This is a review I’ve been putting off for a long time now, partly because this book was emotionally exhausting and partly because it is tough to express the enormity of the impact this book had on me.
Stoner is a novel about the titular character. In that respect, it is like most other books which follow the life and inner monologues of a central protagonist. Stoner sets itself apart in the fact that it is an utterly hopeless story. This is established right in the beginning when they describe Stoner’s death and his uneventful life, which amounted to nothing significant. The tone is set for the rest of the book and it doesn’t deviate for a second.
The story is nothing but despair and melancholy, piled on page after page. It is as if the universe is actively conspiring to break down the will of this single man. What makes it even more heartbreaking is the will of the man and his tireless efforts to battle against the inevitable doom.
The story is a string of settings where Stoner is offered a glimpse of something good, something near perfection. Even when it is dangled, there is a subtle undertone that indicates that none of this will last; the reader knows it, and Stoner feels it too. There is a brief moment between when something good happens and when it inevitably goes wrong. It is in the beautiful description of those fleeting moments that the prose really shines.
You know how you look back at things before some tragedy struck, and think about how you would’ve enjoyed those perfect moments better had you known it would be taken away from you? The entire story is basically that feeling, except that you’re given a head-up that this will never last, which makes each of the tiny slivers of happiness in Stoner’s life even more precious, and inevitably, even more heartbreaking when it is taken away.
If you’re someone like me, who involves themselves a bit too much with the characters in a book, then Stoner will destroy you. It will leave you drained and broken.
It is worth the pain for those fleeting moments of pleasure.
5/5 - Would recommend to all my happy friends.