William Stoner was raised by hardworking farmers in rural Missouri at the turn of the nineteenth century. He makes his way to the University at Columbia (not, apparently, called Mizzou at the time) and has an epiphany of sorts about literature and learning. Effectively, he falls in love, and it's that love that keeps him in Columbia, studying and then teaching, for the rest of his life. Other relationships, to his wife, daughter, lover, and friends could almost be called unconsummated. The novel questions where the fault for this lies, and whether it matters. A beautiful, simple text that asks the deepest possible questions.
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