by John Edward Williams

John Williams’s third novel, originally published in 1965, is about a Midwestern farm boy named Stoner who makes his way to college, where he is converted from an agriculture major to the liberal arts, eventually becoming a scholar. Stoner’s life, which includes an upscale but loveless marriage and an alienated daughter, is an academic novel that never loses sight of the main character’s rural roots. Williams, however, doesn’t romanticize either setting: the farm is all about mind-dulling hard labor, and academia about careerism and narrow-mindedness. Throughout the novel, Williams poses questions about life and art, how best to live one’s life, and what constitutes a real hero.