Sunday, November 24, 2013

Stoner

John Williams-Doesn't he look like William Stoner?
Terry suggested the novel, Stoner by John Williams in November.  His wife Debbie had read the novel and said she loved it so much that she could not put it down.  The novel was written in 1965, yet was not appreciated fully until the decade of 2000 when the novel was reprinted and pclaimed the "perfect novel."   The majority of the book club loved Stoner for its simple story of an ordinary life.  The book was described as elegant, painful and beautifully written.  Lexi, Tim, Chrysanne, Katie and Ed said they could not put the book down.   Chrysanne went on to say that what she loves about our book club is the discovery of this sort of novel- A novel you would not otherwise know about, except that someone knew someone who also loved to read and did not want this book to end!  While Terry, Mindy and I all appreciated the novel, we found the painful unfolding of William Stoner's life difficult to take and therefore could not feel the same fondness for the novel as others had-only depression!

Next month, we are reading The Round House by Louise Erdich and we are meeting on December 16th at Katie's House.  Here is the NY Times Book Review.

And because Chrysanne is going out of town and we will miss Ed this month, we have scheduled a book and a date for January-unusual, I know.  We are planning to read The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt and we are meeting at Mindy's on January 6th.