Angle of Repose

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Summary: The best contemporary author - Wallace Stegner
Review: Stegner has the most amazing ability to put you right into his story and really feel for his characters. This is my favorite book of all time. The way he frames the story from 2 character points of view is done so well. I highly recommend this for readers who want to know what it is like to live and love the American West and America, too.

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Summary: A masterpiece best read by the mature reader
Review: A multi-leveled, moving tale, told by a master writer at the peak of his form, and full of all of the richness of vision that a writer over 70 can bring to his work. Ignore the comments here by high school students. They remind me of when I was in high school in the mid-60s, and my AP English teacher refused to assign "Moby Dick" despite state requirements, because, in her words, "You aren't old enough to appreciate it." For those who are past 30, this is a book to savor.

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Summary: waste of 600 pages
Review: I was required to read this book for school. It was probably the slowest book I have ever read. Don't waste your time. The only reason I gave it one star was that I don't have the option of giving it less.

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Summary: A truley intriguing novel.
Review: I had the chance to read a certain interview done with Wallace Stegner: in this interview he explains that the first part of the novel was written about three years (if I remember right) before he finished the rest of the novel. In the first part, Grass Valley, Stegner poses two intriguing elements. First the angle of repose or rest. Did Susan really reach this angle of repose later on in her life? Second the Doppler Effect. This one is tricky and is only mentioned directly three or four times through out the whole novel. Lyman wishes to look back on the past of his grandmothers life, because he feels he has no future. Does Lyman truley figure out he does have a future to live? This novel is extremly compeling. It seems to me that for one to truley understand the messages being brougt up one would need to read this novel many many times. I myself am begining to reread this book for the second time. Not to mention that I have reread several chapters many times and I am still finding certain sentences that I have overlooked.

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Summary: This is one of the most important books on Western history.
Review: Stegner knows the West, people, and how to weave them into a fascinating historical novel. This is supposedly a true story. If you like his books, you will like Ivan Doig, too.

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Summary: A must read for history buffs!
Review: I had the the oppurtunity to read this book for my AP english class, and I am very pleased to have read it. The book is beautifully written and is extremely accurate towards the time period. The novel grabs you into the mining towns and the Mexican wonderland. A true slice into Early Western American life. I think the fact that the reader dislikes the main character, Susan Ward, enhances the quality of the book. I have not yet read any other books by Stegner but I definetly intend on doing so. A must read for history buffs!

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Summary: Beautifully written, a frustrating relationship
Review: Stegner writes a richly detailed fictional biography of his narrator's grandmother, who "built the West," though it was her husband who deserves that title. As in Crossing to Safety, Stegner skillfully tells the story of a marriage between a strong woman and a quiet man, but where Crossing to Safety brought me to tears, I felt only irritation at the grandmother's lack of trust in her husband throughout their lives.

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Summary: I admired the source of the title of the book
Review: If this is the book I read about twenty years ago, then I would say it was excellent reading. The most interesting part was the title. After giving a brief history of mining, the angle of 62 degrees is the angle of repose.

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Summary: Yes, it's Pulitzer-worthy
Review: I started reading Wallace Stegner after seeing his name mentioned in a customers' review of "Bad Land" (which I loved). "Angle of Repose" was my first Stegner read, and based upon my subsequent reading thus far, I think it is his best book. (I have read "Crossing to Safety", "Wolf Willow" and am currently in the middle of "Spectator Bird"). What makes AOR prize-worthy is the sheer expansivenes of the historical Western backdrop, and the timelessness of the key storylines: Olivers' and Susans' marital struggles, Olivers' pursuit of his visionary ideals in the face of massive political and corporate manhandling, Lyman seeking guidance from the past as the counterculture seeks to undermine it. Truly an American epic.

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Summary: Pulitzer worthy??
Review: I really had to force myself to finish "Angle of Repose." While it was frequently moving and poignant, it was just as frequently boring and slow. I very much enjoyed the segments about Lyman's life at present; unfortunately much more of the book was about his grandmother's past. Perhaps my hopes were too high after reading "Crossing to Safety," which I think is a wonderful read and much more Pulitzer-worthy.