Angle Of Repose (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Contemporary American Fiction) Review
Lyman Ward is the narrator of this Pulitzer prize winning story. He is 58 years old and a disabled historian who is dying of a bone disease. He is researching his grandparent's lives (Susan and Oliver Ward) to find out why they were estranged towards the later part of their marriage. His grandmother was a talented artist and author. She married Oliver Ward in the late 1800's and moved west with her new husband who was a mining engineer. Through the letters his grandmother sent to her best friend Augusta, Ward pieces together his grandparents' lives in the 19th century as they move from the Northeast to California, Colorado, Mexico and Idaho - with his grandfather trying to make a living for his family managing a large mine and eventually a major irrigation/water diversion project. A family accident ultimately drives a wedge between his grandparents - whose relationship became increasingly strained as each year of struggles passes - Susan Ward looking for a upperly mobile life style (the arts & culture, private school education for kids, stable home) while Oliver Ward was in pursuit struggling to achieve this but always falling a bit short. The lessons that Lyman gains from his research on his grandparents sheds light on his relationship with his wife and his marriage.
* Angle of Repose is beautifully written and brings to life the story, the time and the place.
* I found the novel to be deeply introspective on both Lyman and his grandparents. Lyman, in particular, was fascinating. I found myself wanting the story to toggle back to him more frequently as the story moved from history to present.
* Stegner brilliantly portrays his grandfather as chasing the American Dream - a good stable home for his family - doing something meaningful in life - living a life with hard work, integrity and honesty.
5* - I rated this book a full 5 stars with an asterisk. Stegner labors of the details over the first 15 years of marriage and then slams home that last 40 years.
* I did not find this story to be a page turner. While the novel was often times emotionally moving, there were many passages that I found to be very slow and meandering - - and particularly so with the deep, wide and extended descriptions of the environment and settings - these passages could have used some hair scissors to thin (heresy statement I know for what some describe one of the top 100 books of all time). Nonetheless, this is a great book that will stay with me for some time.
If you like the novels below, you'll likely enjoy Angle of Repose:
Home: A Novel
All the Living: A Novel
Plainsong
Stoner (New York Review Books Classics)
Angle Of Repose (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Contemporary American Fiction) Overview
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Traces the fortunes of four generations of one family as they attempt to build a life for themselves in the American West
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Customer Reviews
excellent book - Maggie - USA
I read this novel several years ago but I do remember how good it was. I believe it won the Pulitzer prize. Also, I remember that the author based some of the story on his own ancestor (grandmother?).
Set in the American west, this is the story of a husband and wife who travel west for the husband's job in the mining industry. He is intermittently employed and the wife is a writer and illustrator and able to help support the family with her income. This makes problems for the family. It's a rich telling.
Enjoy
I think I'll read it again!
A classic cross-cultural examination - Eric P. Johnson -
I loved this book, and I think it needs to be approached as a serious piece of literature. Reviewers complaining of it being too slow should go back to their John Grisham novels.
Not to repeat what other reviewers have already said, but after rereading sections of this book, one thing I think Stegner was trying to accomplish was an examination of the mores of relationships and marriage from three very distinct generations: That of the narrator's grandmother from the 1800s, that of the narrator himself from the early 1900s, to that of the current generation, the 1960s. I've always been a liberal and very sympathetic to the counter-culture, but I think Stegner does a good job of pointing out some of the short-comings of the, then current, movement. He is really performing an analysis of the value of traditions like marriage and family and other underpinnings of society that he sees lacking in the counter-culture.
Beyond this, I would say that it's a beautifully written and engaging story. What I really loved about it when I first read it was the development of the characters and how much I really wanted to see their marriage succeed. I never read a novel that I so fell in love with the characters and felt such sadness when they failed. I felt completely tied to the characters and their lives. I think that is the beauty of such a sweeping narrative, that it gives space for the characters to come to life and breath.
I think "Angle of Repose" is a brillant book and has much to say about the nature of life, our struggles and striving to achieve, if not happiness, then that place of comfort, that angle of repose.
Go West! - exlibris -
After reading this author's novel "Crossing to Safety", I was excited to begin reading this title. And, I am not disappointed. Wallace Stegner's ability to tell a story is, in my opinion, one of the best narrative styles I have ever read. His prose flows off the page easily and I found myself to be engaged in both stories within this novel. Some reviewers have stated their disappointment about so many trials and misfortunes of the main character's subject Susan B. Ward and her husband Oliver, but I believe that Stegner was right on target in being true to settling in the West during the late 1800s.
This novel should be added to mandatory reading lists in colleges throughout this country and maybe some high school AP classes as well. Take your time with this novel and enjoy the style and story, you won't be disappointed.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 11, 2010 02:00:09
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