20 Jan Stoner and Beyond

Less than two years ago, an almost forgotten book became – seemingly out of the blue – the must-read novel of 2013. John Williams published Stoner in the mid-1960s. It was respectfully reviewed and sold modestly well. And then was consigned to the margins. And then Stoner re-emerged triumphantly to take its place as one of the great achievements of modern American letters – an exploration of the quiet sadness of a man’s life. And now in new editions come Williams’s two other great achievements: Butcher’s Crossing (1966) in which he reduces the elements of his story to nothing more than close attention to events, produced something timeless and great; and Augustus (1962) which takes on an entirely new challenge, a historical narrative set in classical Rome, exploring the life of the founder of the Roman Empire. This is truly great writing – what Bret Easton Ellis calls “a fusion of plain-spoken simplicity that becomes the complexly lyrical”.