There’s a lot of Williams in Stoner: a professor who came from nowhere and scratched out a life in literature from the hard earth of the frontier. But when asked about similarities between himself and Stoner, Williams insisted that “fiction and autobiography don’t go together in any sensible way.”I recently read Stoner. It really is excellent. The unadorned story of a life, no more, no less. The people who criticize it for misogyny should stop thinking in categories and start getting to to know their fellow human beings better.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
And he may not be a nice guy …
… A good writer is hard to find by Hannah Niemeier | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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Just saw this piece. And agree with Frank: Stoner is an excellent novel. Overlooked, certainly. But excellent all the same.
ReplyDeleteStoner has its points. But I think that critics would speak less of misogyny if the wife were not so flat on the page. Dawn Powell has women characters one would cross the street to avoid, but somehow one believes in them.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the wife as you did. Their initial encounter suggests from the start that their relationship is doomed, but that is like many such. And they do grow kind of grow fond of each other almost to the point of love near the end. Why is it misogynistic to unsentimentally portray a relationship as it happens to be? Yu could also say that his portrayal of Stoner himself is misandrist.
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