About this title: A retired, ailing history professor, Lyman Ward, has been deserted by his wife. To distract himself from pain, both physical and emotional, he embarks on the project of editing the private papers of his grandmother, an artist and writer married to a geologist. Ward recounts the story of his grandparents' life juxtaposed with his own--specifically, the betrayals of his grandmother and his own wife. Stegner masterfully evokes the Western landscape as well as the complex tensions between art and life. Stegner's magisterial tale, an American classic, was voted the best Western novel of the 20th ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780449209882ISBN:0449209881
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780140169300ISBN:014016930X
Description: Acceptable. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. Cover is creased. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780140169300ISBN:014016930X
Description: Acceptable. Minor water damage, does not effect readability. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780140169300ISBN:014016930X
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 576 p. Contemporary American Fiction. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Later Printing (20th and over)
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, New York
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780140169300ISBN:014016930X
Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight, pages clean/ covers creased; moderate edge wear/ Friends of the Library stamp on title and or front page/ corners, spine hinge and spine creased and frayed/ readers slant/ several page tips creased. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin USA
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780140169300ISBN:014016930X
Description: Fair. No Jacket. Covers Creased, Corners/Edges Worn, Sm. Tears On Spine Edges, First Several Pages Wrinkled, Text Is Unmarked, Good Reading Copy. read more
"This book was recommended to me by two friends, so although I considered putting it down a few times, I plodded along. Although the last chapter was bizarre, it was worth the 569 pages to experience Wallace Stegner's writing. I enjoyed Lyman Ward as a character immensely. His cynical narrative was the highlight of the story. At times, I worried that Susan Burling Ward's use of the Quaker "thee" was going to make me run screaming out of the library, but I managed to control myself. I wouldn't read it again, but I am glad I read it once."
"Although this is fiction, I learned more about 19th century America, especially the west, than I ever did from history books. It is really two stories in one: The narrator tells us about his life as a middle-aged man in a wheelchair, living alone, fighting to maintain his independence., while at the same time he is telling us about a book he is writing about his grandparents, who were among those involved with the earliest mining camps in America. It is the act of writing this book that keeps him sane.
The characterizations of his grandparents and their children are fascinating, as they move from mining camp to mining camp, living under wild and primitive conditions, building America."
"This is a wonderful novel about a marriage in the late 1800S. The wife's career, and indeed her entire life is--surprise!--subordinated to her husband's. These two people couldn't be more unlike: she very "refined" from a cultured eastern background, a writer and an artist; the husband an extrememly talented but impractical engineer who has great difficulty expressing his feelings or innermost thoughts. Although I don't usually like books with a western setting, "Angle of Repose" presents a fascinating exploration of mining and irrigation and the difficulties of getting, and keeping, funding for projects.
As you read, the characters become very real people. Motivations and actions are completely believable. Stegner uses the now familiar but then fairly unusual conceit of a person writing a history and how that history effects the historian's own life and character. The narrator is a marvel of characterization.
"I have bad news for aspiring writers...the great American novel has already been written. Wallace Stegner is perennially under rated, but no one should miss this sweeping story of a modern man and his ancestors who helped settle the West. It's simply brilliant - each page has language that is stunning in its simple elegance and the story is truly amazing. I can't recommend this book enough."
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