Stoner was published in the mid60’s and has been reissued recently as one of the NY Review Books Classics. Beautiful writing with such clarity that not a single phrase seems out of place. It is a marvelous story of an otherwise unremarkable academic, except for being a human. Quoted below are the openning two paragraphs.
“William Stoner entered the University of Missouri as a freshman in the year 1910, at the age of nineteen. Eight years later, during the height of World War I, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree and accepted an instructorship at the same University, where he taught until his death in 1956. He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor, and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses. When he died his colleagues made a memorial contribution of a medieval manuscript to the University library. This manuscript may still be found in the Rare Books Collection, bearing the inscription: “Presented to the Library of the University of Missouri, in memory of William Stoner, Department of English. By his colleagues.”
An occasional student who comes upon the name may wonder idly who William Stoner was, but he seldom pursues his curiosity beyond a casual question. 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.”
I would like to highly recommend The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.
This is a long, richly detailed, traditionally narrated, dive-right-in-and-live-in-this-world kind of novel. It is a World War II story, about a young Hungarian Jew who goes to Paris to study architecture, falls in love, is forced to return to Budapest, and enter the compulsory labor work force that accompanies the Hungarian Army to the eastern front.
I love World War II stories that take a slight angle on the material – The Madonnas of Leningrad, The Book Thief. In this case, I did not know much about what happened in Hungary during the war, the various ways the Hungarian government had to accomodate its “ally”, Germany, and so on.
Both Paris and Budapest are vividly and wonderfully drawn.
The end becomes in some ways a catalogue of suffering and horror as the war winds to a close, Hungarian deportations begin, and Budapest is starving. You feel as though you have come very far from the Parisian days that begin the book.
Again, if you like long, traditional novels that are beautifully written, you won’t be disappointed.
Singersmom–last week, I was 18 out of 22, this week, I am 18 out of 43. So I’ve moved up, right?
Seriously, that was unusual–the library system is county wide, has several copies among the branches, so I should have it in a month or two. I can wait.
However, I’m somewhat surprised that either Oprah or Franzen want to repeat that experience!
A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett is a realistic historical novel set in Germany/Poland after WWI, ending in 1933. (The title comes from a Wallace Stevens poem/same title). It’s a detailed/complex story, and, for me, a slow but enjoyable read. I savored this book and was sorry to leave the characters. The focus is on a Prussian count (who is half Jewish) and his group of friends, mostly college/professional students whose common bond (before time/fate scatters them) is playing classical music together.
The story gets into the cultural/political/religious tensions of the time and place–I learned a lot. That the (older, female) author so realistically (IMO) portrayed the (often painful) relationships between the (young, male) main characters impressed me. It seemed so deep, true and human–more like a memoir or biography than fiction. Not at all a light read, but a very satisfying one.
Lucy Beckett has one other historical novel, (which I haven’t yet read) The Time Before You Die–about an English monk during the Reformation.
“A Postcard from the Volcano” sounds great, atomom. I like to skim the reader reviews on Amazon, and in the case of this book they are stellar.
Reading about this book reminded me about how much I adored Richard Hughes’ “The Fox in the Attic” and “The Wooden Shepherdess” when I read them years ago. They are about a similar time period, with similar themes.
I’m just joining this thread and don’t have the fortitude to wade through 76 pages of posts. I just read Room by Emma Donoghue and thought it was really well done. It’s pretty impressive to write a book in the voice of the five-year-old character and to make it work.
^mimk6, you don’t have to wade. Look on page 65 (post #964): Treetopleaf compiled a full summary of suggestions through the end of December 2009. Pages 66-76 still to be added for anyone feeling industrious!
Just reserved “Room” at the library online. It sounds great–was reading details on their site and had to stop myself in case I saw spoilers!
Just finished A Postcard from the Volcano. Couldn’t put it down, so I have a crick in my neck from all that reading. It was brilliant. So intellectual–so much history, philosophy, and theology woven in the dialogue–and the author seemed to know a lot about music too. (I hate it when authors don’t, and make stupid stupid errors in describing music or its performance.)
mommusic–glad you enjoyed A Postcard from the Volcano, but sorry about the crick in your neck (500+ pages/small print). Yes, a real intellectual novel, covering all the liberal arts! It’s the kind of book I think a lot of CC folks (highly and broadly educated bunch that we are;) )would appreciate.
I just noticed that it was one of six finalists (though not a winner) for the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. (“The first and only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace.”) This book will increase your understanding of factors that led up to WWII.
finished FREEDOM over the weekend then quickly attacked BAD BLOOD. (I’m a Sandord junkie–especially after one he used a friend’s home for a setting for one of his Prey series books.)
