Reading Notes - Stoner

If I told you I read a book this month about a mediocre English professor who lived a disappointing life before dying and being largely forgotten by the institution he taught at for forty years, would you be interested? No? Okay, what if I told you the most exciting thing that happens is a trivial administrative confrontation driven by academic politics?

Still no one?

I don’t blame you. But I’m still going to recommend you give Stoner, by John Williams, a try. I just finished it and think it is the best book I’ve read in 2026. Maybe 2025 also.

Seriously.

John Gardner said good writing creates a “vivid and continuous fictional dream” for the reader. I think creating that dream is probably easier when the subject matter is, well, more exciting. If you’re on my newsletter list, you got here reading my fiction. So, you know… stolen helicopters, special ops raids, spaceships, power suits, and sexy synthetics.

Well, in Stoner, Williams took what should have been a mundane story arc and created an engrossing, vivid dream that carried me along effortlessly. The writing was that good. For my money, it’s better than Gatsby. I need to think about where it ranks against Hemingway.

If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think.