Stoner by John Williams: Short Review

Stoner is a novel that one would never believe exists. We talk of thrillers, romantic tales, struggles, war, art, dystopia, regicides, rags to riches, riches to rags, society, culture  and so many things, yet, Stoner is not one of anything. All the while we wonder, what if someone wrote about my life? We reject that notion with a wave of our hands declaring the ordinariness of our own lives and the fact that who would even want to read a regular man’s life? But Stoner lets you dream again, ask again – am I the judge of the stature of my own life? To which all of us would say – who else? To which after reading Stoner a man would say – sometimes it all lies in the prose. It is what this book is about; the purity of prose and the sheer power of the beauty of prose. It is, by all means, one of the most ordinary books out there but it is this ordinariness that makes it the single most exceptional work of literature I have ever come across. William Stoner does not embark on a conquest, he is not a genius, his encounters in life are not wholly positive or negative and he’s certainly not a bedraggled loser; he does not qualify to be a protagonist in any novel in consideration. He is the ordinary character in every book, a passer-by, a neighbour or a fellow traveller with whom the flamboyant protagonist never talks. But that is where William Stoner shines, he gives us hope. John Williams shows us that even the life of an unexceptional University teacher can bring about a story that will keep you mesmerized till eternity. Such is the power of Williams’ fluent, effortless prose that is nothing short of ingenious. In the simplicity, humility and modesty there lies a beauty that makes Stoner an everlasting classic.