I read some negative reviews early on and thought: What are they talking about? Sadly, now I know. The book now feels like a summary of a book. I won't go back and reread the first half because I enjoyed it so much and don't want to spoil it, but for me that spark of magic went out with the "wonderful vacation" (yawn) of Katerine and Stoner before they must part.
Plot spoilers coming.
Since then: The parting seemed highly unlikely. Way too literary in the worst sense. We were told they were passionately in love, yet the part like platonic pen pals--each rationally realizing parting is wise. Too rational.
Stoner's troubles with Lomax over the crippled student continue and continue. He has to teach freshman composition classes instead of graduate seminars (yawn). Not exactly a crisis.
His wife becomes Nixonesque--referring to others and herself in the third person.
His daughter Grace -- out of nowhere -- gains 50 pounds. Then, a couple of years later, she loses 50 pounds. She's phlegmatic in the extreme. Nothing particularly interests her. She gets pregnant by a boy whom she doesn't care for, marries him because Mom insists. He dies in WWII. Grace, living in St. Louis, develops a drinking problem, but even that is boring.
So sad, because I was liking it so much
Plot spoilers coming.
Since then: The parting seemed highly unlikely. Way too literary in the worst sense. We were told they were passionately in love, yet the part like platonic pen pals--each rationally realizing parting is wise. Too rational.
Stoner's troubles with Lomax over the crippled student continue and continue. He has to teach freshman composition classes instead of graduate seminars (yawn). Not exactly a crisis.
His wife becomes Nixonesque--referring to others and herself in the third person.
His daughter Grace -- out of nowhere -- gains 50 pounds. Then, a couple of years later, she loses 50 pounds. She's phlegmatic in the extreme. Nothing particularly interests her. She gets pregnant by a boy whom she doesn't care for, marries him because Mom insists. He dies in WWII. Grace, living in St. Louis, develops a drinking problem, but even that is boring.
So sad, because I was liking it so much
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