"STONER"

As I worked my way through Stoner...twice...I worried what my Book Club might think about it. Stoner is written in plain prose and I hoped my friends would pause, as I had been forced to do, and realize how quietly and subtly these ordinary words created such extraordinary emotions.

I had taken to Stoner immediately as it takes place in Missouri which, as you know, is just to the right of Kansas...as you look at the map, that is.  More specifically, Stoner takes place at the University of Missouri in Columbia.  My granddaughters, Molly and Emily, have both graduated from Missouri--Emily, just a few days before I picked up Stoner, so I felt a certain kinship with much of John Williams' references to the campus, and especially to Jesse Hall, Stoner's academic home, but today's much photographed Administration Building.    

Stoner, the only child  of a hard-scrabble farmer, walks to Columbia, to attend the University upon the recommendation of his County Agent.  He is to major in Agriculture, not because he has any interest in that subject, but because his father, from somewhere deep inside himself, had listened and thought and agreed to it.

Stoner struggles with his agriculture classes until one day, midway through his sophomore year, he realizes he should  major in English Literature.  He completes the paperwork, but never tells his parents until his graduation two and a half years later.  He does not return to the farm as his father had expected, but instead stays at the university working toward his Masters and, eventually, his Doctorate.  For the rest of his life he teaches a variety of literature courses well enough to be retained but never above the level of an assistant professor.

Emotions run high in Stoner but are never expressed (except by Stoner's problematic wife) with more than a momentary expression, a slight twinge, or a change in posture.  The ever-increasing pain that accompanies much of Stoner's life is held close, invisible to all outside, hidden by his placid expression.  All of his attempts at normalcy are much too brief and all seem to end, not with thunder or lightning, but with a slight graying...a quiet fading.      

Stoner's death, in one of the most realistic and moving death scenes I've read, is so typical of Stoner's life.  Quiet, calm, somewhat peaceful, understated.  In death, Stoner simply ceases living.

"Stoner's colleagues, who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive, speak of him rarely now; to the older ones, his name is a reminder of the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their careers."  Stoner, Chapter One.

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Oh, my book club?  They thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and we had one of our best discussions in many months.  Our emotions and feelings about the characters ran high, and honesty was the word of the day.  Highly recommended for a thoughtful read.  What have you read recently that you might recommend?  We're always on the lookout!

Until Wednesday...
Margie
margiestaggs44@gmail.com