Amongst the discussed topics:
We admired how beautifully it was written; not a word too much, everything in its right place; the work of an excellent editor and the result of the fact that John Williams was a literary scholar?
Especially the parts when Katherine and Stoner have to quit and his dying scene were mentioned as very touching. John Williams succeeds in bringing the reader emotionally close to Stoner. All of us felt Stoner’s wish for personal happiness and being helpless about his fights and losses. Caroline and Maren admitted an impulse to shake Stoner at times because he had a tendency to let things wash over him.
Was he a courageous man? Although he actually does not defy social norms in general, Robin and Maren defended that he is a courageous man following his convictions where he is able to – not enlisting in the First World War was at that time a strong personal decision. Caroline was not altogether sure that his refusal to enlist stemmed from courage, given his reaction when his students enlisted during the Second World War, which was primarily one of irritation.
We talked about Stoner's passion: literature, and not teaching - as we found out.
We couldn't agree entirely on Stoner's responsibility in the feud with Lomax: Caroline held him also partly responsible for the enmity on account of his stubbornness, while Maren defended his fight for the only passion which never betrayed him.
His descriptions of academic life, a closed world with feuds, ambitions and rivalries carried on over decades is entirely believable (in Robin’s experience).
There was also a question of possible abuse in Edith's early life, thinking of her reaction to her father's death (she burns everything which reminds her of him). Or was it just that she holds his professional failures - and thus himself - responsible for her mismatched marriage? We were wondering about this marriage and how it survived.
Apparently the book is an editorial phenomenon: almost entirely ignored when it was first published, it seems to be widely read now, especially in Europe. Is this because Stoner is a European character more than American? We didn't come to a conclusion on that question.
Maren, Robin, Caroline
