Overview

First published in 1965, Stoner was not initially a popular success, despite glowing reviews. However, the novel was rediscovered in the early 2000s, and has gone on to become an international bestseller, with many considering it the quintessential American novel. In his entry in Ig's Bookmarked series, best-selling author Steve Almond writes about why Stoner has endured as a classic, and the manner in which the book speaks to the impoverishment of the inner life in America. Almond uses the novel as a springboard to share his own struggles as a writer, a father and husband, and, finally, as a middle-aged man grappling with his own mortality.

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9781632460875

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"""The books we love best begin the life-long conversations we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. Gazing into William Stoner with candor, humility, tenderness, his customary wit and an ocean of compassion, Steve Almond finds there, himself, flawed, flayed, but weirdly whole in spite of everything. Stoner is a theorem that proves art saves lives.""--Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek, Finding Hope In The High Country ""This is a clear-eyed and frankly goddamn beautiful story of one reader's relationship with one book. Almond clings to Stoner like the merciful lifeboat it is. William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life is criticism as literature.""--Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here? ""A brilliant, sorrowful, hopeful, hilarious, painfully honest love letter, not just to Stoner but to writing, marriage, teaching, reading, parenting, even death. Which makes this book, like the one it praises, a love letter to life.""--Matthew Zapruder, author of Come On All You Ghosts and Why Poetry ""In an age of vengeance comes a small book about love, masculinity, teaching, fatherhood and failure. Almond recognizes love as a force of profound disequilibrium and allows himself to be humbled by it.""--Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow"

The books we love best begin the life-long conversations we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. Gazing into William Stoner with candor, humility, tenderness, his customary wit and an ocean of compassion, Steve Almond finds there, himself, flawed, flayed, but weirdly whole in spite of everything. Stoner is a theorem that proves art saves lives. --Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek, Finding Hope In The High Country This is a clear-eyed and frankly goddamn beautiful story of one reader's relationship with one book. Almond clings to Stoner like the merciful lifeboat it is. William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life is criticism as literature. --Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here? A brilliant, sorrowful, hopeful, hilarious, painfully honest love letter, not just to Stoner but to writing, marriage, teaching, reading, parenting, even death. Which makes this book, like the one it praises, a love letter to life. --Matthew Zapruder, author of Come On All You Ghosts and Why Poetry In an age of vengeance comes a small book about love, masculinity, teaching, fatherhood and failure. Almond recognizes love as a force of profound disequilibrium and allows himself to be humbled by it. --Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow

Author Information

Steve Almond is the author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Against Football and Candyfreak. His short stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, the Best American Mysteries, and the Pushcart Prize anthologies. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He lives outside Boston with his wife and three children.

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