«He had, in odd ways, given [love] to every moment of his life, and had perhaps given it most fully when he was unaware of his giving. It was a passion neither of the mind nor of the flesh; rather, it was a force that comprehended them both, as if they were but the matter of love, its specific substrate. To a woman or to a poem, it said simply: Look! I am alive.»

This book stole my heart. William Stoner stole my heart. The plot is minimal and mundane, but that’s exactly where the magic lies. I want to discover more books describing normal people and their everyday lives without being tied to tropes or expectations of a specific literary genre.

Once I got into «Stoner», I flew through it because it was so engaging and endearing, yet so realistic and painful. John William himself described it as «an escape into reality», which is pretty spot on what the reading experience feels like. Other things I loved included the clear and graceful prose and the incredibly precise character portraits. I’m also a big softie for the thematization of finding joy and value under circumstances where other people would not expect it.

Rating it 5 stars because I can imagine this becoming one of my comfort books!