Angle of Repose

Rating:
Summary: This book is still vivid, years after reading it.
Review: Angle of Repose was my first Stegner book. Chosen by my bookclub, half the members loved it, the other half found it frustrating, but we all agreed it would have made a great movie with Gary Cooper and ____? (choices for the female lead ranged from a young Barbara Stanwyck to Maureen O'Hara)...funny, we couldn't imagine it made with anyone in the current star circuit, it was definately an Old West story. Film version aside, Angle of Repose has held a place in my heart as a good read: images of Susan's art,her journals, the struggle up the rugged mountain road, the journeys to impossible places (not like travelling in this day and age), their house. I loved it. The only thing that my bookclub agreed on was that the ending of Angle of Repose kind of wimped out. It made more sense when we heard a recording of an interview shortly before his death when the interviewer mentioned that the ending was somewhat abrupt, and Stegner commented that he was in a hurry to get the book to his publisher, before he (Stegner)went on his way to Europe, so he kind of hurried the ending. What?! That aside, Wallace Stegner had a way of getting inside relationships, showing the love and/or the antagonism, like the couples in Crossing to Safety and the writer and the guy camping on his property in All the Little Live Things. Just a guess, but from the three Stegner books I've read, I would bet their author was a pretty feisty guy. There is a seduction to the antagonism, I wouldn't want it in my life, but I enjoy peeking at it in the lives of his characters.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, meditative novel
Review: As a child of the rural american west, including some of the places in this book, I was drawn to how stegner touches on our strange and sometimes masochistic desire to follow an american dream in this vast and sometimes empty land. The novel has a quiet, meditative quality that gets into your head, if you let it, and for me set off a long period of self-contemplation. The many subtle facets of this tale of wandering and identity make it one to read more than once, at different stages in life.

Rating:
Summary: An excellently written book that touches the heart of every
Review: Stegner is a master at bringing the essence of the important qualities of the well-lived life to the forefront. I am an avid non-fiction reader, but found myself reading all of Stegner's works. His characters have a realistic quality. Most often they are noble, but also very real.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, but something's missing
Review: The most interesting part of the book for me was Lyman Ward. I did not feel pity for him, but found his thoughts on "contemporary" 1970 society vs. his own and his grandmother's time and morals extremely telling of what the (late '60s) time was like for people like Lyman and Stegner (who was 61 at the time of publication). But I had some trouble really caring about Susan and Oliver, or little Ollie even. But the use of Lyman as narrator and participant was well done. It does not fit my image of a Pulitzer winner, with the likes of "Old Man and the Sea" and "The Caine Mutiny." "Angle of Repose" is a good, but not great book.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read this decade
Review: As with all of the (rare)great things I've read or seen, once i finished Angle of Repose, I wished I had never read it so that I could read it again. I usually am bored by history but Stegner lured me into knowing about the development of the American West by writing about people who I cared about, related to. Love, lust, forgiveness presented through three generations were, as subjective as those emotions are, presented almost as historical facts which the reader could look at, weigh and, with the help of this brilliant writer, see as the same deeply important choice for each generation. I liked the story when I began, started turning down invitations as I read further, and by the end (the last sentence especially) needed to see the conclusions that these people as instruction for my own life. This is an incredibly well-written, profound masterpiece.

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Summary: We have rarely read a more thought provoking novel.
Review: This was one of the most thought provoking novels that we have ever read. Stegner captured the thoughts and emotions of his characters with an economy of words that is the mark of an author who understands at a profound level the human condition. Stegner's device of using Lyman Ward to tell the story of his paternal grandparents, Susan and Oliver Ward while sifting through mounds of pictures and letters, enables him to sort through his own troubled loss of limb and wife. We feel Oliver's intense desire to succeed at what he loves best, always falling just short and not understanding why; Susan's desire to please her husband and be content with her choices in life warring against her artistic spirit and the pull to "be somebody". Frank's frustration and unrequited love for his best friend's wife is heartwrenching to watch. The passage of years and evolution of personhood is as real and complicated as life truly is. This juxtaposition of complex relationships both past and present further enriches this generational tapestry woven by Stegner. Angle of Repose, is now one of our favorite books having provoked much thought and discussion. We recommend it without reservation to anyone who loves life and people and the journey that we are all on together.

Rating:
Summary: It was compelling, sad I thought, but then found hope
Review: It is a great novel, with a melancholy tone, but so beautiful. It has breadth of time and space in the family story and American story. I was surprised and saddened by the way things played out with Susan and her family, but found a little hope for Lyman Ward's future in his exploration of that story.

Rating:
Summary: A decent novel, but nothing to write home about.
Review: Sorry, but I was disappointed, having read all the glowing reviews and expecting something much more. In the main, the characters were somewhat vacuous, as if they existed little more than on the surface of a history. The absence of any real spirituality or religious convictions, good or bad, was glaring in the characters, hardly anything philosophical, or even political, to ponder. As an adventure, it was only enough to keep one interested, but hardly dramatic or epic in scope. So, at the end, I said to my self, "So what?" I'd recommend Joseph Conrad's Nostromo for those seeking a more ingenious story of depth.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: After reading "Crossing to Safety" last summer I decided to try another Stegner novel. "Angle of Repose" was so engrossing that now that I have ended it I hesitate to begin another novel. Other authors pale in comparison to Stegner's writting. I highly reccommend this read to anyone interested in an intense, insightful, thoughtful experience. Wonderful! Which Stegner novel should I read next?

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: Stegner had an amazing ability to write about simple people doing simple things. Lyman Ward gives us the strong impression that his grandparents went west with visions of greatness and throughout the novel that vision of greatness is constantly on the horizon but it never dawns. It is incredible how Stegner could continually fuel the feeling of anticipation for better days that is so real in this story while all the time knowing that nothing happened. I would reccomend anything by Wallace Stegner and have several times.