Hated it. The passivity of the protagonist/title character is repellent. He just can't ever quite think what he might do to escape his unhappy marriage, mitigate the enmity of a colleague, keep the woman he loves, or help his drunkard daughter. His lover is a middle-aged academic male's fantasy. Young ... beautiful ... she loves ... she lusts ... she learns ... she makes no demands ... she leaves. Stoner's academic specialty is the Latin (classical) tradition in English literature, but he apparently learned nothing from either Latin or English literature. Passivity does not equal stoicism. Just ugh. ( )

The man may be unremarkable but the book sure is not. ( )

I resisted reading Stoner for sometime because of the title although I was aware of people blogging about it and enjoying it. The title seemed to conjure thoughts about drugs, being stoned but nothing could be further from the truth. It is the story of the complete life of William Stoner, his work, marriage, his daughter, his affair and his death. It is a story about academia but also of one man who has an ordinary life and for whom we might feel some sadness.

Written in the 60s, much of this story is timeless. As the only child of farmers, Stoner has the opportunity to study agriculture and does so for two years until he has to take a class in literature. It is during that time he realises the potential of books to change the world, changes his degree and in doing so changes his own world.

He marries a woman who has mental health issues and is at times disturbing. I don't know of many people who do not have sex with their husband on their wedding night and then some time later lie on the bed naked all day waiting for their husband to come home and impregnate them. At times she is viciously mean, turning their daughter Grace against Stoner, imperious, frightened and often to be found in bed. The impact of her behaviour on their daughter lingers and although she escapes the home, she doesn't escape the trauma of a mother whose illness was left undiagnosed and untreated.

Stoner makes an enemy of a colleague who becomes the Head of Department and who does everything in his power to get rid of him. An argument over whether a student is brilliant or a sham is played out in detail and nothing is the same at work for Stoner after that. It has to be said that this academic back-stabbing and politicking is played out time and time again in books with nothing changing and with this version being extremely well-observed and recorded for posterity.

All through the ups and downs of Stoner's life, and it does feel as if there are more downs than ups, he maintains an air of acceptance about what he can not change but is passionate about being a teacher and what it means to teach. When he discovers what it means to be a teacher, there is guilt for all the students he dealt with beforehand. It is as a teacher that he comes to understand himself and literature and its place in our world.

The power of the voice in this book is incredible. It is restrained yet persistent. It never slips for one moment and never lets us out of its grasp. It is of one who is resigned to his life and to the fact that posterity is not his despite writing a book and being a good teacher. I waited and waited for Stoner's fight back, his triumph, but it never came unless it is disguised as resilience. It feels quite pessimistic but in fact is probably nearer to the truth of most people's lives ( )

Stoner, ovvero l'elogio del nulla.
In altre parole, un romanzo straordinario incentrato su un uomo ordinario; apparentemente sembrerebbe un paradosso, come è possibile raggiungere vette altissime di intensità e partecipazione emotiva nel leggere il dipanarsi di un'esistenza mediocre? Eppure Williams ci riesce e nel farlo dimostra come non servano grandi imprese per rendere una vita degna di essere vissuta; non è però una celebrazione retorica dell'unicità di ognuno di noi, anzi l'autore insiste proprio sul contrario: Stoner è un uomo come tanti, con una vita costellata di piccoli fallimenti ed ancor più piccoli trionfi: il punto è proprio che qualunque esistenza se esaminata dal punto di vista di chi si trova a viverla diventa un turbinio di emozioni. Siamo tutti un po' Stoner, questo è il segreto del romanzo.
Naturalmente oltre alle riflessioni sul senso della vita il testo ci offre molto altro: è un ritratto arguto dell'ambiente universitario, una disamina lucidissima sulla crisi matrimoniale e più in generale un affresco dell'America borghese ed intellettuale durante la prima metà del novecento.
Peccato solo che soprattutto all'inizio il ritmo sia lento, ci si mette un po' ad entrare in sintonia col romanzo e in particolare col suo protagonista.
Opera indefinibile ed indimenticabile. ( )

Golly, what a great book. It's an intimate, and both quite painful and joyful at times, insight into the heart and mind of William Stoner, a man from a poor farming family who becomes an English professor. Not much happens - unless you count a troubled marriage, an intense love affair with a student, and academic rivalries and friendships. But the writing is clear and clean and warm and vital - just the right balances of dialogue and description, of plot and reflection, of bitter and sweet. As the introduction rightly explains: 'If the novel can be said to have one central idea, it is surely that of love, the many forms love takes and all the forces that oppose it.' ( )