Just finished. Damn good book.Any thoughts on Stoner?

Just finished. Damn good book.Any thoughts on Stoner?

What have you read this week?

It's fantastic. A real American tragedy, one of my favorites.

I read it a few weeks ago. It's great, especially for anybody going through hardship. The only thing that threw me off: were the 2 humpback guys lovers, or what?

i think lomax was just bullied growing up so he felt bad for the other cripple and wanted to help him out

By far one of the greatest books I've ever read. I really feel for Stoner, so much to the point that just reading this is humbling.

I’m reading a book that also happens to be a NYRB Classic!

It’s Late Fame by Arthur Schnitzler. I’m halfway through and enjoying it. It’s about this Viennese civil servant in his old age who suddenly becomes a cult figure in a bohemian literary scene where young artists have rediscovered an overlooked book of poems that he published as a young man. I had never read Schnitzler before this but I enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut which takes inspiration from a novella of his. I think after finishing this one I will add some more of his works to my to-read list.

I haven’t read Stoner. What did you enjoy about it?

IIRC Stoner thought there was more to it than that but didnt want to think too hard about it.

I think Stoner thought there was, and there definitely was an implication.

Like I said above, seeing Stoner's struggles is pretty humbling because it just reminds you that even if you're going through hell, you're not the only one.
I just love how John Williams set this book up, too. The characters are fantastic and the different plot turns all keep you really engaged.

Please post a different cover next time you make this thread. The last 2,000 stoner threads all had the same cover publisher, which makes it seem like marketing. Please use a different brand, different cover next thread. Thanks.

Yeah I've realized that this is a common cover, but it's honestly the best one imo. It's just the same with Infinite Jest.

Shut up

The NYBR edition of Dead Souls.

It's fucking good!

My favorite book of all time. I've always preferred the smaller, low stakes stories in books, movies, etc.
Just simply about the drama of ordinary life, especially the life of someone who doesn't have it so great. Shows that even if you didn't grow up in a war zone, or see your parents killed before your eyes, you can still struggle and suffer. Everyone has drama in their life
The last paragraph of the book is so beautiful, I cried so much when I first read it

>Stoner was a hero.

NYRB, in quality of construction at least, will never be unthroned

I just finished it a few days ago, I'm glad to see this thread.
I didn't get that vibe. I think Lomax just held a particular bitterness from his early life. Him being crippled might have had a bit to do with it, but I think the driving factor was misanthropy rather than empathy.

It’s not bad but the praise it gets on this board is a bit exaggerated. It’s by all means very good, but nothing about it is “best book ever” tier like people around here say. There’s an entire 40-50 page middle section that is just completely unremarkable.

Am I the only one who thought the melancholy of the book was more comfy than straight up sad?

>MFW his friend Dave Masters dies in WWI.

aye lmao 420 blazit u on fortnite senpai

i finished lolita yesterday. absolutely fantastic, often hilarious and sometimes disgusting read. would highly recommend if you somehow haven't read it yet

This fucked me up as well.

why couldn't this thread have waited until I finished it, im only half way thru

Brilliant book
In 300 pages it manages to convey an entire and complete life of an ordinary man. Most book need +600 pages to even get to adulthood but in Stoner you feel like you actually lived his life and without realizing it you went from being a young boy falling in love with english to an old man that literally has to turn his head in order to hear people.

I'm about 70% through. I regret that I started reading the intro in the NYRB edition because it's basically just a synopsis of the plot and spoils a bunch of things.

i loved how everyone changed over the spread of this book, and without seeming like they just jolted up in a spurt.

Made my jaw drop.

I think this is a common feeling people get from reading this.

Is this how you pictured Jesse Hall?

Not at all, although I knew that's what it actually looked like. Everything seemed much darker in this book.

>he found that his father had hired a Negro field hand who worked with a quiet, fierce intensity, accomplishing by himself in a day nearly as much as William and his father together had once done in the same time
mm im loving it. gotta take a break to masturbate to black on white porn

>Best cover
>Best typographic design
>Best overall edition

Go away, shill

I had to re-read that passage just to make sure. Fuck.

Same. I'm never reading introductions again because of it.

>didn't have it so great
>an academic at a university
That's a better life than 99.99% of people alive now and throughout history. The whole book is just whiny masturbation about not getting a full professorship and how this is such a travesty.
Boohoo. Fucking babies.

I imagined it more like the William Jewell clock tower building.

...

You might want to read the book again. It's not whiny at all. In fact Stoner doesn't complain about his situation ever if I remember correctly. It is simply the story of an ordinary mans life, who didn't achieve all he set out to accomplish, but was satisfied in the life he lived anyways.

It's quite contemplative in tone, it gets you to really consider what's going on. Aside from the occasional gut-punch like Masters dying it's all presented in a low-key and evenly-paced way. I don't see it as a tragedy, just an intimate look into someone's life with all its ups and downs.

>stop shilling this book that came out quite literally over 50 years ago

He's not an ordinary man. An ordinary man will not have the IQ to be a university lecturer. He is at least in the top 10 - 15% of the population.

This. Middle class aspiration masturbation.

Not an argument.

I remember it was well written, but kind of like eating saltine crackers. I much prefer Maugham when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Exactly, it's all very fluid, there are very little direct causes that make people change, it's just the draining of time

why does everything have to be an argument? it's just plain old true.

>american tragedy

wtf means that

being shot in your school while you watch Fox news and eat McDonalds with your asian friend

>not being in McSchool eating your asian friend with a fox

blood meridian was funnier