A review by sweetearlgrey
Stoner by John Williams

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

I haven't yet come across a novel that is so grounded. I would describe it as wonderfully mundane. Mundane because there are no crazy conflicts in the novel that are resolved by the end of the book. Wonderful because that is literally the meaning of life; you don't have to do anything remarkable to have lived well. Stoner's character is so sympathetic, but he's not positioned as a hero or a villain. He's just a man, like many others, that has both light and darkness inside him. This has to be the most satisfying representation of the everyman in twentieth century literature.