A review of John Williams’ Stoner (1965).
This classic novel from 1965 by American author (and professor of English) John Williams tells the story of William Stoner, a stoic farm boy from rural Missouri, who emerges from a sparse and colourless existence into the world of the University campus. The “campus novel” subgenre, a literary tradition dating back to the 1950s, is a niche yet rich source of storytelling, and John Williams manages to take this rarefied area and spin it into a story which at once feels both human and relatable.
The story’s protagonist, whose name ‘William’ is derived from the author’s surname, starts off as an outsider to the rarefied world of academia. With the aim of aiding the family farm, Stoner attends the University of Missouri to study agriculture. However, after taking a mandatory literature survey course in his second year, he soon discovers an obsession for literature and learning which leads to a lifelong career with the Department of English. It is indicative of the unique type of story with which we are dealing that the most distance actually travelled by our protagonist is from farm to campus. Ultimately it is the internal journey of Stoner, in all its emotional and psychological subtlety, that makes each page more compelling than the last.
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