Angle of Repose
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This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972 and I have some complaints for the Board.
Brief background: Angle of Repose follows Lyman Ward, a historian riddled by an (unexplored, in my opinion) bone disease. In his vulnerable, isolated state, he embarks on a mission to write about his frontier-era grandparents. He takes some license in interpreting their life, but he draws on the letters of his grandmother, bringing her into primary focus. She was an up-and-coming East Coast artist running in erudite circles in the mid 1800s until she married a mining engineer who moved all over the western side of the nation, uprooting her notions of family, stability, and success.
I’ll give Stegner, the author, his flowers in the sense that I think he did the time period justice. His in-depth understanding of a young, cultured newlywed navigating the unknown, rough western frontier is apparent and admirable. Stegner clearly commits himself to the authenticity of this voice. I just wish that the voice wasn’t so damn boring. His editor should have told him to cut it in half and add more dimension. If the book centers on a 19th century woman inhibited by her position in society, don’t make the other portion of the book written from the point of view of an equally austere individual (Lyman, the bad bones guy with an uptight streak). It’s too repetitive and it becomes a snoozefest.
Call me a demanding millennial, but not enough happens. This book is character-driven and since I didn’t feel connected with the characters, we were at a bit of an impasse. Because nothing really happens, nothing really changes. The characters kept doing the same thing for 640 pages and that’s gonna be a no from me (of note: there’s a glimpse of character development at the end but it wasn’t fleshed out enough for my satisfaction).
It’s not that I’m categorically disinterested in the time period. I’m still haunted by the beautiful storytelling in Jim Shepard’s short story, The World to Come, which follows the diary of a repressed lesbian living on a farm with her husband in the 1850s. I’m also a Steinbeck fan. I’ve reviewed several of his books (brag), but East of Eden stands out in particular. It’s just as long as Angle of Repose, and it’s also set in the mid-1800s American west, so it’s not that I take issue with the length or the setting, but East of Eden has more compelling themes, more dynamic characters, and a more unpretentious writing style while still being just as earnest.
Lastly, Angle of Repose is so very sad. I want a book to make me feel things, sadness included, but this was a deluge of bad stuff packaged in a way that I didn’t like, so I was never in the mood to read it. Because it was such a slog for me, it receives 1 out of 5 flames.
