Stoner by John Williams: book review
Stoner by John Williams This is one of those funny books that sits somewhere between the contemporary novel and a classic (in the way that I read), having been published in 1965. It was put forth, in the copy I read, by Vintage Classics in 2003 with a new introduction by John McGahern, a blurb on the cover proclaiming it "The greatest novel you've never read" from the Sunday Times. Still, it's close enough in time, not canonized enough to fully sit among Gatsby and Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice . Much like my beloved Eve Babitz, it is a hidden gem unearthed and made phenomenally trendy by the internet. Or, at least, that is the context I came to Stoner through last year when it felt like everyone and their mother were reading it. I plucked it off the communal "take what you want" bookshelf at my masters program with the good intentions to read it and only got around to it this September during a trip to Copenhagen, mostly reading it on the plane. ...
