Angle of Repose

Rating:
Summary: Older, but very, very good.
Review: The Angle Of Repose, an odd title for a novel, is a term specific to geology: when an avalanche occurs, there is an angle at which all of the matter will settle, fall to rest. This depends on the terrain and the kind of matter it is which is falling. In Wallace Stegner's 1971 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the "angle of repose" refers to the terrain of the individual and the emotional matter that needs settling. It tells the story of a historian, just past the realm of middle-age, who suffers from a debilitating bone disease. His wife has left him. And he spends the length of his days researching and writing the story of his own grandmother's life. I found the "angle of repose" to refer my own position on the sofa as I read this novel, never wanting to put it down. It falls into that realm of books which take hold the reader (you know the rare kind of book I mean). But I would caution that the narrator's story of his grandmother's life, a story of pioneers in the American West, is perhaps to

Rating:
Summary: The Angle Revisited
Review: I read this book years ago and have recommended it to friends frequently. Recently I decided to reread it (something I rarely do) and I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Stegner was an amazing person and his books are timeless. This one - perhaps his most famous - is like a comfortable robe - something one wants to wrap around one's self, curl up with by the fire and while away a long winter's day. I wanted to weep with him at the indignities of infirmity and growl with him at the insensitive words and acts of youth. I developed a friendship with his grandmother, his caregiver and raged with him against his ex-wife and son. People either love it or hate it. I love it. I hope I live long enough to read it again in another few years.

Rating:
Summary: nearly intolerable
Review: highly recommended by intellectuals everywhere...not so much of interest for me...i found the Susan Burling Ward a totally unlikable snobish character that i felt so sympathy for or interest from the very beginning...i had the owrst time getting into the story...and after making it have way through the book, found out that neither my husband or my mother-in-law had gotten past the half way mark before being bore to tears...as a matter of fact that was the only reason i finished the book in the first place...to tell them how it ended...and obviously to prove i have more time to waste on books i think are terrible

Rating:
Summary: Did she or didn't she?
Review: I revisited this book after reading it years ago. The reviews I read here really didn't go into the themes of this book, just the characters. There are several main themes interwoven in this book. The major plot theme revolves around whether the lead character, Susan Ward, cheats on her husband with his best friend while her child is dying in an un-supervised accident. Did she or didn't she is the question that Susan's grandson tries to answer by putting together her lifestory. A fairly common theme found in books from Michener's Pulitzer winner "Tales of the South Pacific" to Machado de Assis's "Dom Casmurro" (Brasilian classic), Stegner writes a gripping, haunting story. At this level, you could call this book a relationship, chick book.

But, you would be missing several levels of this book if you did this. This book is, in many ways, a modern western. Much of its action takes place in western mining locations and is a perfect description of these locations. My father was an exploration geologist who searched for oil, uranium etc. in-between working for the Bureau of Reclamation or other government agencies. This book accurately pegs the locations and characters in the non-cowboy west up until the 1960's. Read it for its western landscape and people descriptions and you will get the feel of this west better than if you read dozens of history books.

The title of the book "Angle of Repose" is a geologic term meaning "the steepest angle at which loose material remains intact without sliding downslope". This term is applied in two ways. First, it applies to the lives of the charcters in the book who have all slid into lives that are sustainable after failing at more dynamic lives inter-personally and professionally. Second, it applies to the U.S. and particularly the West as the land fills up with people and there are less and less spectacular challenges to be met.

Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read at several levels and I was surprised how much of this book I remembered over many years demonstrating how well-written and gripping it is.

Rating:
Summary: A true classic...
Review: Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose is simply a wonderful novel -- a serious and classic piece of fiction about love and marriage. Lyman Ward, a fifty-something professor whose own marriage has disintegrated has returned to his childhood home to write about his grandparents' marriage. He wants to determine why their relationship lasted through tremendous adversity when his own could not. His grandparents, Susan and Oliver Ward, met in New York during the 1870s, where she was a promising illustrator and he an engineer. They marry and travel west, living in various places. Susan feels that she never quite fits into this "uncivilized" place, expressing her unsettledness beautifully in her letters to her good friend Augusta, who lives the sort of life in New York that Susan wanted to live. Lyman is fascinated with his grandmother, telling her story as he discovers how it unfolds. Lyman suffers from a degenerative bone disease and must rely on young Shelly Rasmussen to help him construct this book on his grandmother. Shelly has just escaped a failed marriage of her own. Lyman tells the story of his grandmother while also telling us both his and Shelly's stories. There are some wonderful scenes throughout the novel.

Stegner's writing is beautiful and evocative. Angle of Repose is a big, beautiful, unique novel. Stegner's method of weaving the stories together works marvelously and so many of his sentences are simply perfect. The language enthralled me from beginning to end. Susan Ward's life (and Lyman's and Shelly's) is the believable story of a flawed human being. His story isn't picture perfect. You won't find a rosy, sugarcoated story here! However, the novel is beautiful and memorable. I can see why this novel won Stegner a Pulitzer Prize. I highly recommend this literary classic...

Rating:
Summary: One of my top 5 favorite books
Review: Beautiful novel with rich and evocative detail, telling the story of four generations of a family. The story focuses on the tale of the narrators grandparents, early pioneers of the American West.