John Williams' Stoner

"Declaring that 'our favorite novels aren't just books' but 'manuals for living,' short story writer and essayist Almond ... finds his own such manual in John Williams's Stoner, which he explores in a ... fusion of literary criticism and personal confessional. Almond identifies the acclaimed 1965 novel, about English professor William Stoner's personal and professional struggles, as being told through 'unrelieved narration,' which he posits as a throwback to pre-Modernist writers such as Henry James"--Publishers Weekly, 04/29/2019.