Episode 9: John Williams’s Stoner

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StonerNYRB Classics published their edition of Stoner in June of 2006, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 9 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In 1965, John Williams published Stoner, a novel about a professor of English named William Stoner, a relatively nondescript person whom no one will remember much after his death. The novel did not do well, selling only 2,000 copies when it was first published. However, periodically since its publication someone has come forward declaring it a masterpiece. But those sentiments also seemed to go away without anyone paying any particular attention. That’s all changed recently. This past year, according to Publishers Weekly, Stoner has sold over 50,000 copies and become a world-wide best seller.

In Episode 10 we will be doing a Halloween special with Jeremias Gotthelf’s The Black Spider.

Jordan Davis: “Kale”

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Jordan Davis’s “Kale” was first published in the October 14, 2013 issue of The New Yorker and is available here for subscribers. Betsy In a review in “The Constant Critic” (here), Jordan Davis writes: Just as there are not that many ways to feel truly satisfied, there are not that many serious subjects for poetry. (Sorry.) … Read more

Sherwood Anderson: “Adventure”

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This post is part of a series dedicated to Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories, from The Library of America. “Adventure” comes from Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. For an introduction to this series and for links to the other posts, please click here. In almost every Winesburg, Ohio story so far, the central character has had an “adventure,” … Read more

2013 Giller Prize Shortlist

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Today the Giller Prize shortlist was announced: Going Home Again, by Dennis Bock Hellgoing, by Lynn Coady Cataract City, by Craig Davidson Caught, by Lisa Moore The Crooked Maid, by Dan Vyleta This is a bit surprising to me. First, I’m almost finished with Going Home Again, and I don’t like it much at all … Read more

Lara Vapnyar: “Katania”

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Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Lara Vapnyar’s “Katania” was originally published in the October 14, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor I still haven’t caught up with Vapnyar’s last story in The New Yorker, “Fischer vs. Spassky” (my post, with links to story here), so I … Read more

Lucie Brock-Broido: “Heat”

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Lucie Brock-Broido’s “Heat” was first published in the October 7, 2013 issue of The New Yorker and is available here for subscribers. Betsy “Heat” is not one of those poems that is immediately clear or satisfying. Nor is it lucid, limpid or lyric, nor musical or personal, nor epigrammatic. It is not wry, clever, witty or funny, and it … Read more