Book review: ‘Stoner’ by John Williams

By Geoff Schumacher, 9-23-08

If you read deeply and widely, you come to realize that there are a lot of good
novels but only a few great ones. And you come to realize that some of the great
novels have been all but ignored or forgotten by the popular culture.

Greatness in a book must not be defined by its length or the scope of its subject.
Certainly, some great books have tackled big subjects, war being a typical
example. But many other great novels have examined ordinary people living
common lives. The great writers are able to draw epic themes out of unheralded
individuals and seemingly mundane experiences.

“Stoner” by John Williams is a great book that you’ve probably not heard of.
When it was published in 1965, the literary spotlight was focused on the likes of
Norman Mailer, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Saul Bellow. At that time, there was
little room on the stage for Williams, a modest English professor at the University
of Denver.

Nonetheless, “Stoner” is a beautiful and deeply affecting novel. The best way to
know that a novel is great is when its characters and the story stick with you long
after you’ve finished reading the last page. That, for me, certainly is the case with
this book.

First of all, “Stoner” is not about a high school pothead. The title is derived from
the last name of the protagonist, William Stoner.

The story is the story of Stoner’s sad, noble life. Born in 1891 on a small farm in
Missouri, his youth is dedicated almost entirely to working alongside his father on
the hardscrabble farm. When he graduates from high school, his father suggests
that he attend the agricultural school at the University of Missouri and perhaps
learn a few techniques to improve the farm’s performance. But when he takes an
English course from an inspiring professor, he changes his major.

Literature is Stoner’s calling. He earns his bachelor’s degree, then informs his
parents that he will not be returning to the farm; instead, he will continue his
studies and earn a Ph.D. in English. Stoner becomes an instructor, then a
professor at the University of Missouri.

The novel delves deeply into university life — Stoner is a dedicated teacher
beset by campus politics — but its primary focus is Stoner’s lifelong efforts to
develop an emotional life beyond the classroom. He marries a beautiful young
woman who turns out to be a tortured shrew, incapable of honest emotion and
bent on making Stoner’s life miserable. Nowadays, they probably would have
divorced in a year or two but this was not a common or accepted practice back in
the day. When they have a daughter, the mother all but ignores the child until she
realizes that Stoner and the girl have developed a special bond. The mother
proceeds to destroy that bond and turn the girl into a neurotic.

In midlife, Stoner develops a relationship with a young graduate student, and he

revels in a discreet but passionate affair. This, he discovers, is what a
relationship with a woman is supposed to be like. Alas, when rumors of the affair
become common knowledge on campus, Stoner does the right thing.

“Stoner” at first glance would seem to trace a failed life. Stoner himself seems to
ponder this very question on his deathbed. But the author disputed this analysis
in a 1985 interview. Rather, Williams said, Stoner is a “real hero” for his
dedication to his job and the integrity with which he conducted his professional
life.

“A lot of people who have read the novel think that Stoner had such a sad and
bad life,” Williams said. “I think he had a very good life. He had a better life than
most people do, certainly. He was doing what he wanted to do, he had some
feeling for what he was doing, he had some sense of the importance of the job
he was doing.”

Rather than despairing about his failed marriage and emotionally scarred
daughter, rather than throwing away everything to run off with his mistress, rather
than obsessing over campus feuds, Stoner embraces his loneliness, giving
everything he has to literature and his students. His nobility shines through on
this point, even as the reader is frustrated by Stoner’s inability or refusal to
confront other aspects of his life.

I fear I have not done justice to this novel. It is equal parts more interesting and
more mundane than I have described. John Williams is probably best known for
his 1973 historical novel “Augustus,” which won a National Book Award. But he
deserves to be remembered as well for “Stoner,” which I can’t get out of my
head.

In case you question my competence in the judging of greatness, consider the

words of literary critic Morris Dickstein last year in the New York Times Book
Review:

“John Williams' ‘Stoner’ is something rarer than a great novel — it is a perfect

novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving that it takes your
breath away. Ignored on publication in 1965, a clamorous year, it has been kept
alive by enthusiasts who . . . invariably wonder why no one has heard of the
book."