Angle of Repose

By: Wallace Stegner

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1971, Angle of Repose has also been selected by the editorial board of the Modern Library as one of the hundred best novels of the 20th century.

Wallace Stegner's uniquely American classic centers on Lyman Ward, a noted historian who relates a fictionalized biography of his pioneer grandparents at a time when he has become estranged from his own family. Through a combination of research, memory, and exaggeration, Ward voices ideas concerning the relationship between history and the present, art and life, parents and children, and husbands and wives. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life. The result is a deeply moving novel that, through the prism of one family, illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.

Set in many parts of the West, Angle of Repose is a story of discovery - personal, historical, and geographical - that endures as Wallace Stegner's masterwork: an illumination of yesterday's reality that speaks to today's.

©1971 Wallace Stegner (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Brilliant....Two stories, past and present, merge to produce what important fiction must: a sense of the enhancement of life." ( Los Angeles Times)
"Masterful...Reading it is an experience to be treasured." ( Boston Globe)

A wonderful reading of one of the best books.

Let's just say this up front: I love this book. It is on my top 10 list of all time. I have read it in print a number of times. These characters are so real to me and the writing is pure Stegner - gorgeous, sparse, western, insightful. I believe, as do many others, it was one of the finest books written in the 20th century. I know I'm gushing. I can't help it. No other book makes me feel quite the same way.

I have avoided downloading this because I just knew no one could ever get those voices like I heard them in my mind's ear. I was wrong. Mark Bramhall's narration is beautifully nuanced. He hits every note just right. He's a perfect Susan and a gruff old miner, too. Few narrators could nail the breadth of characters without resorting to caricatures. He does it brilliantly. I loved listening to every word and sometimes had to go back just so I could hear it again.

Bunches of people have written about this book and the topics Stegner addresses. Though he says at one point it's a book about a marriage, I'm not so sure. I think it's about hope, forgiveness, grief, and soldiering on. Perhaps you'll find it's about something else entirely. I just know this: if you've never read this book, you are in for a treat. You can experience the awe that comes from discovering Stegner for the first time.

Wallace Stegner shouldn't be read by the young

I first read this book over 30 years ago. I appreciated Stegners' amazing way with words. I clearly didn't understand the story. Now I do, it is amazing.

Stegner, a gifted writer... but...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book was enjoyable on some levels due to its interplay between friends, parents and children, husbands and wives, the past and the future. I found I have not gotten to know the present-day historian as well as I'd like, and perhaps this is the conflict I see with this book.. it interweaves the two stories on a superficial level, but the past is the main focus, not the present.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Included less of the imaginations of what happened in the past, included more of the present day. With the 1960s-70s counterculture in full swing, it would've been better to understand the modern-day characters' interaction with the changing culture of 100 years before.

Any additional comments?

Mark Bramhall was absolutely stunning in The Big Rock Candy Mountain, and I was thrilled to find he read Angle of Repose. His performance did capture a 60ish man dictating tape recordings, but I agree with other reviewers that his depiction of Susan was considerably too whiny.

A Masterpiece of First-American Culture

I have no words sufficient enough to describe how in awe I am about this book. Paired with this perfect narration, I feel as though I left my body to experience it's story first hand.

Very poignant Story

The story moves at a reasonable pace until the end where speeds down a harrowing tunnel. Wonderful narrator.

What a hero & heroine

Great reading of a troublesome bi-era topic. 1890 vs. 1970. What has changed? Men & women? Not so much!

Interesting from beginning to end.

After just finishing The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, this was a breath of fresh air! #82 on the Modern Library 20th c. fiction list, I had never heard of it, but liked the title. :) I was caught up from the start and it quickly became one of those books you're making up any excuse to keep listening when you should maybe be doing other important stuff.

Such an interesting story bouncing between 1972 and mid 1800s - "modern America" contrasting with Victorian sensibilities while living in the Wild West. Every once in a while, I would become confused, but isn't that an element of a good story, one that doesn't spoonfeed the reader, but slowly and carefully peels back the layers allowing one to experience those "Ah!" moments?

The narrator was first-rate. I'm always wary of one gender having to pull off the other gender's voice and this book consists of equally male, female, all age groups and socio-economic (and educational levels) voices. Only a very few times was I taken out of the story by a voice if only to consider if it fit, but that's a given with any audiobook. Not only all the voices AND various phrases in different languages, but the intensities of emotions and feelings were expertly delivered.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on so many levels and think you will to.

Well read and great classic

Read out loud with this reader, the book really comes alive.
Would recommend giving it a listen.

Well crafted and thought provoking

It took me about a month to listen to this book because it is very long. Not sure I could have gotten through it in print but I listened while driving around. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1971. It was well crafted to bring in historical elements of the west in the late 1800's centered around one young family. I got a glimpse what life might have been like in places where mining operations were established such as Leadville, Colorado. I also viewed the life and marriage of a family. Love, infidelity, loss, strength and resilience stood out to me.
Then the author wove in the present with those same characteristics of the man who was reconstructing and writing the life of his grandmother into a book. I found myself pondering the book between listens, which always means it is getting into my mind and heart.
I found myself a tiny bit bored a few times, hence the 4 stars but I can see why the book won the Pulitzer and it was worth the time to listen to it in its entirety.

Most interesting for the historical context

I enjoyed the story, and the reflections on viewing the past (personal and societal) from the present. But my greatest enjoyment came from the historical portraits of people and places of the West as it was settled (overtaken) by the "new" Americans, Well worth a listen.