Stoner is a novel about an unremarkable life, and it is devastating

John Williams’ novel follows a farm boy who becomes an English professor at the University of Missouri, has a bad marriage, fails to get promoted, and dies. The first page tells you he will be forgotten.

Why it works

Because Williams refuses to make the life extraordinary. There is no secret genius, no late triumph, no redemptive reveal. Stoner is a competent teacher who loves literature and is not very good at being a person.

The novel’s argument is that this is enough to be worth four hundred pages, and it wins the argument by sheer attention. You know this man better than you know most people.

The prose

Plain to the point of austerity. Very few metaphors, almost no stylistic display. The effect is that when Williams does reach for something — and it happens perhaps six times in the book — it lands with enormous force.

The hard part

The marriage is agonising to read, and the novel gives Edith almost no interiority, which is its most-discussed weakness. Whether that is a flaw or a deliberate limit of Stoner’s own perception is the argument people have about the book.

Who it is for

Anyone who has wondered whether an ordinary life is a waste. The novel’s answer is complicated and not consoling, which is why it stays with people.

Around 280 pages. Not difficult. Not quick to recover from.