Alright, I know it's a Wednesday - I coming back from a week of vacation and got my days mixed up. However, while off, I read a book that I believe will wind up being one of my top 5 books of the year so far - Stoner, by John Williams.

Stoner is a brooding character study of an unremarkable man who lives a life of relative anonymity, and had me completely captivated from the start. Now, full disclosure: I am a very character driven reader. I will always take good character work over plot, and I love reading books that are character studies, or where the character is the story. In that regard, Stoner delivers. It is a study of one man's life, and a man who lives a quiet life of relative solitude.

Stoner follows the life of William Stoner, who is born and raised on a Missouri farm, and takes place in the early 1900's. As the farm is starting to struggle, his father decides to send him to college to learn about agriculture to hopefully help the farm. He winds up falling in love with English Literature, and the book follows his life through marriage, a child, world wars, and all of his ups and downs.

John Williams' writing is simple and beautiful. He paints a picture of bleakness - we feel a world that is often filled with fall and winter, life not thriving but dying, and a palate of muted earth tones. This matches the atmosphere that seems to follow William Stoner. There were some genuinely wonderful quotes, and I found myself dog-earing pages to reread and save quotes for the first time in a long time with a book. Stoner is isolated, quiet, and reserved, and struggles to find connection. Without giving spoilers, we see him struggle with relationships in all aspects of his life, both at home and in his work as an English professor at his college. And yet, we see him persist.

The story itself is fascinating. Life seems to happen to William - he makes bad decisions, or in some cases no decision, and is swept up in a life of drudgery and often melancholy. However, there are moments where he does take charge, and brief moments of good decisions and happiness. Therein lies the beauty of this book - while we follow the story of the tragic life of an unremarkable man, there is a beauty in seeing someone face the world day by day, put one foot in front of the other, and find those occasional moments of happiness and beauty that intervene with the day to day difficulties. We see the dignity with which he carries himself through this unremarkable life, and the bittersweet nature of his solitude.

This book explores some wonderful themes, including finding your passion, appreciating the small things, finding meaning in suffering and difficulty, mental health and its impact on others, and examining a life lived passively. As noted above, it also examines how you can move through even a routine life with dignity, and how someone who seeks solitude will oft live a bittersweet life.

Now, as I mentioned above, this is completely a character study. if you are someone who needs action, or a hard driving plot, or even a full on plot and storyline to enjoy a book, then this really may not be for you. I can certainly see people balking at the idea of reading a book about the day to day difficulties of an unremarkable man, but I think for those who enjoy a character study, it is well worthwhile, and you will find so much reward in reading it. This is likely going to be one of my favorite books of the year, and I hope you read it and enjoy it as well!

This book was picked by my paid members here on Bindery. One of the perks of membership is the group gets to pick a book for me to read each month, in addition to getting a private Discord channel, weekly reading update videos, and early access to YouTube videos. if you'd like to read awesome books like this with me, then consider joining my paid members!