes. For me it was a reflection on what we have lost and gained as a society. It’s also a wonderfully compelling story!

The prose is absolutely beautiful and the performance was perfect! I believe it’s definitely worth a second listen.

Amazing!

Even though this book was far from my usual Psychological Thriller genre, I gave it a go, and Wow! I found myself raptured, even staying up late to continue listening. It is so beautifully and heartfelt written that you can almost FEEL the lifelong struggles of the main character. I was sad that I went through it so fast, I listened a second time. I definitely recommend!

A beautiful and little known gem

I almost didn't even hover over this book as its title is so underwhelming...and of course I thought it must be about some lost and addicted "stoner" from the 1970s or '80s. However, when I read the description it intrigued me enough to give it a whirl, and I am very happy that I did.

It grabbed me immediately and held me. John Williams' style, and in fact the characters, plot, and setting, reminded me most of Willa Cather (especially in the way both authors capture what Thoreau once called "lives of quiet desperation"). The last chapter called to mind the last chapter of Cather's "Death Comes to the Archbishop"...both marvelous descriptions of the process of a lingering death. Other authors and works that are similar include Georges Bernanos's "The Diary of a Country Priest" and Wright Morris's "A Life."

The title character shares what many Audible listeners have: a love of language that they can't explain exactly but that drives them through their lives. Like William Stoner, I am a college English professor who was drawn to teaching because of my love of words. Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, which captures Stoner's imagination, though he can't explain it--can't even put a finger on it--is utterly life-changing for him. He drops his pursuit of an Ag-Tech degree to pursue words down the page.

Fascinatingly, he's just about the only character in the book, except his nemesis, who has this response. The other English professors and students seem to have other motivations. There are intrigues and academic battles that those of us who teach will feel with a keen awareness and familiarity...it's not always peaceful behind ivy-covered buildings and walls. The mendacity and cowardliness and mercenary behavior depicted is sadly real. But Stoner remains true throughout to his integrity and is quietly and stoically a brave man.

The characters (except one) are remarkably drawn, from Stoner himself to his friends and colleagues to his pitiable and pitiful and bitter wife, Edith, and most especially his lover, Katherine. Their love is genuinely drawn and comes to such a muted ending (that again involves campus politics).

The one character who isn't well drawn, who has no voice at all, in fact, is the African American farmhand, Tobe. Williams displays that characteristic of white writers that Toni Morrison discusses in her groundbreaking essay "Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination" (highly recommended!). He does not see, and therefore gives no animating principles to Tobe, who could have been fully fleshed out and allowed to speak. He does, after all, play a pivotal part in the novel: he replaces Stoner when Stoner decides not to return to the family farm, and as such becomes a surrogate son to Stoner's long-suffering, dirt poor parents. He finds Stoner's father collapsed in the field, carries him home, puts him to bed, and fetches the doctor. And he continues to run the farm for nearly a decade after Stoner's parents die in close succession until Stoner can find a buyer.

Lots of opportunities there for Tobe to get the full treatment that almost every other major and minor character gets. Here's what we don't know about Tobe: what he looks like; how old he is; whether or not he's married; what he does in the evenings; where he comes from; what he likes and doesn't like; etc. What we do know: his racial identity; his job; his loyalty; a few things he does. In none of the scenes that involved so much action are we allowed to hear his voice. Never does Stoner engage him in a conversation to thank him for rescuing his father or to discuss the fate of the farm. Probably these things would have happened, but we just don't get to see them. I am listening to Shelby Foote's remarkable "Follow Me Down" and it suffers from the same issue: African American men described as "having no expression" or "faces like masks" (language that you find in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"). Yes, Shelby, they do have expressions; you just can't read them because you don't "see" them (see also Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man").

Williams is clearly a man of his time and were he alive and writing today I am sure he would take this missing element into account. However, compared to William Faulkner, who really did flesh out his African American characters, or Harper Lee with her treatment of Tom Robinson and Calpurnia, Williams and Foote and many other white writers simply fail in this regard.

That said, I highly recommend this book.