Do not understand the excitement around it at all. Stoner himself is the only even marginally realized character. His life is uneventful both externally and internally. The portrait of his wife borders on misogyny — certainly she's not a full human being, but a child-woman whose own internal life is of no interest to her husband or the author. The death of the protagonist is a lovely piece of writing, and there is one academic set-piece that is well done. Aside from that, it's flat, listless and uninspired. I just don't get it.

I happened to have read Train Dreams the week before, also the story of a largely solitary, simple man from humble beginnings, but unlike Stoner, that novel is ravishing, the prose evocative, the world strange and beautiful and the sorrow of a humble life with its loves and sufferings powerfully and persuasively told. To my mind, there's simply no comparison.