Stoner
Firstly this isn't a novel about weed but a guy called Stoner. A compelling read of someone who had his seemingly futile life mapped out but changed completely and irrevocably by an enlightening moment. The potential of life is boundless but as each goal is met the potential falls away and becomes another bar to the prison cell window. Determined yet picking the wrong battles we can see how his life is failing until he reaches that same conclusion and a contentment or acceptance is reached. Lastly as life ebbs away the regrets of an ultimately loveless life grate and the unrealised youthful potential is fully understood and how it's perpetuated in others around. Ultimately it seems that his life has been futile and you're left wondering whether his first path may have been the better choice albeit impossible for him. And it wouldn't make a good novel, of course. Oddly the books subject matter and ending is very similar to the last I read (The General in His Labyrinth). A great read and, as I said, compelling which is why I'm writing this past midnight. Makes me want to read the couple of other books that William's has written but maybe I need something a little lighter after the last two books. Something easy to read to cheer me up, like The Gooner fanzine. On second thoughts I don't want another treatise on failed potential do I. But I do recommend this book. Good call Debbie.
http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099561549/john-williams/stoner-a-novel/
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