Stoner
Dear Eugene,
Have you read John Williams' "Stoner"? Do it now if you haven't; you will love it--and I won't apologize for its inevitable rustling of your pastoral heart.
No, it is not about potheads; it is more "stoned" than that. It is one of my favorite novels, thanks to the Burnaby Public Library years ago for dusting it off and showcasing on a high shelf where it deserves. The cover looks boring--and of course I will read it!
Even now I'd take it off my shelf and read a random page from time to time. Any page in it is a great page. Any passage is a great passage. It's like reading the Bible, every verse opens up a window to a much bigger view, its strength firmly anchored on the controlling, overarching narrative that has over the years worked its way to permeate this reader's imagination. My heart would ache over a word.
"Stoner" is called "The Greatest American Novel You've Never Heard of." Well, not anymore.
A few marquee names are involved in a movie adaptation, announced a week ago. I know Tom Hanks is a big fan of the novel, and I've always hoped he would one day make a movie and play Stoner; he has the depth to suggest multiple layers of a character, which is very much needed here. But I guess he is too old for the role now. Casey Affleck...I dunno...a bit too obvious, too well cast...director Joe Wright will prove me wrong, I know...
But I am not sure if the movie will come even remotely close to match the book's greatness. I still can't get myself to watch "Life of Pi," as much as I like Ang Lee. I know it is not fair; if a book is great, the movie can never compare ("The English Patient" being a very rare exception, almost singular in its achievement).
Read this excerpt and see if you want to pastor this Stoner guy:
“Dispassionately, reasonably, he contemplated the failure that his life must appear to be. He had wanted friendship and the closeness of friendship that might hold him in the race of mankind; he had had two friends, one of whom had died senselessly before he was known, the other of whom had now withdrawn so distantly into the ranks of the living that...
He had wanted the singleness and the still connective passion of marriage; he had had that, too, and he had not known what to do with it, and it had died. He had wanted love; and he had had love, and had relinquished it, had let it go into the chaos of potentiality. Katherine, he thought. "Katherine."
And he had wanted to be a teacher, and he had become one; yet he knew, he had always known, that for most of his life he had been an indifferent one. He had dreamed of a kind of integrity, of a kind of purity that was entire; he had found compromise and the assaulting diversion of triviality. He had conceived wisdom, and at the end of the long years he had found ignorance. And what else? he thought. What else?
What did you expect? he asked himself.”
Well, for a long time, that was me.
Thank you for pastoring this stoner back to the Story.
Forever grateful, Alex
Have you read John Williams' "Stoner"? Do it now if you haven't; you will love it--and I won't apologize for its inevitable rustling of your pastoral heart.
No, it is not about potheads; it is more "stoned" than that. It is one of my favorite novels, thanks to the Burnaby Public Library years ago for dusting it off and showcasing on a high shelf where it deserves. The cover looks boring--and of course I will read it!
Even now I'd take it off my shelf and read a random page from time to time. Any page in it is a great page. Any passage is a great passage. It's like reading the Bible, every verse opens up a window to a much bigger view, its strength firmly anchored on the controlling, overarching narrative that has over the years worked its way to permeate this reader's imagination. My heart would ache over a word.
"Stoner" is called "The Greatest American Novel You've Never Heard of." Well, not anymore.
A few marquee names are involved in a movie adaptation, announced a week ago. I know Tom Hanks is a big fan of the novel, and I've always hoped he would one day make a movie and play Stoner; he has the depth to suggest multiple layers of a character, which is very much needed here. But I guess he is too old for the role now. Casey Affleck...I dunno...a bit too obvious, too well cast...director Joe Wright will prove me wrong, I know...
But I am not sure if the movie will come even remotely close to match the book's greatness. I still can't get myself to watch "Life of Pi," as much as I like Ang Lee. I know it is not fair; if a book is great, the movie can never compare ("The English Patient" being a very rare exception, almost singular in its achievement).
Read this excerpt and see if you want to pastor this Stoner guy:
“Dispassionately, reasonably, he contemplated the failure that his life must appear to be. He had wanted friendship and the closeness of friendship that might hold him in the race of mankind; he had had two friends, one of whom had died senselessly before he was known, the other of whom had now withdrawn so distantly into the ranks of the living that...
He had wanted the singleness and the still connective passion of marriage; he had had that, too, and he had not known what to do with it, and it had died. He had wanted love; and he had had love, and had relinquished it, had let it go into the chaos of potentiality. Katherine, he thought. "Katherine."
And he had wanted to be a teacher, and he had become one; yet he knew, he had always known, that for most of his life he had been an indifferent one. He had dreamed of a kind of integrity, of a kind of purity that was entire; he had found compromise and the assaulting diversion of triviality. He had conceived wisdom, and at the end of the long years he had found ignorance. And what else? he thought. What else?
What did you expect? he asked himself.”
Well, for a long time, that was me.
Thank you for pastoring this stoner back to the Story.
Forever grateful, Alex
Comments
Post a Comment