Halfway Review: Stoner by, John Williams

I first read Stoner by, John Williams exactly seven years ago. I remember liking it then, but at the time I just kind of coasted through it without being blown away. I’m halfway through and I have to say that this novel is a force to behold. 

Stoner is a story about William Stoner, a man who forgoes being a farmer to pursue academia at the University of Missouri. He’s not a remarkable man; he’s ordinary, quiet and unassuming. Williams weaves together the story of Stoner’s life in a way that showcases how the mundane is important. 

 This is an existential novel; Stoner is on a path of self-discovery and his life as a student and then professor of literature is what defines him. However, Stoner’s existential crisis is that his internal brilliance does not fully manifest outwardly; he’s constantly experiencing a discord between himself and the world around him. Many times, he cannot get his physical body to respond to his mind. 

“…he heard his own flat voice reciting the materials he had prepared, and nothing of his own excitement came through that recitation.” 

I constantly feel Stoner’s loneliness and inability to truly connect with the people and the world around him. His marriage is a failure (Edith is infuriating), his relationship with his parents is shallow and even at the university, Stoner always seems to be looking in from the outside. 

Williams frequently alludes that Stoner’s shoulders continue to stoop, though he’s is not an old man. I love this image; it harkens back to Stoner’s existential crisis and how his physical and mental selves are not on one accord, just like how he can’t seem to fully connect with the world around him. 

William’s writing is stunning; simple yet evocative, with beautiful descriptions. The only way I can really describe what it’s like to his prose is to say that it’s like moving in slow motion; time seems to stand still and I get lost in Stoner’s world of introversion, academia and loneliness. I feel as if I can’t decipher Stoner from the physical world around me; I’m so engrossed in his reality and when I put the book aside, I realize that life has somehow occurred around me. Gorgeous. 

Stoner is already on the path to being one of my top reads of the year and it may be squeezing itself into my “Top Novels” list. 

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