Read this book several years ago and I thought it was pretty good. Read it again this week and now I think it’s amazing. I believe the difference between the two readings has been the passage of time and watching my kids grow up. As well as me getting older and older and older and actually feeling it, feeling old and two or three other factors that I don't want to discuss. It also helps to be rolling around a college campus while reading the greatest campus life book ever written. In no way am I saying that I have any academic connection. I’m just a casual observer in cutoff golf pants rolling around on an electric assist bathtub. But I like to visualize an old crusty professor like Stoner skuffing around Denny Hall or Gerberding, not shy about sharing his opinions and scowling at the undergrads. UW’s English department is in Padelford, but that building is too new and cheesy to fit into a Stoner-like story in my mind.
The reason I picked it up in the first place was probably this piece in the New Yorker. The book came out in 1965, sold 2000 copies and went out of print. But it’s had several revivals, reprintings and rejuvenations. The reason I picked it up again this week was a review of a new academic/college/campus novel written by a Seattle U professor called The Laughter. Haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. When the author mentioned Stoner in an interview I thought perhaps I should give Stoner another go.
Here's to books that deserve second looks. Tell Me Everything is also set on a college campus, but it’s not fictional, it’s actual events in and around Boulder as well as other stuff & things. Here we are with coach Prime taking over at CU Boulder and all the NIL cash floating around and E$PN’s millions tainting college sports, and this book is more relevant than ever. And the author went to the finest liberal arts school in the country and graduated in the same year that I did. All roads lead to Grinnell.
I’ve mentioned both of these books once or twice in the past 10 years. Here we go round again.
words
word
The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N Kenton
Thomas Eakins 1900
painting on the cover of my Stoner
it's kinda really stodgy but it puts a finger on a little piece of something that's hard to put a finger on
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