Stoner

I'm having a hard time deciding how I feel about this book. It is beautifully written and compelling. It is also thought provoking. How much agency do we really have? How disconnected from other people are we? How often do we go through the motions and allow ourselves to be ruled by norms and expectations? Does life have meaning? How much responsibility do we have for others lives and happiness - even our parents or children?

Even though the novel is bleak, I liked the tone. What I did not like at all was that it contained one of the most disturbing rape scenes I have ever read. It is so disturbing precisely because it is casual and perpetrated by the person you are supposed to sympathize with against someone who gets almost no sympathy. This book was also written at a time when it wasn't even considered rape.

It makes me depressed to think that there may be people out there like the character in this book - selfish, joyless, fightless.